Finding Gideon was marketed as a stand-alone, even though there are more stories in this series, and technically it is, but I did feel that I fell feet first into a story that I wasn’t ready for. I think it had to do with the main POV in the beginning which was Medianoche, which starts out in a place I didn’t want to be. I didn’t like him, I didn’t want to read about him…and it kept increasing. Dickey tried to explain his backstory, but then just as you were getting comfortable, another tidbit was introduced and I was lost in someone else’s backstory. It got confusing at times and I stopped reading the book at a few points, only to pick it back up again, thinking it might a failing on my part. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood. Because I did want to like this book.

The overall gist of the story is that there are bad guy vs. bad guy, each one has a length backstory of why they are bad. Gideon, the somewhat redeemable bad guy, is one set on revenge against the hired killer that is sort of his nemesis. But, Midnight – or Medianoche isn’t an easy target – and that guy is set on killing Gideon even more. There is a lot sex, but none of it romantic. There is a lot of violence, which is all quite gory, and there are a lot of cool references to usually not featured places, which I thought was the best part of the book. But, it’s all packed into 450 pages that seem to go on forever.

My overall experience of the book was not a good one, unfortunately. I found the writing style hard to digest, I can only describe it when your ten-speed is on some crazy setting and you pedal and pedal and the pedals move fast, but you aren’t going anywhere. The anticipation and anxiety was high, the talk of killing and revenge, when only ten minutes passed in the book. It was all devious thoughts in the characters head. Then I was popped out of the book because something didn’t make sense, or a phrase I didn’t get. I liked exploring what it meant – but it’s hard to get back into a book like this.

I did like the diversity, and the descriptions of the different places, the authors knowledge of certain aspects described in the book, and the intensity of the entire novel. I wish I could have gotten into it more. Maybe if I read the first books, I would have. If it looks interesting, go back and check out the Gideon series.