Playing with Fire

by Sherry D. Ficklin

[Berls]

3.5 stars
I've owned this book (for review from netgalley oops) for years. And I grabbed it because I have enjoyed everything I ever read by Sherry D. Ficklin. So why the delay? Too many books is the only reason I can think of. But I'm trying to get to 100% on Netgalley so I picked it up and I am so glad I did!

Farris is a fantastic YA character. She's the daughter of a military father and her mother passed away when she was younger. She's had to grow up way too much as a result and I enjoyed watching the way Ficklin expressed that without going over the top - Farris still makes some very (accurately) immature decisions. And it was just neat to see this imagining of what life would be like living on a military base. I have no idea how accurate it is, but I enjoyed it. There's love interest with the inevitable YA love triangle. That I didn't love, but the way Ficklin worked it out was satisfying.

There's also a mystery - someone is sabotaging, in a potentially dangerous way, her father's team. She's worried - lives could be lost - and since she's exceptionally skilled with computers and can hack, she decides to investigate on her own. Now queue a little bit of an eye roll - am I supposed to believe that the US military doesn't employ hackers that are more skilled than a teenager? The one saving grace in the plausibility is that she does have some information they don't that perhaps makes it more possible for her to do the hacking.

Things ended up in a way I didn't expect and I was kept guessing the whole way through. I really enjoyed it and would be interested to see what book 2 is about, as this felt like a satisfying conclusion.

Qualifies for COYER Fall Scavenger Hunt Item #1 - first book in a series.