No One Lives Twice by Julie Moffett

Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: 8/16/10
How I got this book: NetGalley

I'm Lexi Carmichael, geek extraordinaire. I spend my days stopping computer hackers at the National Security Agency. My nights? Those I spend avoiding my mother and eating cereal for dinner. Even though I work for a top-secret agency, I've never been in an exciting car chase, sipped a stirred (not shaken) martini, or shot a poison dart from an umbrella.
Until today, that is, when two gun-toting thugs popped up in my life and my best friend disappeared. So, I've enlisted the help of the Zimmerman twins—the reclusive architects of America's most sensitive electronic networks—to help me navigate a bewildering maze of leads to find her.
Along the way, my path collides with a sexy government agent and a rich, handsome lawyer, both of whom seem to have the hots for me. Hacking, espionage, sexy spy-men—it's a geek girl's dream come true. If it weren't for those gun-toting thugs...
*Blurb from Goodreads*

No One Lives Twice is the first book in the series about Lexi Carmichael, the super geek who leads an extremely boring life until her best friend sends her a package. Lexi lived her whole life wrapped up in numbers and computers, loving her job at the NSA tracking down hackers. Her only friends are her college BFF Basia, and the super smart and somewhat reclusive Zimmerman twins.

What begins as another ordinary day for Lexi, a FedEx package suddenly turns and flips her world upside down. She is accosted by two thugs with guns in one day, forced to go on a horrible blind date, and BFF Basia disappears. With the help of the Zimmerman’s, Lexi is off on a wild goose chase, trying to find out why an oddly written Polish contract is suddenly arousing so much attention.

Lexi’s chase leads her to some interesting characters. Finn the lawyer who originally gave Basia the contracts is not only sexy, but his Irish accent drives Lexi wild. Slash the super hacker, super secret government agent who is doing everything in his power to prove he is trustworthy. Lars the mysterious karate instructor isn’t quite what he seems. They all are working with (or against?) Lexi to try and get their hands on the contracts, find Basia, and figure out what exactly the successful medical company has to do with the whole mess.

I was immediately attracted to this book, because like Lexi I consider myself somewhat of a geek. I’m not super smart and computer savvy, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m a chick who loves reading, playing videos, and was in my high school marching band! While I was hoping to feel a kid of nerdy-girl kinship with Lexi, I was somewhat disappointed by her ability to become a super agent overnight. Her super sleuth skills came somewhat out of nowhere for me, and while I can understand her ability to mentally figure out the mystery, her ability to almost single handedly take out the numerous bad guys was a little too out there for me.

The abundance of sexy men who come out of the woodwork had me constantly guessing as to who could and couldn’t be trusted. While I totally loved each of the secondary characters, some of it seemed a little much to me. It was a little ridiculous to me that practically ALL the men in the story suddenly have fallen head over heels for Lexi. Sure she is smart, beautiful, and able to hold herself together under pressure, but really? It was a little too much for me to find that all the men had fallen for her.

While the secrets were in abundance, the overall story somewhat worked for me. I enjoyed the explanation behind the contracts, and the reasons for the medical company’s involvement. Without trying to give too much away, I love the controversial topic, and was intrigued by that aspect of the plot. Some things did get technical and somewhat scientific, but being the geek that I am, I personally enjoyed that.

All in all, I give No One Lives Twice 2.5 out of 5 computer hackers!