Double Life by S Usher Evans

Double Life (Razia, #1)

by S. Usher Evans

Piracy is a Game
What Are You Worth?

Since she was a little girl, everyone - from her father to the Great Creator himself - told Lyssa Peate the same thing: she's worthless. But when she becomes the pirate bounty hunter Razia, she can see the price tag on her own head. Employed by one of the four pirate syndicates, she uses bank transactions and her considerable wits to capture rival members. At least, she would be if Razia's boss ever gave her a chance. It's a man’s world, and all she’s allowed to hunt are purse snatchers while she languishes on probation.

To pay the bills, she's stuck in her old life as Lyssa, discovering and analyzing distant planets and selling them for cash. She's doing just enough to stay out of trouble, pretending to be continuing her father's mysterious research while away for long periods of time. Her slimy boss is always asking questions and even assigns one of her younger brothers, Vel, to intern with her. Already struggling to keep the balance between her double lives, she tries everything to rid herself of the kid...

...until the universal police mistake Lyssa’s intern for Razia's hostage.

Reviewed by Chelsea on

5 of 5 stars

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This is a tricky review to write because I loved Double Life a lot and I'm trying really hard to not ramble on about things nobody would understand. I wasn't expecting to love Double Life as much as I did. I was confident that it would be a 4 star read (partially because I'm not much of a sci-fi reader). I was pleasantly surprised when I was easily sucked into the world of bounty hunting and planet excavation.

My favourite part of Double Life was easily the whole bounty hunting aspect. I can't tell you why, but I loved it. It just felt like this big game where pirates hunt other pirates to make their rankings go higher. Something about that just made me really excited to keep reading this book (and eventually the whole series). I even found the idea of excavating and selling planets was pretty cool. Let's be real though, I thought everything was pretty cool. While the plot of Double Life was mostly about bounty hunting and being a pirate, I actually really enjoyed Lyssa's life of exploring planets too. I liked that we got to see a good chunk of both her identities instead of only focusing on the one. I'm really happy with how that turned out.

I wasn't a fan of Lyssa/Razia at the start of the book. I didn't hate her but I didn't love her either. As I kept reading she started to grow on me. There were quite a few times that I wanted to give her a good smack across the face but I ended up really enjoying her company. I think it was her voice that really stuck with me. I loved the sarcasm and witty responses. I loved that she didn't let anybody tell her what to do. I loved that she could seriously kick some ass. I also really loved her relationship with Sage (though we didn't see enough of him in this book to make me REALLY happy). I can tell he's going to be an interesting character in the later books and I can't wait to see more of him.

Double Life deserved all the possible stars I could give it. It hooked me from the first chapter and didn't let me leave until I was done (thankfully it was a quick read for me). I don't think I've ever read through a book with this much desperation, just to see what happened next.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 January, 2017: Finished reading
  • 13 January, 2017: Reviewed