Hardwired

Hardwired by West Virginia romance writer Andrea Bills is the perfect combining of genres. Parts sci fi, lost love romance and suspense make for a unique story. Luke Kiersey, who after giving everything for his country, is repaid with lies, deception and erasure of the life and love he knew before. Jen is a young widow struggling to raise her young daughter Bella. When Luke comes to stay next door and sees Jen and Bella he is haunted by flashes of memories from a life he doesn’t recognize. Who are they and why does he care? Believing he is nothing more than a killing machine due to the hard drive installed in his back, he vows to stay away from them. The stranger next-door intrigues Jen, but after her husbands death and a disastrous first date she has resigned herself to keeping her heart closed to new love. But when danger comes, Luke must break his vow and do everything he can to protect them. As he spends more time with Jen and Bella, Luke feels himself fighting more and more to learn what the government doesn’t want him to know. Luke’s handler Dean oversees keeping him reigned in and making sure he doesn’t go off the rails.

But when Luke needs him the most will Dean pick their friendship over his assignment? Learning the truth about his past and coming face to face with it makes the story so much more than a typical romance. It’s a fight to the bitter end for survival once he starts asking questions and deviating from being the perfect programmed soldier. When Luke, Jen and Bella have to run for their lives Luke has to make the difficult choice to let the hard drive re-wire him back to the killing machine he used to be in order to save them. The characters are well developed, and the reader is immediately invested in their story. Luke is an alpha male willing to do whatever it takes to protect the family he doesn’t remember. Jen is strongly written female character who after losing her husband doubted she would ever find love again. Bills’ engaging story with twists and turns you don’t see coming takes us on the journey with Luke as he discovers what he thought was real is actually a web of lies designed to manipulate him. He’s a man the government can’t control once he discovers the truth. Will he be able to find his way back to the life and love he’s only starting to remember? Or will the government tech that keeps him alive, prevent his past from becoming his future?