6 BRILLIANT STARS for the American Psycho and The British Intelligence Queen!

SCARS is one of those books where you might miss the strength of it the first time around, you might miss the love the writer is pushing into each word, sidetracked by the action, sidetracked by the fact that Cole is having to take certain steps from the beginning to keep Bella safe in a job that is fundamentally unsafe from their very first day whether they're working for the United States or the United Kingdom.

"Being a spy isn't for the faint at heart -- especially for the brute American and the beautiful, cunning Brit."

Because the danger of the job Cole does has been romanticized in the United States vs the absolute state of silence placed on the work the MI6 does in Britain, people convince themselves Bella would be inherently safer, so the beginning of the book almost doesn't make sense. Except that being lied about is the same no matter where you go. If someone says they can't trust you, suddenly it doesn't matter how good you were at your job, how high ranking or elite your family was at the same job, your life isn't worth the value of a $2 bill and Cole doesn't care that he had made the decision to give her up, or eventually let her come to him, he simply cannot let her become another statistic -- another govt official caught up in the evils of their job. He has to keep Bella alive.

When Bella wakes up in more pain than she's felt in quite awhile, and suddenly quite beholden to Cole Carson again, the only thing she can think of is how to keep him and his little family safe again. In the process of keeping everyone safe, Bella is making sure she doesn't get super attached. All these side people in Cole's life know is that every time he comes home from an experience with Bella he is thrown back into the "there's nothing wrong with me" attitude while he works out the knowledge that she has never loved him enough to try and work out a life with him -- and wouldn't that just kill any guys ego?!?

"She's the only woman I've ever wanted and I can't tame her. I've tried everything. She thinks she's got something to prove to the world."

So they don't like her much, and to top it off they believe she's too standoffish for a guy like Cole, a guy who's able to show his love every day whereas this silent, workaholic can suffer a gunshot wound and get up the next day and get right back to the job. What no one understands in this position is that any woman working for CIA or MI6 is, simply by the virtue of her gender, in a truly unique position. Like any woman, people want her to smile, be personable, make an instant connection, but like anyone working for the CIA or MI6 regardless of gender she has seen things she will never forget and especially for Bella in this condition she can't just give up the seriousness of her situation.

Firstly if she does the likelihood of her ending up dead is very, very high and secondly if she does no one is going to take her desire to prove her innocence seriously. So regardless of the situation Bella can't just sit back and enjoy some girl time, go shopping get a makeover, etc.

The side characters in this books are AMAZINGLY fun! Cole's friends, their wives, his daughter, his father, a lot of them bring both depth and light to certain situations that absolutely require it. The best side character in this book, and the one that was totally unexpected for me was Ollie. His relationship with Cole, his security in his sexuality, that both men could joke about it and still be such close friends was an amazingly sweet part of SCARS for me. Asher's handling of such a relationship with consideration, fun and openness helped make SCARS one of my favourites of 2020.

In my opinion, SCARS is one of Brynne's best books ever. The twists and turns, the suspense from page one, the rollercoaster ride, the epic switchbacks you will NEVER see coming at the combine to make this book an absolute HOME RUN!! This book is absolutely mind-blowing, the sexy times between Cole and Bella are next level inspired, and the side characters just from Bella's family could be their own book!! Worth at least 6 stars, SCARS will keep you riveted to your seat from the first page to the last, and then leave you begging where Brynne Asher's Assassins are headed next!