It’s been a long time since Sydney Swift has gone home. An unrelentingly successful CIA field officer, she has spent the last five years pretending to be someone — anyone — other than herself.
But this year, the festive season is coming with some added surprises. Sydney’s beloved little sister has just announced that she’s engaged to Johnny Jones, the heir of an organized crime dynasty. With her built-in cover and her best-in-class reputation, Sydney is approached by the FBI as their way to infiltrate the Jones family at last.
Sydney has until Christmas to gather enough evidence on Johnny to take him down before he pulls off his most dangerous heist yet, all without losing her sister forever. But she hasn’t counted on the challenge of pulling this off right under her family’s nose or the complications of a romantic entanglement with Johnny’s handsome friend and bodyguard, Nick. Sydney always gets her man — but this time love is a target she can’t afford to miss.
Thank you Berkley for the free digital book!
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🎃The Takedown by Carlie Walker 🎃
- One-word review: Entertaining
- Emojis: ❤️😬🫣👩❤️💋👨
- Rating: 5🌟s
My thoughts:
The Takedown by Carlie Walker perfectly blends two of my loves: thrillers and enemies-to-lovers romcoms. It is such a fun read and just pure entertainment that I had no desire to put it down and was so sad to see it end. This was my first Carlie Walker novel, and it won’t be my last!
The characters are incredibly well-developed, with layers of doubts and hurt that make them relatable or, at the very least, ones I could empathize with. Even though Sydney Swift is a bad a$$ CIA agent who has it all together and knows what she’s doing at all times, she is full of doubts. Her mother’s death and later her father’s disappearance (he walked out and didn’t return) from her and her sister’s lives have taken their toll on Sydney, how she looks at the world, and even her career.
I love love, loved the Sydney and Nick pairing. They share so much, and no one can truly understand them like they can each other. The pairing always felt right even though it happened relatively quickly in chronological time (though not so quickly in story time). I also loved the family themes, of which there are many, and I love the Christmas setting. This is the perfect book around Christmas if you are not a reader who enjoys the typical holiday story.
16 responses to “The Takedown by Carlie Walker #BookReview #HumorousThriller #RomCom #EnemiesToLovers”
this does sound great fun I’m definitely going to check it out! Fantastic review!
It is! It has so many aspects that I love ❤️
I did not know this had a Christmas setting, Tessa. It sounds like a lot of fun, thanks for sharing. Great review.
It mentions Christmas in the blurb but I totally didn’t catch it. But I love that it has a Christmas setting ❤️. It’s not a holiday story per se but a story set during the holidays.
While I like the typical holiday fare, I crave stories like this! Fantastic review, Tessa💜
I do too! Always!
Oh, this sounds like a great read. Adding it to my TBR. Thanks for the review.
I hope you get to read it and that you love it as much as I did. There’s so much to love about it!
Around the Christmas holiday is probably the one time of year I am open to reading an entertaining romance. Very cool that this one blends thriller aspects, too.
Great review, Tessa!
I love that combination. It’s like the best of both worlds and highly entertaining.
Lots of “loves” in there, Tessa. The well-developed characters appeal to me as does a romance that “feels right.” Thanks for the review and recommendation. 🙂
This combination for me is a very fun read. The only thing it’s missing is some fantasy elements 😉 – if it had any it would be absolutely perfect!
Ha! A new genre: paranormal rom com.
I like the sound of the mixture of genres, great review 😊
Great review! I like the idea of a thriller/comedy mashup.
[…] was pretty much hooked after reading the review by Tessa @ Tessa Talks Books. It’s unconventional romantic suspense in a holiday setting! It’s also a library audiobook […]