Allison: Firewall | DiAnn Mills | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

After a whirlwind romance, Taryn Young is preparing to board a plane at Houston International Airport, bound for a dream honeymoon, when a bomb decimates the terminal. Injured but still alive, she awakens to discover her husband is missing and they’re both considered prime suspects in the attack. Further, the FBI is convinced her husband isn’t who he appears to be.

Agent Grayson Hall’s number-one priority is to catch those responsible for the day’s act of terror. All evidence is pointing to Taryn and her new husband. But his instinct tells him her pleas of innocence are genuine. Is her naiveté just for show, or could she truly be another victim of a master scheme, possibly linked to the software she recently developed for her company?

With both their lives and reputations on the line, and the media outcry for justice increasing with each passing minute, Taryn and Grayson have no choice but to trust one another . . . and pray they can uncover the truth before they become two more casualties.

On the surface, Firewall by DiAnn Mills is suspenseful fiction. It contains the element of mystery and romance mixed with the dramatics of the FBI and a potential terrorist situation. Honestly, there is so much potential for something outside my normal reading but unfortunately that potential was never fully reached for me. There was just too many things that felt “off” or “overdone” to me and because of that it was hard for me to relate to the characters and what it was they were going through.

The main female character Taryn Young is supposed to be a genius software developer. In fact, she is supposed to have just created a new set of software which if it fell into the wrong hands could be very dangerous. So, why did I not feel this in the character? I wanted to like her but, she really started to grate on my nerves as reader. I didn’t believe her to be a genius IT person. Especially when it came to her responses to FBI Special Agent Grayson Hall and the situation she finds herself in as a suspect in a potential terrorist attack.

Grayson Hall is a FBI Special Agent with years of practice on the force. He’s gruff but also has a heart behind his actions. Out of the two main characters, I think I liked Grayson more. I liked his passion for his job and the way in which he excelled at being a FBI agent. I also liked that he trusted his gut instead of listening to what others told him in terms of Taryn being a potential terrorist. What I didn’t like about Grayson was his sudden development of feelings for the main suspect in his case. It didn’t feel realistic at all even if he did believe her innocence.

In fact, it felt really off putting to have a romance plot in this book. It didn’t flow well with the rest book of the story. In fact, if I’m honest, I got a really weird vibe from their relationship because of the emotions that were displayed. They did not feel genuine at all. I felt as if these two characters were being forced together for the sake of the story. Specifically, when you think about the fact that Taryn was recently involved in a whirl-wind romance which led to marriage. Their relationship and the moments which they shared together made the rest of the story harder for me to enjoy.

I will give author DiAnn Mills credit for the suspense portions this book because those were very intriguing. It was chilling to witness the FBI investigation progress and trying to figure out exactly what happened. Of course just when you think you knew what had happened, you were in for an even bigger surprise because the twists and turns of this story were endless. I think that if the focus had been entirely on the investigation, I would have enjoyed it more. Like I said before, throwing in these random moments between Taryn and Grayson that didn’t feel realistic at all took away my enjoyment of the story as a whole. Honestly, Firewall may work for some people but overall it just did not work for me.