Containing Malice by Cynthia Sax [Review]

Containing Malice (Rebel Cyborgs #1) by Cynthia Sax
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: February 28, 2021

Rebel Cyborgs
1. Containing Malice - Kindle
2. Under Strain
3. Baring Grudge
4. B Free
4.5. Needing Valor
5. Seizing Power

Related Series:
(Find all the books in the series on the 1st book review)
Cyborg Sizzle
1. Releasing Rage

Cyborg Space Exploration
1. Choosing Chuckles

Cyborg Unity
1. Provoking Odium

Cynthia Sax
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

This tormented cyborg craves vengeance…and her.
***
Malice, a C Model cyborg, has spent his long lifespan enslaved by the Humanoid Alliance. His cruel manufacturers have hurt him in all the ways a male could be hurt.

His enemy has now added a new weapon to their arsenal—a tiny human medic with soft hands and a delectable scent. She experiments on him multiple times a shift, delivering pain…and frustration.

He wants her. He also seeks retribution.

Once Malice frees himself, he plans to achieve both of his goals, taking Medic Illona captive and ending her research…permanently.

Illona is as much a prisoner as the cyborgs she experiments on. Since her arrival at the Human Alliance’s secret laboratory, she has carefully, stealthily, crafted a plot to free her test subjects. To conceal her covert activities, the medic has been forced to harm beings rather than heal them.

The being she has damaged the most is also the cyborg she fiercely desires— Malice, a huge, gray-skinned, blue-eyed C Model with massive hands and a voice deeper than space. He hates her, has good reason to do so, and, when he’s freed, there’s a high probability he’ll kill her.

Illona will take that risk to ensure he survives.

Thoughts on Containing Malice: I feel like we're going back to the cyborgs' beginnings (of sorts) with Malice still under HA control. The fact he isn't aware that the vast multitudes of cyborgs had freed themselves is sad. That the cyborg council felt they couldn't risk themselves or the freed cyborgs to help free those still caught under the Humanoid Alliance's control is even sadder. Good thing those rebel cyborgs are out there doing what needs to be done.

But that's the latter part of the story. It all starts with Malice and Illona and his rage over what she's forced to do to him. Not that he knows the forcing part. In his eyes, she's a cruel, heartless human who enjoys inflicting pain on him. It isn't until she has room to act that he starts to see her as more than his tormentor.

As for Illona, she's stuck in a bad place with bad options. She fully expects to be killed trying to help the cyborgs and she's accepted it. Except for all Malice's talk of killing her, he keeps doing other things. Sexy things. Things which give her the strength to survive when VERY BAD THINGS happen.

We get sexy times, rebellion, answers, familiar faces, bloodshed and carnage, and a cyborg figuring out love. I'm liking where this new series is going. *thumbs up*