The focus of the story this time are Maya and Gray. The teams are dealing with trying to track down child clones that have been sold. They rescued one and are looking for the rest. While this is going on Gray’s body is rejecting his implant. Someone from the Silver Devil’s past shows up and they are shocked and thrilled even though they know they may have allowed a brain washed traitor among them. This story is set in Atlanta so you get to see more of the city and how things run below the TechCorps towers. An’t wait to see more of this version of Atlanta and what happens next with this group as they get more allies to their side to take on the TechCorps.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley
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Maya has been using her genetic engineering to help those in her community, especially the Silver Devils that she and her friends have connected with, but she is closest to Gray, the soldier who makes Maya feel almost more than she can stand, but he is dying. His body is rejecting his implant and there is no hope for his future. As they work together to save a group of genetically enhanced children, Gray shows her things about herself that she never contemplated. Could she stand to love another man that she knows she is going to lose?

The Devil You Know is an excellent second book in the Mercenary Librarians series, however, for those who love books that contain strictly sci-fi content, this story will probably be a disappointment. The sci-fi elements are definitely a large part of this book, but it reads more like a romance, and as such, I really enjoyed the story. The structure remains similar to the first book in the series, in that, each chapter begins with an internal TechCorps memo, but one difference is that some of the memos are actually journal entries of the woman who was charged with raising Maya. In this book, the characters of Maya and Gray drive the plot, but subplots involving other characters introduced in the previous book play a major part in the story, which at times overshadows the main plot line. Overall, though, The Devil You Know is an engaging romance set in a well developed futuristic, dystopian society. ( )

3.5

The Librarians and the Silver Devils have settled into a content family-style dynamic. However, that doesn't negate the fact that there's still work to be done.

Maya still has a price on her head from when she escaped from TechCorps with all their secrets and the keys to a revolution. Despite this, when the group discovers a group of genetically enhanced children is being sold to the highest bidder, they'll stop at nothing to thwart whoever is behind the scheme. But this also has the potential to bring attention to Maya.

Gray is determined to keep Maya safe no matter the cost. And with his implant modifications acting up, he knows that cost might be pretty high, as in, his life. But where Maya is concerned he'd gladly sacrifice himself, little does he know Maya feels the same way about Gray. Both of them will fight to the end to keep what they've found with one another.

Compared to the first book, I felt like this book was a little bit slower to progress. I think it's because that ever-present tension between the separate groups has settled now that they've formed one trusted group working together. Instead, this time around I feel like we almost get the opposite pacing of the first book with a lot of quieter, contemplative moments with a few action sequences peppered throughout. Make no mistake, however, the story does slowly build to a rather impressively explosive ending.

In that way, we got to see more of the kind of everyday operations that the Librarians are involved in - their interactions with their "patrons" as the case may be. I kind of liked seeing the day-to-day, but also make no mistake this is definitely still a dystopian future with a maniacal megacorporation lording over the regular people. In fact, I'm kind of hoping the next book in the series gives us some more focus on what happens up in The Hill - where TechCorp houses its "lair".

One of the bid standouts for me was just the character dynamics. I loved seeing the group interactions, loved seeing how they've created this family. I think that Kit Rocha has really nailed the way that they format their books in that this is definitely Maya and Gray's story, but they're so good about giving readers points of view from each other main character that you never feel like you've lost out on the previous characters like often happens in a series that features a different couple with each book. Nina and Knox are still so present, and Rafe and Dani are hard to ignore. Their build-up has been done especially well and really makes me excited for their book.

Overall, while the story itself took a bit for me to get into this time around, it built up slowly enough that by the finish I was definitely not ready for things to end. I'm hoping this series will go further than just a trilogy. There's certainly some very interesting setups happening. I'd say if you enjoyed the first book, you'll like this one as well. ( )