Sunday 6 March 2016

Book ~ "No Money Down" (2012) Julie Moffett

From Goodreads ~ Me and the legendary Zimmerman twins - it's a friendship made in geek heaven. And it all started back when I worked for the NSA.

My best friend, Basia, dragged me to the beach for her idea of a vacation. All those annoying people, sand in embarrassing places - not exactly R & R for a girl who doesn't like the sun, the ocean or bathing suits. I couldn't wait to get back to work.

But things started looking up when I ran into Elvis and Xavier Zimmerman. We discovered we had a lot in common: gaming, anchovies, hacking. After that, the vacation was perfect - until I accidentally broke some poor guy's fingers. Then Broken-Fingered Guy disappeared and things got really dicey. With the Secret Service and a bunch of thugs suddenly after me, all I wanted was to solve the mystery and enjoy what was left of my vacation - preferably alive.

Computer geek Lexi is on vacation with her friend, Basia.  Basia loves nothing better than to chill on the beach.  Lexi finds it to be torture since she doesn't like the sun or sand and she has to be in a bathing suit but mostly because Basia made her leave her computer home.  It becomes more enjoyable when Lexi meets Elvis and Xavier Zimmerman who she considers to be the Kings of Geeks.  It turns out they work for the same government agency as she does and they are experts in gaming.

Then Lexi meets a guy in the lobby bar who was sobbing because his computer kept locking up.  Lexi is able to fix it in two minutes (and breaking two of his fingers in the process) and he ends up confiding his secret to her ... which puts the Secret Service and some killers on her tail.

I liked Lexi.  She is a 25-year-old socially-awkward computer geek whose mother is always trying to set her up with prospective rich husbands.  Basia and the Zimmerman twins are lively supporting characters.

I liked the writing style and found it amusing at times.  The story was interesting.  It is written in first person perspective from Lexi's point of view.

This is the prequel to No One Lives Twice, which I read last month.  It is part of the Lexi Carmichael series (there are currently seven in the series).  I like getting into series and am looking forward to getting caught up on this series.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone so you don't have to read the first one to get caught up, especially since this is the prequel to the first one (I've only read the first one).

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