Uptown Oracle Reads… A Conspiracy of Whispers

For Olivia Shaw, the danger of her assignments as a deadly Whisper agent is matched only by that of her hidden status: Liv is one of the caricae. When her handler sends her into the Quillian Empire, her mission is complicated when her hostage is revealed to be the infamous Red Wolf, Galen De Corvus, brother of the Quillian Empress. Worse yet, he is an altus, more sensitive than most to the pheromones of caricae. If he realizes what she is, he could expose her secret to either government and doom her to a life as breeding stock. As they work together to protect his royal sister from a violent coup, the passionate bond between them proves to be more than mere biology. And Liv must decide if that bond is worth dropping her guard for both an enemy and an altus.

I’m pretty sure the only reason I requested this book was because I was half asleep and thought it was Conspiracy of Stars. I think this because I clearly did not read the synopsis as this is a romance and not a sci-fi book. Well actually, it kind of is sci-fi but it’s definitely not good sci-fi. To be honest, it’s not really good romance either. It’s more of a compilation of romance tropes and sci-fi worlds into one book.

I did check Goodreads after I started to read this book because it was immediately not what I expected. But at the time it had 5 stars from 5 people with no actual reviews out – this really should have been my first warning. I wish I had DNF’d at the start and just let the publisher know I didn’t mean to request this book, but I really hate starting books and not finishing them. Also I really wanted to learn more about how humans had evolved into caricae, altus and gentas. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very science based book and we didn’t get much backstory to the world.

This book is all about Liv, a stereotypical moody rebel love interest for the prince who is great at military combat. They are of course on opposing sides but then join together as one of them realises they’re on the wrong side. Predictably, when you think they’re finally free to be together, something comes up and military boy has to go away, and the girl finds a way to push the boy away. Of course by the end of the book they’re living HEA and have sex. I kid you not, I have read this plot countless times as subplots in other books and never liked it. This predictable subplot did not need to be made into full length book.

Positives

+ Humans evolved in different types of people

Negatives

– Romance

– Predictable

I received A Conspiracy of Whispers* by Ada Harper from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.