This first book in a new series from New York Times bestselling author Chelsea Cain is a five-star, kick-ass thriller.

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At twenty-one, Kathleen ‘Kick’ Lannigan is seriously messed up: estranged from her family, forced to live with a past she didn’t choose, and now obsessed with a child’s disappearance. She knows the boy’s fate can only be death or abuse because that was her life before the police found her, aged eleven, and returned her to her real family – though the only father she remembers is the man who used her. She has made a life for herself, away from her narcissistic mother and the cycle of clueless psychotherapists she endured for years. Kick has vowed to never again be a victim. Then John Bishop arrives and what he demands of her will challenge her in ways that all her martial arts and weapons training could never prepare her for. What does Bishop really want, and why is he so determined for Kick to help him get it?

Chelsea Cain is a confident writer and clearly knows her genre. One Kick draws you in from the very first line. Every scene counts. There is little sentiment and no digression into backstory, except where necessary, and the story moves along at a good pace. You can’t help but connect with Kick, and Cain’s ability to paint such a believable portrait of a conflicted young woman with every reason to hate the world gives Kick a dimensionality not often found among the gun-toting heroines populating much of today’s literature. She is well paired with the mercurial John Bishop. A man we know only from Kick’s perspective. For a character who has spent ten years training to protect herself, Kick makes some elementary mistakes. Yet it is worth remembering that she is still young, vulnerable despite appearances, and has not had her skills seriously tested until she meets Bishop who pulls her back into a world she has tried to escape. When we first meet Bishop he is extremely sinister, and though clues are scattered throughout Cain keeps us guessing about his motives. As this is the first in the series there is plenty of room for both characters to grow. Kick’s complex psychology emerges as the story develops, and her love for Monster and James is a continuous shining thread throughout the darker side of this thriller.

If you are looking for a novel that drags you inside, ties you in knots and keeps its secrets well buried, One Kick is definitely for you.  One Kick is my first Chelsea Cain novel. It won’t be my last.

One Kick is due for release on September 1st, 2014

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Australia for my advance review copy.