Author: Maria Denison
Genre: Paranormal romance mystery
Year Published: 2022
Nerdection Rating:
“Nerdection Must Read”
The Reflex by Maria Dension is a family-based spy thriller and will leave you hooked, that’s for sure!
Spoiler-free plot:
Cara Andre is a stay-at-home mom with a loving husband and two moody teenage twins, Max and Mia. Her life revolves around carefully planning out the day to pick up and drop off the kids from school, doing the day’s chores with her best friend Jinx, preparing dinner and other normal stuff. Overall, she’s a regular middle aged woman through and through. Or is she?
One day she freaks out when a song called “The Reflex” starts playing in the background at a local café and then at a store. The song seems a rarity to be played in such places on the same day and it seems far from coincidence. There’s nothing sinister about the song itself per se, but what it indicates: someone knows about Cara Andre’s past life as a dangerous spy.
This shouldn’t have been possible; her undercover identity had been quiet for years. For someone to now figure out the connection between Cara Andre and ‘The Reflex’ must mean someone is out there looking for her.
Cara will now have to don on her spy’s coat and take on yet another mission: who is trying to contact her, especially now that she has forfeited her past life? What will Cara discover and how will her husband and kids take on her new persona as a dangerous spy?
Read ‘The Reflex’ to find out!
My Take On The Reflex:
Cara Andre. Cara Bianco. Chase Bennett. The Reflex.
If you love spy quests and characters with multiple identities that not even their shadows know of, you’re in for an exciting surprise!
‘He told us why they call you the Dark Angel of Death. He said you received your moniker because you looked like an angel but had the heart of the devil, and no soul to speak of.’
Denison has developed some really great characters and the overall plot was fresh and interesting to read. I loved the family drama with Max and Mia being irrational teenage twins and Nic, Cara’s husband, being a caring yet messy person. I couldn’t help but smile at the whole scenario of their adorable family situation Denison manages to pull off extremely well, even in this spy quest novel.
I was also amazed at how Cara quickly took on her spy role after being a regular housewife for 17 years (not that there’s anything regular in being a housewife though).
Moreover, the best part of this book in my opinion was the Russian- American rivalry among the spies, and I would have liked to read more about this internal war situation.
However, one thing that bothered me was the third-person narrative told in present tense, as it was difficult to follow and a little confusing at times. Moreover, many of the main characters were undercover agents, and I do agree that was kind of cool, but seemed a little overdone.
There were a lot of surprising twists and turns in ‘The Reflex’ that kept me engaged. Almost all characters had their own fair share of lies and secrets, which were revealed slowly. It’s the kind of book you read in one sitting and then stare off open-mouthed at a wall by the sheer amount of shocks you had to handle.
That’s the beauty of manipulation. If done well, the minds you’re controlling truly believe they are acting of their own accord.
Maria Denison’s intricately plotted page-turner ‘The Reflex’ is a spy thriller cross cute family drama cross fantasy, and you’ll love to get your hands on this book if you’re a fan of spy fiction with strong female protagonists.
Age Appropriation of The Reflex:
18+ due to the presence of Adult content.
About The Author Of The Reflex
Maria Denison writes as a hobby. If she took it seriously, well, it would be work, and then it wouldn’t be fun. She is an entrepreneur and business owner who resides with her husband, her daughter and her grandson, Levi, a standard poodle with anxiety issues; a big, blonde, beautiful furball that keeps them laughing despite his distress.
Ms. Denison is passionate about two things…traveling and writing. She runs a business by day and curls up in her creativity cloak at night to write. Her business has taken her all over the U.S. and she calls the East Coast, the Midwest, and the West Coast home. But work trips aside, her favorite pastime is traveling to new places and immersing herself in the local culture and history. Those trips around North America and Europe and the experiences she had inspired the development of the characters and places she writes about.
In 2022, Ms. Denison published her first novel, The Reflex Part 1, the fulfillment of her lifelong dream. Proud of her accomplishment and wanting to share her love of fiction, mystery and the fantastic with her audience, she is hoping you enjoy this First book in her Reflex series as much as she enjoyed creating it.
