ARC Review: The Cruelty

Title: The Cruelty
Author: Scott Berstrom
Publish Date: February 7, 2016
Source: ARC from Feiwel & Friends

Synopsis:

When her diplomat father is kidnapped and the U.S. Government is unable to help, 17 year-old Gwendolyn Bloom sets off across the sordid underbelly of Europe to rescue him. Following the only lead she has—the name of a Palestinian informer living in France—she plunges into a brutal world of arms smuggling and human trafficking. As she journeys from the slums of Paris, to the nightclubs of Berlin, to the heart of the most feared crime family in Prague, Gwendolyn discovers that to survive in this new world she must become every bit as cruel as the men she’s hunting.

My Review:

This book was so unexpectedly good!

Let me clarify what I mean by that. I didn’t know what to expect. All I was given was a short summary and I was intrigued by it, but the book is actually so much better than the summary makes it out to be.

The writing was phenomenal. I could picture every scene in my head since the writing was so descriptive and vivid. What I didn’t like was that the story seemed to lag in some parts. There was a lot of action over the course of the book, but the parts that weren’t action packed seemed to lag and go on forever.

Gwen was so awesome. Most people would just sit around and wallow when they figured out that their dad was taken. But not Gwen. She takes action to go and find him since she feels like she is the only one who can.

I loved her character. She is the type that when she falls, she gets right back up and is usually swinging when she does. She was one tough bad ass chick who needs not to be messed with.

The one thing about Gwen’s character that I didn’t like was her weird connection with Terrance back home. It just didn’t seem like a real connection. Oh, she suddenly meets this boy who she has been going to school with for a while and makes an instant connection with him and tells him all her secrets about this crazy plan she has to find her dad? It just doesn’t seem plausible. But then again, it could be and I have just never had a relationship like that.

The Cruelty is an action-packed story about a girl going against all odds to find her father. Scott Bergstrom does a fantastic job setting the scene and brining Gwen to life. It is a phenomenal read.