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Disclosure: I got this ebook from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review. Nobody (the author, publisher, or LibraryThing) has read this review before I posted it publicly.

This is the second book in this series, if you haven't read the first book (which is called [b:The Pine Barrens Stratagem|58841897|The Pine Barrens Stratagem (From the Case Files of Steve Rockfish, #1)|Ken Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1634025638l/58841897.SX50.jpg|92684233]) then don't read this second book (or this review) until you've read it. Otherwise it won't make sense.

The author does provide a nice recap of the first book at the beginning, which I think more authors should do and allows the readers to get into the right mindset before continuing.

Overall, this book is another great one and I really hope the author continues to write more in this series.

There are however, a few words that I felt didn't fit at the right place. I would have substituted them for another word, but didn't detract from the whole book.

The author has some great humor in certain spots, I felt like I was laughing long enough but not so long that I couldn't continue.

"A fist pump and a game of hay bale Frogger later"

Because it is a book, the author had to choose what to include and what to skip, there are some things that I wish the author chose to include, and some I wish they didn't include.

There are some transitions that happen between the stories that happened smoothly, and some that there so sharp that I had to take a second to stop and realize it was a different story before continuing.

There are many times when reading that I didn't want to put this book down (which meant I stayed up past my bedtime many times) and I would rather have read this book than done almost anything else.

"“Steve, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to take the next couple of days off.”
“Couple? Take five. I’ll see you next Tuesday."

If you are graduating college and are looking for a manual to help you as a guide to the workplace then this is the book for you. "The first step toward a fulfilling career and life is finding out what success and thriving mean to you."

The book is a slow read, with many quotes from other books, and some chapters you may feel the need to skip over. "Seth Godin refers to the decisions we made in the past as sunk costs, a business term that refers to money that was spent and that can no longer be recovered. Just because you put time or effort or money into something doesn’t mean it needs to still affect your decisions."

The author does to some things very well, they include links to previous chapters in the book, however that link only goes to the first page of that chapter. They also include interviews from other people, but that formatting was messed up for me (not taking up the entire width). There are also a number of spots where the author encourages you to stop and complete a task, with at least one of them containing a table, which doesn't do well on a e-reader.

Even as someone who has been in the workplace for many years, there were chapters that were very helpful and some I completely skipped over as they weren't relevant to me.

"We also use cultural autofills—shortcuts—to help us decide if certain behaviors are considered “normal,” and therefore accepted and praised, in our society."

"One way to counteract imposter syndrome is to keep what’s called a Smile File. A Smile File is a physical or digital file that contains external validation of your accomplishments and strengths."

"When you let go of trying to fit the extrovert bias that speaking is king, let go of an education system that stamped out curiosity, and let your natural state of listening and openness take over, you’ll find the right balance between listening and speaking."

"It may seem annoying to have to make small talk with our coworkers, but it’s like brushing your teeth: while you probably don’t love doing it, it’s worth the effort in the long run—and it’s easy to turn into a habit."

"For instance, if you’ll just be going to the event because your boss expects you to, then make sure your boss sees you—then leave half an hour hour later."

Disclosure: Got the book for free from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. Nobody (the author, publisher or LibraryThing) previewed this review before it went public.

The book starts with a hook, instead of providing a long and detailed backstory. The backstory is mentioned throughout the book, some of which I feel is important to include, some not so much.

It's written from a first person point of view, and could be considered a diary. People and things are referenced in the current and future point of view, which can be a bit confusing but can also get you to want to keep reading.

"We do not waken with any realization that at any moment, and from any direction, the gods may decide to move our lives in a direction we do not expect"

The length of each chapter feels right, and they flow from one chapter to another without you knowing it unless you are paying close attention.

It is interesting to read how different people are treated. If they have money, they are treat well, otherwise they are treated horrible. And how they are treated when they tell the truth.

"I swore a few of them said something about my presence, my intrusion into their world, but frankly, I was more comfortable here than in [my cabin]."

"Science officers? Attorneys? Did the New Eden Company consider every possible resource needed?"

There are a couple of times where humour comes out, it does help to make the book better, I wish there was more of it.

"If there is one thing that can be said about embarrassing bodily functions, it is that all people are prone to them regardless of their place on the pyramid of life. Money does not change the way your body reacts to outside influences."

The book ends very different from how you think it's going to end. Which is nice, and there could be a second book if the author wishes to continue.

"Pain is sometimes the most motivating thing the human body can conjure."

Content warning for the book: war, animal killing

"It’s a spy-tech Konami code, like the combinations of commands that unlocked secret power-ups in the Nintendo games we played when we were kids. There’s a cheekiness to it, hiding a portal to the heart of the government’s secrets right there in plain sight of every adversary I’ll meet."

In the beginning of the book (before the first chapter) it mentions that the names, locations, etc, have been changed which is good to mention but it doesn't mention anywhere of the CIA reading and reviewing the book before it being published.

When you read the first chapter it seems like you may have missed something as it throws you right into it, but chapter 2 starts the backstory. Which I think is a good idea to get someone hooked on reading the book.

The author had (and still has) a very unique family and childhood which makes for an interesting book.

"Then the day after Christmas, my mother sits me down to tell me that Laura is dead. She was killed while flying home with her entire family, grandmother to infant brother, on the Pan Am flight bombed by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland. I am eight."

"But I’m not crying to make him believe. I’m crying because I’ve lost the last friend who knows my truth."

This book is very similar to other books about the CIA (like [b:The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists|45046678|The Unexpected Spy From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists|Tracy Walder|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574745496l/45046678.SY75.jpg|69749587]), but there are also some differences, like a different path taken, and more details on certain things.

Most of the book follows a timeline which makes it easy to follow. At one point it does jump forward some time, it's vague on the exact period (which is probably done on purpose). I felt like I never wanted to put the book down, and there were very few paths that I felt were filler or wanted to skip over.

"WE ARE SATISFIED WE HAVE RENDERED THE WRONG MAN.
They dropped him on a dirt road in Albania, instructing him not to look back. He suffered permanent spinal damage. He had lost sixty pounds. His wife thought he had left her and had divorced him. He shook whenever the overhead lights started to hum.
And nobody ever told him they were sorry."

"I’m overwhelmed with the sudden and unsettling understanding that I’m neck-deep in a game of make-believe. And the game is so convincing, I have no idea when it began. Or who the “I” is that’s playing it."

"It’s not always easy, keeping secrets from spies."

Disclosure: Got an advanced reader copy for free from LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review. Nobody (including the author, publisher, or LibraryThing) had any say in this review and didn't read it until it was public.

This book was different from other books that I have read (and that you will probably read), it wasn't bad different, it was just different.

Sometimes the book was very vague, but other parts had very much detail. It made for a nice change but it did make it harder for me as a reader. Sometimes the book seemed more like a short story, or a journal, but some readers may appreciate it.

The characters (Jamie and Taylor) sometimes say what is on their mind, and sometimes say the exact opposite of what I was thinking. To me some of it came across as rude, but without more details it's hard to say.

In this book you not only get to read the characters text messages, but also online searches, which allows you to understand the character in a different depth. It's not something I've come across in my reading but it was nice.

If you are reading this on a e reader then do note that the icons and pictures in the book may not show or look weird. Some of them do add to the story, but if you don't seem it doesn't doesn't mean you will miss something.

The way the book was written, as text messages, could be great for some readers but also annoying for others because of the many lines and small amount on each line.

As with many books, there are a couple of times where I felt like it was filler, just added to meet some requirement, and provided nothing in return. I felt the author could have not included them and the story wouldn't have changed much.

Some parts of the books felt like reading poetry, or watching a true crime story. I don't know if the author intended that, and I certainly didn't expect it but it felt like a nice change in the book.

In the later part of the book, it seemed like the author wasn't how to continue the book but had to in order to wrap it up.

The last messages in the book seemed like a run-on letter without any real purpose or expectation of a reply. It kind of left the book in a spot where it could be finished without any real conclusion.

In my advanced reader copy, there was some weird formatting, spelling, unneeded capitalization, and unfinished messages throughout the book. I thought it was due to a convert I made, but the pdf copy I got from the author included it. My copy also didn't included a table of contents, which made it hard to keep track of reading progress, the page numbers were messed up, and felt like I didn't know when it was a good time to stop reading for the night.

Overall, if you are looking for a change in your books and the description of the book sounds interesting to you then give it a try but don't expect a blockbuster book.

"If I wanted relevant and interesting,
I’d be in the library."

"Who cares what happens eventually?"

Disclosure: I got this book from BookSirens for free in exchange for an honest review. Nobody got to read this review before it went public.

Content warnings for this book (some of which contains spoilers for what happens in the book): sex, strip club, alcohol, getting drunk, blackout drunk, drug usage, swearing, stealing, stabbing, child neglect, depression, monkey rape, cock (chicken) fight, attempted mugging

This book could be considered a autobiography or a diary by the main character (Chris). It's about him being in his mid-30's, living on his own, and having his first real job.

"For the first time in my existence there was a glimpse into the future that included someone else. A real person, anyways, and not some fictitious mental imagery of someone, like they were cut and glued together from different pages of magazines."

The author provides some details that other authors wouldn't, like saying it was freezing race that was predicted to be snow.

There are some good reminders in this book that can be applied to anyone, like if you are in a foreign country then know how to get around, and that sometimes the cheap but local food is better than really expensive food.

"The more wealthy folk I met, the more I found them to be uninteresting. Rich people were not compelling in my opinion—poor people were. The poor had hardships and stories worth listening to. There was no captivation in listening to someone speak about how great things were going for them and how much money they had. I wanted to hear someone talk about riding the subway and eating out of dumpsters and sleeping under the eaves—that’s the shit that made my mind hard, not yachts and Pappy Van Winkle."

There was one formatting issue I noticed in chapter 25, that some of the words weren't formatted the same as the rest of the book which made it look out of place.

I felt the good had a good ending, that was ending one part of Chris's life.

"Work comes first? Before family? Christ, what a guy."

"Well I guess you don’t appreciate some things until they’re gone."

A formal nurse (now writer) shares about her journey having breast cancer, the before and after. Because she was a nurse she does share her history as a nurse, and she adds stories throughout the book of times in her nursing career. Since the author is based in the US, it does talk about and focus on the US health care system (which she agrees that universal health care is needed).

The book could have been made shorter if she had stopped after her post-surgery but I can understand she certain parts were kept in. All in all, a good book and if you have breast cancer, know someone who is going through it, or just wonder what the process is like for someone, then this is worth a read.

“You’re telling me I might have to wait an entire weekend to find out if I have a disease that can kill me because of paperwork that’s sitting on someone else’s desk?”

"All I wanted after my diagnosis was for someone involved in treating my cancer to sit down with me, look me in the eye, and explain my diagnosis, discuss what my prognosis looked like, and clarify my likely course of treatment. That’s it. Simple. Easy. Never happened."

"most people are able to put their fear aside during treatment because the schedule pulls them along and makes them feel they are doing something to fight the disease. When treatment nears its end and patients anticipate living their regular lives still bearing the emotional and physical weight of having had cancer, the fear returns."

Wonder what a day in the life of a nurse at a US based hospital is like (pre-covid)? This book tells you, since it's written by a nurse.

"This job would be easier if there weren’t such a narrow divide between being the canary in the coal mine and Chicken Little."

"The patients are the key to the entire shift: they can make a day intolerably frustrating or unbelievably rewarding, or occasionally both."

"I wish I had more time to sit and hold every patient’s hand. To really listen."

There are many details in this book, and some may glance over some of it as it doesn't take away from the book.

The author likes to include poets and poems in the book. She doesn't specifically say why, but my guess is because has a PhD in English.

There is a great wrap-up at the end that includes just about everyone the author talks about.

"And sometimes we don’t know how a patient’s story ends. People are “lost to follow up,” move, get treatment elsewhere, never again come to the hospital because they’re transferred to outpatient care. I often don’t know what happens to patients I’ve laughed with, cried with, gone toe-to-toe with a doc for, or talked at length with family members about."

"There will come a time when each of us will need a clean, well-lighted place that stays open all day and night, offering shelter from life’s storms."

Rating: 4.75/5 (rounded up to 5)

If you haven't read The Circle (by the same author) then read that book first, otherwise most thing's in this book won't make sense.

The title shows you that this isn't a regular book, it shows a number of different titles that the author was thinking about. It is a completely different way of starting a book.

There are many things I wasn't expecting, including a number of one sentences.

"She would Snowden it, Manning it."

There are some things that the author included in the book that would be cool if it happened in my lifetime, and there are some I never hope happen.

"Public registries became the norm, and the idea of keeping medical information private became indefensible. It put others at risk and thwarted scientific progress."

"She and Fuad had no choice but to wait for Francis to complete the operation, the two of them engaged in the tragic everyday byproduct of the time—watching a fellow human tap on a screen, waiting for the result."

"“People want three choices, not sixty,” Gabriel said. “And for a vast array of categories, they want no choices at all."

With many characters in the book it can be difficult to remember the backstory to each one of them when they come up in the book again.

The book does take on a twist which for me almost ruined the mood of the book, but it also allows the reader to read about different things.

At one point in the book, the author references someone reading a book that could be considered meta because it sounds like they are reading the exact book you're reading. I think the author did this on purpose.

With the way the book ends, I don't expect a sequel but I've been surprised before by this author.

"“No, I don’t presearch people before I meet them,” Gregory said. Again he’d read her mind. “I ask them questions and learn about them from their answers. I realize how radical that is.”"

"“So, Neal, tell us about your work.”
Well, Olivia, I’m a rent-a-rat who has lied his way into your house in order to threaten your friends."

This is the second book in the Neal Carey series and if you haven't read the first book then read that book first otherwise nothing in this book will make sense. But the book does a brief recap of what happened at the end of the first book and what has happened since then, so you can get your mind in the right place.

"Graham took the bottle off the table and poured himself another drink. He was enjoying himself immensely. Aggravating Neal was almost worth the terrifying flight over, the endless trip to Yorkshire, and the hike up that damn hill. It was good to see the little shit again."

If you are reading and it goes into something that doesn't seem relevant, it will become relevant at some point later in the book.

There are parts of this book that will make you want to throw the book in angry, but just keep reading.

"Just what the hell am I doing here, anyway?"

As always with this series, there are unexpected twists and turns, most of which will make sense by the end of the book. And there is great humour, which might only be a sentence or two but you will stop and laugh before continuing.

"So you have a file on me, Neal thought. And you’re not with Friends. Which leaves alphabet soup."

"“That is the best meal I have ever eaten in my whole life.”
“I won’t tell your mother.”"

At certain points someone appears and it's hard to remember how they are relevant but that is explained by the end.

It is a great way to end this book (before the epilogue) the tells Graham and the reader that _____ (to avoid spoilers I'm not going to say, you will have to read the book for yourself).

Disclosure: This review is written to avoid giving out spoilers so if a couple of words have been replaced with underscores it's to avoid potential spoilers.

The book doesn't reveal any big juicy secrets as it was reviewed by the CIA before it came out (unlike [b:Permanent Record|46223297|Permanent Record|Edward Snowden|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564666396l/46223297.SY75.jpg|71198843] by Edward Snowden), which also means that there are parts of the book that are censored. The author decided to keep the censored parts in (just with think black bars over them) which I think was a mistake. The censored parts took away parts of the book and made some parts hard to understand, and I wish the author had rewritten those parts (then of course got that reviewed by the CIA) so that the reader could understand those parts more.

In my copy of the eBook I found some of the censored parts had different words on top of them. I'm not sure if it just my copy or they did it to deter you from trying to read the censored parts. The words that were over top didn't make any sense which makes me believe it was done on purpose.

There are certain time frames that I wish the author would have written about but didn't, for example between the time she gets the job offer and her start time at the CIA (which isn't a spoiler because the description of the book mentions she worked for the CIA).

I do like the author mentions about what life was like at the CIA,

"And they’re not allowed to ask questions, not even a name, of their customers. This was a problem for Starbucks employees who wanted to put names on the cups. What they didn’t understand was that, for undercover operatives, even if you’re giving a false name, you feel vulnerable. Who knows how a fake name—let’s say you use your grandmother’s maiden name—could be traced back to you? Even a random number could be linked to your true identity. So there were no names, not even aliases. And conversation never revolved around work."

"I’d been exceedingly cautious, as I didn’t want anything on me that might reveal my real address or details about my life in Virginia. Not even a gym membership card, or a receipt for granola from Whole Foods. The less information anyone had about me, the safer I was."

"Most of our successes were kept secret. This was fine by me.", "I started making a mental list: all the poison plots and bombing plots the CIA had stopped. Operations that the public never had and never would hear about. It was enough for me to know about them. I didn’t feel the need to prove anything to ."

As well as life when she wasn't working, "I’d eat in front of the TV, watching the most shallow, materialistic, consumer-obsessed reality show I could find. Turned out that once I was living the news—thinking, dreaming, working, and creating it—I just couldn’t bear to watch it on TV."

The author gives a great description of clearance levels within the CIA, "I’m not going to be here, Randy. I’ll be in _. But I can’t tell you, or anyone else, that ___ even exists".

The book could have so many different names, like "No one works on Sunday's: My life at the CIA" but I can see why the author chose the title they did.

I really enjoyed that the last chapter does a recap of the entire book and her life up to that point as a way to close out the book. Overall, if you enjoy read books about spying, FBI, US national security from someone who firmly believes in their mission then read this book.

"My loyalty is to the CIA, the people of the United States, and the safety of the people of the United States. Each sentence in this book was written with that in mind."

Disclosure: I got this ebook as an advanced reader copy (ARC) for free from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. Nobody read a copy of this review before it went public. There are no spoilers in this review.

Such a great book that were there days where I didn't want to put it down. Ken is just the right guy to write this book as he retired from the FBI as a cybersecurity executive.

There are a couple of a very harsh and quick transition in the book that made me pause for a moment and think before continuing on.

When you read the prologue you may wonder why this is included, and there is a good reason for it as it does relate to the main story at hand. And when these stories do relate it was a HOLY SHIT moment for me. They don't include an exact time frame so you can't know exactly when this happening.

There were parts of this book that I found to be boring and almost wanted to skip right past them but by reading it lead up to some action and drama happening.

There are a number of times when it feels like the character is going right into a trap, which tells you that the author has a great way with words.

From the beginning it almost seemed like there were multiple stories and you can't tell how they relate to each other, and the author doesn't explicitly mention how they connect so you will have to make the connection yourself.

There was at least once when reading that I thought the story was starting to come to a close, but then something happens which made me want to keep reading.

There's always a good and bad person in every book, and in this book sometimes the role of good or bad may switch. I want to give more on how and why this happens but that would spoil part of the book.

The book ends in a way that allows for there to be a second book in the series, and I hope that happens, and would love to see how the author continues it.

"But it's best if we only dwell on what we can control. That means no worrying or playing the couldna, wouldna, shoulda game."