“Vengeance is one of life's great motivators.” – K.S. Brooks

Author Kimberly Stewart’s novel ‘Smooth Intentions 2’ focuses on the life of the protagonist Skylar Clark. She runs the family business of Clark Enterprises but she is also a trained street fighter, a true-blue femme fatale. In this adventure story, she is hunting down the man responsible for murdering her grandfather. But she inadvertently stumbles upon a plot involving soldiers influenced by mind control and the mafia trying to smuggle guns out of the army. It is the second book in the Smooth Intentions series.

Skylar looks and behaves like a normal young woman but Skylar has a secret. She has been trained in martial arts and in weapons discharge by her friends. And she has had to rely on her fighting skills in the past when bad people hurt her family. So she carries around this fury and plots on getting revenge on the people responsible for wronging her family. But she isn’t consumed by this and has learned to keep it under check so that she can live her life. She tries to live a normal life by heading the family business, by being kind and considerate to others and also finding time for love and romance on the sidelines. But if you mess with her or the ones she loves, that’s when you get to see her wild side. Then she is all fury and vengeance raining down on her enemies.

This is a book that works mainly because of its good characterizations; while the plot placements and their expansion do have scope for development. And precisely for this reason, the book doesn’t grab your full attention like a regular thriller is supposed to. But it still keeps you engaged and you end up turning the next page, mainly because you want to know what Skylar does next. There’s a cliffhanger in the book but only after the mission that haunts the protagonist gets resolved. The promise of a next book actually sounded interesting to me, because I really would like to find out more about the character of Skylar. But it isn’t just her but other characters like Rico, Monty and Kenny that makes the book an enjoyable read. There are a lot of action scenes as well, and while I would have loved for the author to portray it in a more detailed manner, it’s good fun nonetheless.

The book could have focused more on the main plot of Skylar going after Mr. Bowler instead of diverting its attention towards a sub-plot that takes our attention away from the amazing Skylar. But these are just minor negative points. It’s tough to classify Smooth Intentions 2 as an outright revenge saga or a thriller. It works mainly because of its chief protagonist.

I haven’t read the previous book in this series, but I didn’t feel it was necessary to enjoy Skylar and Rico’s addictive and adventurous story!