**No spoilers for World After, but one spoiler for Angelfall. Go read it first!

4.25 Stars. Yeah, I said it.

“You broke me out of the grasp of a living horror when I thought all hope was gone. You gave me the opportunity to crawl back to life when no one else could."

She glances over at me, her eyes shining in the dark. "You're a hero, Penryn, whether you like it or not.”

And there you have it. Penryn Young is a reluctant hero.

I think we've all become so accustomed to the typical YA heroine, that when a "Penryn" comes along, the masses lose their damn minds. That’s the craze that this series has brought about. It’s not the same as the hype of many shitty YA books past, though. When I read a YA, I’m usually bracing myself for the worst. TSTL Mary Sues have become the norm, though it still baffles me. Penryn is neither TSTL nor too good to be true. She’s a different kind of animal.

Thankfully, Tripwire didn't follow the same pattern as the previous two books but it wasn't as exciting. Some parts dragged terribly for me - why did we need so many descriptions of people dressing and undressing? - and there wasn't so much action. Also, I couldn't believe the villain had spent 30 years torturing people and nobody noticed. Some of the risks he took seemed crazy stupid. Why the focus on Jody?

You would think he had more important things to worry about.

I really liked the end although I wished we knew what happened with Marilyn. After being in her head for a good chunk of the book, it seemed weird never hearing from her again.

The best part were Leon's sayings - I really missed him! - and Reacher's huskiness.

Looking forward to the next book!

Die Trying followed almost the same pattern as the Killing Floor, the first book in the series. (spoilers hidden by spoiler tag.)

- Reacher arrives to a new place and gets in the middle of a life and death situation involving tons of bad guys.

- Nobody knows who Reacher is so they don't take him very seriously. Reacher starts kicking ass left and right - body count usually in the double digits.

- There's a woman who Reacher admires because of her looks, smarts, toughness, etc. He behaves towards her as if she could be the love of his life. They hook up (no matter how improbable it might seem) but at the end, he let's her go.

- At the end, Reacher is let go by the authorities without them asking him nary a question even though he has been involved up to his ears in the action. This is specially puzzling given the body count.

After the thoroughly depressing conclusion of Hard Rain (book 2 in the series) I sincerely hoped that the world would leave John Rain alone and I wouldn’t have to hear about him again. Not because I didn’t enjoy the books but because I thought the guy deserved some peace. You have to give some kudos to an author when he makes you feel like that for a hired assassin.

Rain Storm has a (very slightly) more positive outlook. Please don’t get the impression that the book is a ray of sunshine; this series is still about alienation and missed chances. But several new characters showed up to make John’s life more interesting, including several ladies. John really likes the ladies which makes total sense because to kick ass that hard, a man needs truckloads of testosterone.

This book blew me away.

I’m not fond of assassins as main characters so normally I wouldn’t have picked up this book. But it was on sale at Audible and I liked the narrator so I decided to give it a try. And oh boy, I’m so glad I did.

The story starts a bit slowly but then it gets tremendously exciting, extremely sad and very thought provoking. Why would a man like John Rain – who not a “bad person” – choose a life like this? The answer is not simple or even logical but it’s heartbreaking. There are no apologies or justifications, just the stark reality of the aftermath of war and how soldiers live with themselves afterwards, exemplified by a phrase that is repeated over and over through the book: “There is no home for us, John. Not after what we’ve done.”