Review: Zero Hour, Megan Erickson

Megan Erickson’s Zero Hour manages to not make a common romance plot feel oddly creepy, but it doesn’t quite nail the balance of romance and thriller.

It might not quite be Valentine’s Day yet, but romance novels are published year-round, and arriving just yesterday was Megan Erickson’s Zero Hour, sent my way by Forever, Grand Central Publishing’s romance imprint. If the title doesn’t tip you off, this novel trends more into the romantic thriller/suspense side of things. The two can mix very well — both rely on being able to believably sell tension more than other genres do. However, it’s sometimes difficult to strike that perfect balance, and Zero Hour has this problem sometimes.

To begin, let’s meet our cast of characters: Wren and Roarke are our main couple. Erickson uses the old “childhood friend / best friend’s little sister” trope for the basis of their relationship and chemistry. Fortunately, it’s not done with a massive age gap — Wren’s younger than her brother, Erick, and Roarke, but not by much. Our actual main characters do have chemistry, too.

In fact, Erickson actually interrogates the idea of men protecting women who neither need nor want protection pretty well here. Without spoiling the story, it goes beyond the simple man trying to shield a woman without her consent to a degree that would probably inspire at least a restraining order in the real world. But it is a romance, and at the end of the day, we do expect the couple to get together — and Roarke doesn’t know everything that’s happened to Wren still.

Ultimately, the hot-and-cold relationship blooms into something particularly steamy (which shouldn’t be a surprise) that ends up being one of the best parts of the novel. Unfortunately, that runs into the other major problem with the novel: the other plotline.

The overarching story deals with Roarke, Wren, Erick, and assorted other hackers doing their best to take revenge for the death of Roarke’s brother by infiltrating and rendering a security flaw he was killed over absolutely useless. And, to Erickson’s credit, even a non-techie can probably follow along pretty well. However, it also seems as though sometimes that plot bleeds too much into even the narration of the characters. Although it does emphasize how much hacking plays into Roarke’s character in particular, it also ends up seeming a bit too on-the-nose.

Wren’s relationships with some of the other hackers make up the other best part of the book. She’s not just the tagalong kid; instead, she has relationships with other members of the team, like Deke and Marisol, and neither of them are solely there to inspire jealousy in the main romantic couple or just provide advice.

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At the end of the day, Zero Hour is perfectly fine. It does have some balance issues, but there’s something good here.