Operation Owl (Beyond Fairytales #3)

Tara
Quan
Genre: 
Contemporary

Maya works for the Treasury Department as a forensic analyst, charged with finding out where the bad guys hide their money across the globe. Zack, her best friend from their MIT days, is as wanted by the US government as Edward Snowden, and for supposedly similar reasons. Maya doesn't believe that, so she agrees to meet and help him, knowing he'll have to leave the country permanently - taking her heart with him.

 

Maya is a second generation Indian, whose parents are surprisingly up to date on modern American culture, except when it comes to being married to an Indian man and having kids. She lives alone, but is close to her family.  This throws a wrench into Zack’s hope that he can keep her away from being a part of this, while needing her expertise to clear the hit squad after him. Zack and Maya work together well as they dodge close calls and track down the real bad guys, all the while hiding from both the "good" and "bad" guys; their lives and stories seamlessly woven 

 

A rather chilling look at how easily “secure” information can be infiltrated, there is just enough to make any reader wonder “what if” about many things. There is never any explanation of how this story is an adaptation of Grimm's “The Owl” – and being a not-so-well known tale, leaving that out makes the credibility of the story as a modern version questionable. The font randomly changes size throughout the story - irritating, but easily fixable. Zack and Maya are wonderfully true-to-life characters you’ll root for the entire way, while they clear his name, fall in love, and take down thugs. 

 

Julie York