Review: Lock & Load (PASS Series Book 3) by Freya Barker

Lock&Load by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Geeks FTW

This book takes a look at our geeky hero, Radar. He’s the hacker extraordinaire at PASS. He’s 40 and probably would have gone to prison if it weren’t for his boss finding him when he got in trouble.

Radar tends to get caught up in his work, as a lot of geeks tend to do. He gets distracted and absorbed and the real world disappears, which is why he’s never really had a long term relationship. However, he’s found himself looking around a bit more recently, as two of his colleagues have found love and are still able to do the job. One even has a baby now, who Radar adores.

The mother of his colleague’s baby is Rosie. One of Rosie’s best friends is Hillary, who is a nurse that helped look after Rosie’s mother before she was put into a care home. Rosie has got Hillary working at the homeless shelter part-time whilst she works full time at the hospital in a job she hates because she has student loans to pay off. Hillary doesn’t have any family and now aged 36 she has been on her own for a while.

Close to paying off her student loans, Hillary is also starting to look around at how life is passing her by whilst she’s had her head down, busy surviving. When she and Radar meet by accident they only know each other as passing acquaintances through their mutual friends. They are surprised to find they live in the same apartment complex, but different buildings, especially when Hillary chases off the attacker of someone outside said building and Radar happens to be nearby.

This attack is the start of an investigation that Radar becomes involved with. It’s also the start of something between Radar and Hillary. Both the case and the relationship have lots of bumps in the road, but they are equally fascinating to read about. The suspense plot is twisty and intriguing and you never know what’s coming next, which is kind of the same as the romance.

I like both Hillary and Radar, though they are set in their protective ways, often shutting people out. They are both genuinely caring people who try to look out for others. I’ve always had a soft spot for Hillary who works incredibly hard at a thankless job. Radar has held a slightly more subdued role in previous books.

Once again this is a well-written book about interesting, flawed yet nice people, who you can’t help rooting for. It’s got a great plot that keeps the pages turning and is entertaining in a way that doesn’t have you snorting in disbelief. I’ll keep on reading about Freya Barker’s interesting characters because it’s nice to read about people older than 35 that have lives outside of having children.

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