Book Review: Factor-7 by J.D. May

Goodreads Summary: FACTOR-7 presents a terrifying but riveting scenario that’s ripped from the headlines—and, if things do not change, could very well be our new normal.

The life of Dr. Sam Hawkins, the head trauma surgeon at Galveston’s St. Peter’s Memorial Hospital, is changed forever by the cryptic words of his dying friend and the string of blatant cover-ups that follow his demise. When a beautiful infectious disease doctor, Rainee Arienzo, enters his life, they soon realize that Sam’s friend had been willing to die to expose the sinister truth of what he had become involved in, before a dangerous weapon could be unleashed upon the world. Reluctantly, and ill-equipped for such a task, Sam and Rainee team up to find the truth—but what they discover is far more than they could have imagined. As they are forced further and further into a world of murder, power, intrigue, and corruption, it becomes deathly clear that the exposure of the truth is just as dangerous as the group and weapon that they seek. Sam and Rainee must play with one of two devils to survive—or be burned by both. Life is made of choices, but they are not always ours to make.

A bucking bronco ride bio-weaponry, secrets, terror, betrayal, lies, infidelity, raw human emotions, and redeeming love, FACTOR-7 is a completely gripping thriller that will keep you turning the pages all through the night.

You think it could never happen. FACTOR-7 will make you think twice!

Goodreads Rating: 4.6 stars with 10 ratings

Genre listing: Science Fiction 

Goodreads Challenge: 44/60

2020 Reading Challenge: None (find the challenge here)

Book Review:

Hi readers, I hope everyone is doing well! The year is wrapping up soon, so be on the lookout for my end of the year summary on everything I read. If you missed the post, Tress and I released the Kraken that is our 2021 reading challenge. You can find it here. 

For Factor-7, I received an ARC copy of the book from the author's publicity team in exchange for a review. 

I feel like I have to explain the entire premise of Factor-7 to talk about it because, honestly, there was a lot in this book. This book is coming out in January and takes place post-covid-19. Sam, a trauma surgeon, gets connected with Rainee, an infectious disease doctor. They're both made aware of a secret organization that has apparently developed a man-made virus that will set off a pandemic worse than anything the world has seen before. This private organization has basically infiltrated the world's government, so they have to stop it on their own because they can't trust anyone. Somewhere along the line, they befriend a Drug Cartel leader from Mexico, who helps them try to derail the plot to unleash the virus. 

Covid-19/Coronavirus is mentioned pretty early on in the book, and truthfully given that this book is about to be released, I felt it was kind of opportunistic and showed an author trying to get ahead of the curb on an influx of pandemic books we're about to see. I know it happens, and I know it's going to happen, but that doesn't change the fact that it didn't really sit well with me while I was reading it. I don't necessarily feel like the author was trying to make light of the situation, but this book's timing can definitely be construed that way. The main reason I mention it is to warn readers because I feel like if they lost someone to Covid-19, that could be upsetting to them. 

Initially, Sam came off as an arrogant ass. I don't really know what it was, but it took a while for him to be a likable character for me. His personality didn't really seem consistent, and not necessarily in a growth sort of way. At first, he seemed really arrogant, and then once he meant Rainee, he suddenly started using Southern phrases and saying, Ma'am. Because it just seems to start when he met Rainee, it felt like he was laying it on kind of thick.  He did kind of grow on me and seemed like a nice guy and like he wanted to do the right thing, however. I did feel bad for him because his ex-wife Ashley was pretty awful.

I thought the concept of there being a man-made virus being used as a bio-weapon was interesting. I'm not really sure how I feel about the super-secret society being involved, and parts of it were confusing. Initially, there was one group that was mentioned that really didn't come into play again until the end. A second group seemed to hijack their name or had a similar name, which just made it really confusing. I also admit that it's possible. I'm misremembering. 

The secondary super-secret group's mission was incredibly vile. The idea is that they're going to use the virus to eliminate terrorism by controlling who the virus gets transmitted to, by making it only responsive to one specific region's DNA. Essentially, committing genocide on innocent people. I don't even know how to explain the hatred that the organization spewed. It was so deep that I was legitimately concerned about what I was reading. It hurt my heart, and I don't know how the author came up with that level of hatred for their characters. Sam and Rainee never made these kinds of comments; these all came from the group responsible for the virus. In fact, there's a quote from the book when Sam is going off one of the members, talking about how absolutely sick they are that I wanted to share. I'm not sure what page it's on; it's towards the end of the book. "Hate is a vile and virile enemy of the soul."

I thought that Sam and Rainee's mission was interesting, and I could easily get into it. I wanted to read more about what they were trying to do to stop it and how deep the conspiracy went. What really took me out of this book, however, was their relationship. Sam was recently divorced and had a fling with a lady at work, which was weird. Other than that, Rainee was his first relationship post-divorce. The timing and how they got together felt like a rebound to me. It didn't really feel like they had a ton of chemistry and like there was some formula that said there had to be a relationship, so they're together now because they're trying to save the world. I don't know if it was because they were both doctors or what, but there was an overly detailed sex scene that seemed more clinical and instructional. It didn't read as passionate or romantic, and afterward, Sam had pretty much decided he was in love with her, comparing it to something about horseshoes. When they were working towards the mission, it was fine, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes when it came to their relationship.

Somewhere in all of this craziness, a drug lord decides he's their friend and is going to help them deal with the virus. Between this and everything else going on in the book, it seemed like many concepts in one book. I really wanted to like this book, the story was interesting, but everything else that was driving me crazy kept me from enjoying it much. It had its moments, but most of the time, I spent rolling my eyes and checking how much I had left in it. 

This is what makes me want to not take on requests from authors/companies to read specific books. I genuinely feel bad when I don't fully enjoy the book. Don't get me wrong, Factor-7 is well written, and I think many people will enjoy it. For me, however, it was just too many ideas swirling around, a little too opportunistic, and I found the romance cringe-worthy at best. I'm sure that people who can get into the whole conspiracy theory- Illuminati type things will enjoy it. I'm just not one of them. This seems like a good time to announce that in 2021 I will be taking a step back from doing reviews on author/publicity company requested books. I've had a lot this year, and while I really want to help new authors, I also need a break. Between work 40+ hours a week, grad school, and working as a volunteer mentor for my school, promising to read someone's book is a bit more than I can handle.