Review: Hannah and the Hitman

/ Heather

Book by Vanessa Vale

What happens when a sexy, cocky hitman and a secretly smutty small town librarian get together? Sparks fly.

I’m a hitman. With all the bad guys out there, business is brisk. I don’t have time to focus on anything but work until I sit beside a curvy woman on a plane… and read over her shoulder. I’m instantly obsessed with the small-town librarian who dreams of having a happily-ever-after of her own but is convinced true love is a fantasy only found in books.

My new job? Proving that she’ll have an HEA with me. Because she’s mine.

Except… big problem. I haven’t told her I’m a hitman. Turns out, she has a few shocking secrets of her own. When a mafia boss doesn’t like me distracted from one last hit, can I be a superhero and keep Hannah alive, or am I not the one wearing the cape?

Hannah and the Hitman has tons of heat, lots of laughs, plus a fun, supernatural twist.

From the Vanessa Vale Website description.

Read this book if you love:

  • spicy grumpy sunshine romances
  • the laugh-out-loud hi-jinx of some truly ridiculous characters
  • the girl takes back her own life

My Review

I got this book at exactly the right time. I was processing some grief, and having read some of Vanessa Vale’s books before, when she started promoting Hannah and the Hitman on her feeds, I decided to pre-order.

I don’t regret it at all.

What I loved:

Hannah has been through the wringer. She’s coming back to living life on her terms after a couple of hellish years, and it’s really wonderful to see her character growth. Our Hitman suddenly finds himself at a loss, wondering if there’s an exit strategy for him when he discovers the shy, quiet librarian is reading a spicy romance on the plane, and he reads along.

I’m not going to lie, this book is genuinely ridiculous. So ridiculous, in fact, that several times I burst out laughing at the absurdity. It takes a unique writer to come up with the most ridiculous family ever for Hannah, and a guy serious enough to take on that madness on her behalf. But even though our Hitman does help build Hannah’s confidence, she builds herself back up, and I am down for it.

Is this book going to win any awards? Probably not, but I don’t care. I had fun reading this book. I hope there’s a second in what could be a very interesting series.

What I didn’t love:

I must have missed the supernatural twist part of the description as I was reading it, because even though it was plotted out properly, other than the 2 words in the bio that gave it away, I didn’t know this. It’s my own fault. I bought it based on her samples on Instagram, and didn’t get the full book description until the supernatural elements started to happen. But as I look back at the marketing, very little in the cover gives away the supernatural elements either, making it look entirely rom-com in nature.

For that reason alone, I didn’t love the book, but otherwise, it was exactly what it said it would be. A spicy rom-com with a fun supernatural twist.

My Analysis

POV:

1st, dual, Hannah & Jack.

Genre:

Internal: Love Genre
Global Values: Hate to Love
Core Emotion: Romance
Core Need: Connection

External: Action – Adventure
Global Values: Death / Life

Controlling idea: Love is worth changing everything.

Violence: medium, nothing truly horrible.
Gore: low, but to be expected with a Hitman.
Romance/Sex: spicy, with nothing left to the imagination.
Series: Standalone (for now).
Reality Clover: Reality

Reference:

Website: https://vanessavaleauthor.com/book/hannah-and-the-hitman/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessa_vale_author/

He set his hand on his chest as if offended. “Now you’ve hurt my feelings. Maybe I want to be a romance hero after all. You’re saying you wouldn’t go for a hitman?”

Hannah and the Hitman by Vanessa Vale
https://a.co/biH05L2