2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Fearless, the first book in the Ben Koenig series by M.W. Craven.

Pages: 416 pages

Length: 1 month (June)

Participants: Beth, Thieryn, juls.books

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

I started this last night. I'm really enjoying it! Well paced; seems like it will be a quick read.

It reads very differently than the Washington Poe books, which I really appreciate!

My favorite quote so far: "My refusal to speak was starting to annoy even me."

Finished. I'm giving this 3 stars.

MW Craven's characters Ben Koenig and Washington Poe are like night and day, aren't they?

(view spoiler)[The aspect I most disliked about this book was how gory and violent it is. And how flippantly Ben reacted to his killing people. I guess I get it... a hardboiled man for all intents and purposes trained as an assassin is going to have a much different life outlook than me. I'm just not sure it's really for me.

On the other hand, it was a good story well written, the plotting was fast paced (though far fetched). The characters were fairly one dimensional, although Ben did show some dry humor from time to time. (hide spoiler)]

I'll read book 2, but if the series was any longer I wouldn't continue it.

The new Washington Poe book is due in September!!!