Title: One Breath, One Bullet
Series: Borders War
Author: S.A. McAuley
Genre: Dystopian-Futuristic / Combat-War
Length: Novella (88 pages)
Publisher: Total E-Bound (June 3rd, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: Face to face, and rifle to rifle. The time and location change, but never the circumstance. Merq Grayson and Armise Darcan are enemies. And neither will be considered successful until the other is dead.
It is the year 2558. A mere decade has passed since the signing of the treaty, which ended the three hundred year long Borders War. In the midst of an uneasy peace, the world gathers for the first Olympic Games since the war began.
The Rifle competition showcases the very soldiers who fought in the war, pitting former enemies against one another again. Continental States Peacemaker Merq Grayson will once again battle the Dark Ops officer from the People’s Republic of Singapore, Armise Darcan, and this time under the flag of their own uneasy truce. The relationship between Merq and Armise is one of violence, secrecy, and a growing intimacy that could have them both branded as traitors.
But there is more at stake than pride or medals in these games. And neither Merq nor Armise may be able to make it out alive before the fires of revolution are set ablaze again.
Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of violence.
Product Link:http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=2133
Review: This is a classic “enemies to lovers” themed book, yet there is nothing clichéd about it. The basic setting of this series, for this is the first book in the Borders War Series, is simple enough in its complexity. The world as we know it has collapsed with the beginning of the Borders War in the year 2258. Three hundred years of war has decimated the Earth’s population, ruined the environment, polluted the air to the point one needs respirators, and filtered air to survive. But what is worse all knowledge is lost, be it in paper form or digital. The world has collapsed and buried into a state that balances primitive life and luxury in a very disturbing way.
Five Countries in the entire world and that extreme power caused the Opposition to rise, and a decade later, the Revolution was formed to counter the Opposition’s aristocratic ambitions. And then, there are the Nationalists (responsible for the loss of knowledge) who aim to see the countries in control and their citizens under strict rule, often playing both Opposition and Revolution. In short words, class warfare.
In the middle of it, all there seems to be one man, created for the specific purpose of being a soldier for the Revolution. An orphan from age five he was raised by people who only saw to his training, making him the perfect weapon, breaking him from his humanity only to remake him into an unstoppable force that knows no boundaries. No pain is big enough to stop him in his tracks, no emotions left to hinder at his missions. Merq, the distant grandson of the very person responsible for the decimation of Earth’s population, is solely created to be a pawn to make rights by his relative.
And a pawn he has been, the perfect soldier obeying orders without questioning them. A pawn with no desire to survive or anything wanting from life; his only reason of existence to complete his mission. Until Armise. Armise; his obsession, his nemesis in every meaning of the word. Bound to kill each other, never being able to resist the pull. Their relationship – if one could call it that – would be considered treason by both their countries; always teetering between violence and vicious need keeps growing as the years go by. In another world and another time, they might have been inevitable. Inseparable. But now, thirteen years later, Merq’s biggest mission is taking place, and with its success, his life will end. He would be the one to reignite War, even if it meant his own death…
So this was a freaking awesome read, a brilliant world that made sense to me. Humans always had a penchant for self-destruction and this book, this world, simply drives that notion home. In the midst of that entire subplot, the “romantic” plot – if one can call it that – was astonishing. The story, the actual story is about two days, the eve before the mission and the very day when Merq is changing the world. But through some very well placed flashbacks, we get to see a love story born out of blood and death, and it’s simply brilliant. Hot. Addiction. Intensity to the maximum level makes your mind reel, and right when you think you can’t stand it anymore a flashback hit you giving you a breather, only to throw you right back to higher levels of intensity than before.
So you’re probably wondering why rate it a four? There was one question in the end of the book that I simply couldn’t find the answer for and left me somehow frustrated because it created a kind of hole in the plot. It was the very reason that Merq’s success equaled his death, I was wonder why? Since there were transport chips that could immediately transport them to a safe house, why everybody had washed their hands from him? In addition to all that, there was the end revealing of so many things hidden from Merq that simply made no sense to me.
However despite the end that somehow throw me out of the trance this book had but me in, I am more than a fan already of this series. Totally worth the read, strongly recommended.