Goodbye Paris
By Mike Bond

3 stars

Perhaps Mike Bond best title

Fast flowing plot, with plenty of action

The story line wanders at times, and a good edit would clean this up.
Characters are as real as they get for this genre.

Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins races from Tahiti to France to hunt a terrorist, Mustafa al-Boudienne, who may have a nuclear weapon to destroy Paris. Joining allies from US and French intelligence, including a fearless and brilliant French agent, Anne Ronsard, with whom he soon falls in love, Pono faces impossible odds to stop Mustafa before he can destroy the most beautiful city on earth.

This title has been reviewed by www.Books-Reviewed.weebly.com This title was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in return for an open and honest review.

This book will "haunt" me for a while. Did I like it? I"m not sure "like" is the word I'd use. I'm glad I read it and I recommend it, but it hits too close to current events to "like" it.
I've never been to Paris, but it's always been one of my favorite cities. I know some of the issues raised are real and that makes me sad.
The characters are great, but the situations just break my heart.

Read it and see what you think.

This was the first time reading anything by Mike Bond. Very good book. I came away a fan. Still, the war up felt like it was handled at warp seed while, unless I missed it, never got an explanation who had been feeding inside info to the bd buys. Also, at the beginning, our hero has a haram of three lovelies all hoping to make him happy. To me, that felt like a throwback to some James Bond or Matt Helm stuff. A little dated for this reader. Otherwise, the book moved, had mostly strong, believable characters and situations.
I’ll read more Mike Bond.

Paris is such an easy city to fall in love with that across the world people who have been there long to go back. But, will they find the Paris that they came to love again? Mike Bond will have you wondering when you read "Goodbye Paris," his latest thrilling novel. The story is excellent and the characters interesting. With the constant influx of immigrants, traditional France is seeing Muslim communities rise, and in Paris unemployed Muslims live in ratty towers of disgust. Yet many continue to advocate for greater immigration, as these economic and political refugees continue to arrive. Their reasoning is that the people need help, and who will help them, if not France? But is the price of that help the loss of your country and your traditions? Increasingly Muslims want to vote, to rule, to enforce Sharia Law on all. With so many terrorists ready to force that option, Mike Bond's Goodbye Paris comes along at a crucial time.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A scary take on how very messed up the world can become. Trust is in short supply as terrorism and politics continue to destroy people’s lives. Pono is trying to save his kidnapped friends but in order to do that he has to fight through the sinister and secretive levels of the security services. The author really looks at the anger in humanity for all the wrong reasons.

This is a severe case of word-diarrhea, with loads of dialogue and descriptions compared to little action. The descriptions of history, religion and French society are accurate, however, and some may enjoy a high number of words for their buck. The one thing I don't really believe, is that Pono would like Paris. He would be more like me: LOVE France, HATE Paris.

Goodbye Paris
(Pono Hawkins #3)
by Mike Bond 

Paperback, 376 pages
Published June 2019 by Big City Press


Goodreads synopsis:
Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins races from a Tahiti surfing competition to France when he learns that a terrorist he'd thought was dead, Mustafa al-Boudienne, may have a backpack nuclear weapon and plans to destroy Paris. Pono was once Mustafa's prisoner, and is now the only one left alive to identify him.

Joining forces with former allies from US, French and Russian intelligence, and with an intrepid and brilliant French agent, Anne Ronsard, with whom he soon falls in love, Pono sets out against impossible odds to catch and kill Mustafa and his terrorist cell before they can destroy the most beautiful city on Earth.

Another in the bestselling Pono Hawkins series after Saving Paradise and Killing Maine, GOODBYE PARIS is a hallmark Mike Bond thriller: alive, tense, exciting, and full of fascinating details and places. And that will keep you up all night.

***

3 Stars

This is the third book in the Pono Haawkins series. I didn’t have a hard time initially getting into this book. I was surprised by the reference to the destruction of Notre Dame since that was a fairly recent occurrence.

This is pretty straight forward action adventure thriller but I wasn’t captured by the main character or cared to root for him. That made it a slog to get through this title. All the references to Islamic terrorists made my eyes roll up into my head. I do enjoy action adventure but don’t really resonate with how the bad guys were portrayed here. I am sure this is absolutely believable but it was over my head and that fact alone made me not want to keep reading on. I persevered in order to put out this review but I wanted to DNF this at 16% .

This has a strong first person narrative and everything really is there to make a first rate action adventure book but it just wasn’t in my wheelhouse. I can’t really explain why. Maybe if I saw this on the big screen it would make more sense to my brain. The story had good flow but the strange chapter breaks seemed to throw me off for some reason.

If you love action adventure, definitely pick this book up. It will give you all the feels. It does that well. I just couldn’t connect with the main character and that fact alone made it fall flat for me.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

This is a faat-paced action and adventure book that would probably make an exciting movie on the big screen. This is a new author for me, and I found the main character to be odd and kind of rough around the edges, but his heart is in the right place and he’s trying to help his friends. The book is set in Paris, which is always fun to read about and is certainly current, as it mentions even the fire at Norte Dam Cathedral.

I usually enjoy reading thrillers, but had trouble reading this one...perhaps it was because it was the third in the series?

Pono Hawkins who is surfing in Hawaii receives a call from a friend in Paris who asks for his help. Given their shared history in Iraq, Pono flies to Paris and finds himself in the middle of a frantic hunt for a terrorist named Mustafa. The latter is suspected of masterminding a plot to crash an airplane into the Eiffel Tower or detonate a nuclear bomb in Paris. Pono's friend and war buddy is captured by the terrorists and he and the French special forces set out in a race to save him and sabotage the plot.

This novel is fast-paced, tense, obsessed with terrorism and reeks of Islamophobia. But the Islamophobic aspect deals with the incursion of radical Muslims into France and the growing rifts in society. I would have been turned off except that it was an essential part of the plot and the attitudes of the lead characters.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC.

A Novel Straight from Today’s Headlines

Paris is in danger. ISIS bombmaker Mustafa al-Boudienne is supposed to be dead, but he isn’t, and now he is threatening to destroy the Eiffel Tower. And set off a nuclear bomb in the city. Besides that, Pono’s best friend Mack needs him so he has to get to Paris. Fast. When he arrives, Mack is missing and soon his wife Gisele is, too. Pono has his work cut out for him or Goodbye Paris.

I’ll admit, it took me a few chapters before I could “get into” this book, I almost gave up until I got to chapter six. Then it started to read like the thriller I was expecting. The book contains a lot of startling information about Paris and the atrocities committed there by Islamist terrorists. There is also an abundance of four-letter words sprinkled in throughout.

An interesting writing style and the use of current events make this book entertaining reading but unsettling at the same time.

Thank you, NetGalley and Big City Press for offering me a free advance copy of this novel for my honest review.

Loved this book! I was unfamiliar with this author but guarantee that I will read anything else he happens to write. Thrillers are one of my favorite genres and this book delivered. It kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. I hated to have to put it down. The characters are well developed and likeable—what else could you ask for. I recommend this book without reservation.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It is the first book I’ve read by author Mike Bond. It was easy to follow even though it’s the third book of his Pono Hawkins series. This genre is outside of the usual books I read but the plot drew me in so I gave it a shot. The plot centered around Islamic terrorists and their attempt to infiltrate Paris. This book is filled with lots of action, terrorists, and conspiracy. I really enjoyed the book. It is well-written, has likable characters, and doesn’t veer off the plot. I recommend to anyone who loves action and CIA/Special Forces-type stories.

Mike Bond has written several best-selling adventure novels. I’ve read some of them and liked them. If you like one, you’ll probably like all of them because they’re largely the same. His plotlines are basically the same; intense love, the longing for goodwill, the bloodshed of battle, sinister bad guys, and dangers that threaten our environment He’s traveled a lot and manages to incorporate the places he’s visited in his stories. He’s also an environmentalist so damage to nature is upfront in the conspiracies he uncovers. As a poet, he occasionally drifts off on a philosophical lecture.

In “Goodbye Paris,” the fact that militant Islamics are taking over France forms the heart of his story. They are moving in by the thousands and threatening the beautiful country with hatred and fire, killing non-believers indiscriminately. Bond tells all about it and has his Hawaiian superhero, Pono Hawkins, actually go to Paris and try to stop some of the agony. His best friend and friend’s wife, have been kidnapped by an Islamic fiend with no conscience who came close to killing both friend and Pono in years past. They escaped after being cruelly tortured and haven’t forgotten the encounter. Can Pono rescue the unfortunate pair from this new danger?

Yes, it’s a chase featuring missing people and a plot to explode a nuclear weapon. If you read Bond’s books, you’ll know all the wrinkles. Fragmented sentences bounce off the reader with the rapidity of the bullets from rapid-fire weapons he describes with expertise. His dialogue is sharp and combat scenes resonate with authenticity. The morality is spewed about with the frequency of a zealot, which Bond is in real life. Read his philosophy on his website and you’ll have the story of his novels.

Sometimes I talk to Bond when I read his books. “Yes, Mike, we’ve been over all that.” But I keep my nose in because I like where he takes me. I think you will too.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

Former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins is called back to help the U.S., and the rest of the world, to find a terrorist that he has seen face to face. No one else knows what he looks like.

But when he gets too Paris to help his former team mate find the terrorist he discovers that his team mate has been kidnapped. Then that friends wife also turns up kidnapped.

Will Pono and his new French Connections be able to find his friend alive and in the process stop this terrorist from destroying Paris?

I thought the writing was good, but I wasn't as excited as I was with previous Mike Bond books. Maybe that is because I didn't connect well with the main character. I just didn't click with Pono as being the person I would envision rescuing the world.

But that aside, there is plenty of action and plenty of suspense. I'm sure that Mike Bond fans will love it.

This is the first book I've read by Mike Bond. It is the third book in the Pono series but one doesn't need to read the first two to jump right in to this one. I live in Paris and his underlying thesis that Islam is taking over Paris and France and that there are 22,000 terrorists here scared me and made me run to find out more about Mr. Bond and whether he writes from accurate information or makes things up to make the story more exciting. I didn't get an answer.
If his premise is anywhere near true, his belief that everybody and their grandmother are in cahoots to cover the information up runs deep throughout the book. Money and hatred. Money and fear. This is a thriller about killing Islamic terrorists before they kill us. It also has its fair share of love, sex, some humor and fast motorcycle rides.

I gather from other reviews that there are many Mike Bond fans out there. They will not be disappointed. You'll turn the pages as fast as riding the Indian motorcycle. And it will leave you with the beginnings of his next thriller.

I can tell that Mike Bond is a poet. His word choice and the way he structures the narrative have that rhythm and flow, which makes the book all the more interesting to read, especially given its 1st-person viewpoint. That 1st person narrator is another strong point because it limits how much we can know about what's really going on and keeps us as off-balance as the main character, Pono. The action was also well done, written so as to be clearly understood what was happening.

My reservation, what keeps me from giving the book top grades, is its bleak worldview. It's so relentlessly defeatist and negative about Islam and France and, well, everything. Yes, things are bad, but so bad? This is illustrated, in my view, by how Bond portrays the fire at Notre Dame, which in the story happened before the action begins. (As an aside, I'm not sure if this was quickly inserted after the real fire or it's an incredible coincidence.) In Bond's telling, Notre Dame was destroyed by terrorists, burned out, demolished into a stone shell, all of its timeless artistic and spiritual glory gone. So depressing. But in reality, Notre Dame was damaged, badly, but all of her most important treasures survived and remain for us today. The world of Pono Hawkins is a sadder one than ours.

Another ding, from my point of view, is the unnecessary amount of sexual detail. I'm no prude; I'm a married dad of five. I don't need the sex to be described to me if you tell me they had sex. Otherwise, it's just indulging adolescent male fantasy.

The characters apart from Pono were fine, albeit they didn't stray too far from stereotype. The aggressive female cop, the weary bureaucrat, and so on.

Nevertheless, I still give the book four out of five stars because the premise was interesting and the plotting and action were compelling enough to keep me wanting to come back to the book and find out what's next, how it will be resolved, and who lives and dies.

The author has written thrillers set in political hotspots around the world. This one is set in Paris.
I was captured by all the what-ifs taken to be true facts in this fictional novel. Five stars. I hope to read his other thrillers set in other parts of the world.

In the book Goodbye Paris, author Mike Bond writes about Pono Hawkins, who has been in the Special Forces and is now working for the CIA, kind of.
This was a very choppy read and confusing at time. There was lots of drug use and language as well as it was very anti-Islamic. I would not recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is heavy on islamophobia, which might be off-putting to some readers. However, it is appropriate in the context of the plotline, which involves a suspected plot by Islamic terrorists to crash a French plane and/or blow-up the Eiffel Tower and/or set off a nuclear bomb in Paris. A significant part of the storyline is the increased Muslim presence in France, including the radicalization of Muslim youth in certain parts of Paris and other French towns and the reluctance/unwillingness of the French government to acknowledge and properly address the threat of radical Islam. Pono Hawkins, ex-Special Forces, who has starred in two prior books, is asked to come to Paris by Mack, a friend from his Special Forces days who now works for the CIA, who informs him that Mustafa al-Boudienne, an Islamist terrorist who was thought to be dead, is actually alive. Pono is the only person able to positively ID Mustafa if he can be found. When Pono arrives in Paris, he quickly discovers that the situation has gotten much worse, as Mack has been abducted (and Mack's wife, Gisele, will soon be taken as well). Pono is working with the DGSE (French equivalent to FBI), which is headed by an old friend, Thierry, while also reporting to the local CIA Section Chief, with whom Pono has a very negative history. However, the suspected terrorists seem to always be one step ahead and it becomes apparent that people high up in the French government are trying to prevent Pono and his allies from being successful.

This was an enjoyable book. The plot is interesting and timely (the Notre Dame fire is mentioned) and incorporates current international events and concerns. While there are some aspects of the Pono character that I do not care for, overall he is an interesting character and one the reader wants to succeed. I like that Mr. Bond has chosen to create a series that utilizes recurrent characters. There is a good supporting cast and plenty of action and intrigue. Definitely worth the read.

I received a review copy via NetGalley.