Deal with the Devil: Mercenary Librarians Series, Book 1
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Captain Garrett Knox leads the notorious Silver Devils, biometrically enhanced supersoldiers gone rogue from TechCorp, the company that rules the near-future United States with a capitalist iron fist. When one of his team is kidnapped, he will stop at nothing to get her back, which means tricking information broker Nina into a mission to locate the legendary Rogue Library of Congress. But Nina has a team, too, and soon she and her two mercenary librarian pals--also escapees from the genetic labs that made them--are on a road trip with the Silver Devils. There are dangers along the way, like landmines and gangs and a roadhouse fight club, but the biggest danger is Nina. She is a tactical genius, a brutal fighter, and both a leader and a sister to Dani and Maya, but worse, she offers Knox dubious hope that the future can be better. The danger ratchets up alongside their attraction, and paranormal romance writing duo Rocha throws twist after twist at the teams while building their camaraderie, which would be cruel if it wasn't so fun to read. Compelling characters, white-knuckle action, and deceptively smooth worldbuilding make this first Mercenary Librarians book a satisfying and cinematic escape.

Rocha, the pseudonym for writing duo Donna Herren and Bree Bridges (the Beyond series), matches the relentless action of this postapocalyptic thriller (and Mercenary Librarian series launch) with simmering sexual tension. It's the latter half of the 21st century, solar flares and energy wars have all but destroyed human civilization, and Nina and her team of librarians work as "information brokers" with deadly combat skills. When Capt. Garrett Knox, leader of the Silver Devils, a gang of rogue soldiers who've broken off from their former employers, TechCorps, to avoid the slaughter of innocents, approaches Nina with a job for the librarians, they team up to recover the Library of Congress archives from seven underground bunkers scattered across the U.S. As they race to unearth the archives before TechCorps finds them, sparks fly between Nina and Knox, but hidden agendas and looming danger stand in the way of their happiness. Rocha capably deploys found family and forbidden love tropes while keeping readers on their toes with unpredictable action beats. This postapocalyptic tale of espionage and romance will have readers eager to know what happens next. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary. (May)

In postapocalyptic Atlanta, many are scrounging for their lives. This includes Nina, who not only leads a small team that finds artifacts to make money, but discovers lost information and digitized works to help her community. When Captain Garrett Knox offers her a lead on a bunker containing backup of the Library of Congress servers, it seems too good to be true. Especially since Knox is the leader of the Silver Devils, an elite squad of super soldiers who cut loose from the Protectorate. Yet the temptation is too great to resist, so Nina, Knox, and their teams join to hunt the bunker through treacherous outlaw territory. The treachery is not just outside, however. The Silver Devils are trying to recover their kidnapped biochem hacker--and the ransom is Nina. VERDICT Rocha (coauthor, Ivan) slide into traditional publishing with a high-action, high-stakes sf romance. Intriguing characters, tragic backgrounds, and a few twists comprise a strong launch to this new series.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Enhanced supersoldiers, hot romance, and a dangerous rescue mission make this SF series opener a post-apocalyptic roller-coaster ride. In the near future, a wave of solar flares has rendered the world's power grids useless. People have found a way to survive, though: by supporting a mysterious scientific conglomerate, by selling important information, or by acting as hired muscle. Despite his biomedical enhancements, Capt. Garrett Knox of the Silver Devils, a squad of supersoldiers, is in a race against time to rescue one of his team members. The ransom: a mercenary librarian named Nina. After doing some reconnaissance, Knox suspects that Nina is not a typical human, and his team's plan to snatch her off the street is quickly ruled out. Instead, Knox hopes to lure Nina and her squad of information brokers into a trap. Knox insists he knows the location of the rumored Rogue Library of Congress, a motherlode of confidential documents and records that were saved by federal employees when the original Library of Congress was shut down. Nina can't resist a score like that and agrees to assist Knox in locating the RLOC bunkers hidden across a decimated America. Nina and Knox feel a lot like superheroes with their enhanced abilities and altruistic feelings toward ending corruption through the freedom of information. Readers may be craving an action-packed good-triumphs-over-evil story right now, and this book delivers a hopeful ending in the midst of a bleak setting. Rocha's trademark trope of found family is very much present, and the chemistry and tension between the romantic leads has never been better plotted or paced. The primary shortcoming is the constant repetition of background information, which creates frequent hiccups in an otherwise thrilling page-turner. A risky and frisky adventure. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* Captain Garrett Knox leads the notorious Silver Devils, biometrically enhanced supersoldiers gone rogue from TechCorp, the company that rules the near-future United States with a capitalist iron fist. When one of his team is kidnapped, he will stop at nothing to get her back, which means tricking information broker Nina into a mission to locate the legendary Rogue Library of Congress. But Nina has a team, too, and soon she and her two mercenary librarian pals—also escapees from the genetic labs that made them—are on a road trip with the Silver Devils. There are dangers along the way, like landmines and gangs and a roadhouse fight club, but the biggest danger is Nina. She is a tactical genius, a brutal fighter, and both a leader and a sister to Dani and Maya, but worse, she offers Knox dubious hope that the future can be better. The danger ratchets up alongside their attraction, and paranormal romance writing duo Rocha throws twist after twist at the teams while building their camaraderie, which would be cruel if it wasn't so fun to read. Compelling characters, white-knuckle action, and deceptively smooth worldbuilding make this first Mercenary Librarians book a satisfying and cinematic escape. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

In postapocalyptic Atlanta, many are scrounging for their lives. This includes Nina, who not only leads a small team that finds artifacts to make money, but discovers lost information and digitized works to help her community. When Captain Garrett Knox offers her a lead on a bunker containing backup of the Library of Congress servers, it seems too good to be true. Especially since Knox is the leader of the Silver Devils, an elite squad of super soldiers who cut loose from the Protectorate. Yet the temptation is too great to resist, so Nina, Knox, and their teams join to hunt the bunker through treacherous outlaw territory. The treachery is not just outside, however. The Silver Devils are trying to recover their kidnapped biochem hacker—and the ransom is Nina. VERDICT Rocha (coauthor, Ivan) slide into traditional publishing with a high-action, high-stakes sf romance. Intriguing characters, tragic backgrounds, and a few twists comprise a strong launch to this new series.—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Rocha, the pseudonym for writing duo Donna Herren and Bree Bridges (the Beyond series), matches the relentless action of this postapocalyptic thriller (and Mercenary Librarian series launch) with simmering sexual tension. It's the latter half of the 21st century, solar flares and energy wars have all but destroyed human civilization, and Nina and her team of librarians work as "information brokers" with deadly combat skills. When Capt. Garrett Knox, leader of the Silver Devils, a gang of rogue soldiers who've broken off from their former employers, TechCorps, to avoid the slaughter of innocents, approaches Nina with a job for the librarians, they team up to recover the Library of Congress archives from seven underground bunkers scattered across the U.S. As they race to unearth the archives before TechCorps finds them, sparks fly between Nina and Knox, but hidden agendas and looming danger stand in the way of their happiness. Rocha capably deploys found family and forbidden love tropes while keeping readers on their toes with unpredictable action beats. This postapocalyptic tale of espionage and romance will have readers eager to know what happens next. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary. (May)