I was provided a digital copy of Deuces Are Wild by a publicist in exchange for a review.
The blurb intrigued me when the message popped into my email box with the opportunity to read Deuces Are Wild by O.E. Tearmann. Dystopian. Cyberpunk. A ragtag band battling it out against corporations turned evil empire. I also hesitated a bit to take on the task. Deuces Are Wild is the sixth book in a series. Nevertheless, I figured, what the heck. My publisher requires the books in The Allison Lee Chronicles to work as standalones, and I was curious to see if Tearmann uses a similar strategy.
Deuces Are Wild follows the exploits of an elite unit within The Democratic State Force. The characters are many and engaging. The protagonist, Tweak, is an expert hacker and a wonderful character. She possesses a stutter that comes out regularly in her dialogue. At first, I expected to find the stuttering dialogue annoying, but Tearmann's expert crafting of Tweak's speech won me over. Her lingo quickly endears her to the reader, just as it does with many of the characters surrounding her.
If you're interested in following a motley crew fighting for the little guys in a dystopian future with cyberpunk undertones, you'll find much to enjoy in Deuces Are Wild. However, I suggest you start with the first novel in the series, The Hands We're Given. Time and again, I found myself mildly disoriented while reading Deuces Are Wild because I was missing pieces of the characters' and world's backstories that I believe are detailed in earlier books.