Review: The Decaying Empire (The Vanishing Girl #2) by Laura Thalassa

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Book Blurb

When eighteen-year-old teleporter Ember Pierce wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, she remembers only the basics: she’s been trained by the government as a spy, she’s sent on dangerous missions, and her last assignment—the one that landed her in the hospital—was a setup.

Caden Hawthorne has spent the past ten months of his life grieving Ember’s death. So when she shows up in his room like an apparition, he can’t believe his eyes. But this Ember is different. Her hair is longer, her skin is paler, her gaze is haunted. She tells him what he’s already begun to suspect: someone he trusted betrayed her.

Now, uncertain who is friend and who is foe, Ember and Caden face the toughest mission of their lives—to stay together and survive, as they run from danger toward an unknown future.

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Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala

Ember was shot on her last mission and spliced as she tried to teleport back. She has been unconscious for ten months lying in a hospital. She knows that she was set up by the project. She escapes the hospital in LA and decides to run. She feels guilty about running without Caden but knows he would find her when he escapes himself. However he finds her before she can escape across the border and convinces her to come back with him. She ends up back in the compound trying to heal from her ordeal. She is experiencing some side effects like transporting during the day while she is awake. That’s new and unpredictable. Caden wants her to get that under control before they escape. He refuses to put her life in danger.

Of course Richards suspects they are planning an escape and decides to thwart their plans. He takes them out of rotation and sends them to Montana. Caden and Ember have to start planning all over again. However this time they have to put some trust into places they weren’t expecting in order to be successful. But as you know not all plans go perfectly.

I couldn’t wait to read this second book. The first, The Vanishing Girl, was awesome and I couldn’t put it down. In this book I kept wanting to smack Ember. She keeps trying to do everything herself instead of trust Caden to help her. It drove me completely crazy. It kept causes more issues in the long run. Her stubbornness was going to get her killed or Caden, who would try to save her. I realize that her character is completely messed up in this book but come on.

This was definitely an edge of your seat kind of story. You didn’t want them to get caught. The reader wants them to succeed. You don’t know who they can trust. I would have to read a bit and then take a break. It was almost too much at one time suspense-wise. Drove me insane. Their plans changed continuously and they had to stay under the radar but steal what they needed. It was crazy and a very wild ride. I give it a 4 out of 5.

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