Months ago, I read Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl and that's the topic of this review.

Natasha Romanoff, one of the world's deadliest assassins, has tried to make up for her past sins by working with SHIELD. One mission, that revolves around nightmares from her past, she rescues Ava Orlova. Abandoned, with no were to go, Ava spent half her life waiting for Natasha to come back and save her. The rest of her life, she hardened herself against silly delusions like that. When the past comes back from the death, Natasha finds herself stuck with Ava once more.

Black Widow as become a popular character since Marvel started their movie franchise. I've always been sad that she's never gotten her own movie or other stand-alone story (outside of the comics) and I was overjoyed at the thought of this book when I first heard about it.

Maybe I should have read the synopsis better or something, but I really was disappointed about this book. It still wasn't Natasha's story, it was Ava's. Sure, Natasha made appearances and has a bit of 'screen-time,' but I really felt like she was lacking. That isn't to say the portrayal of her wasn't spot-on (because it was), but I wanted to read a story centered on Natasha, especially when the book is titled 'Black Widow' for goodness sake!

Once I realized this was more Ava's book, I tried to enjoy it. The writing and story was excellent. There was non-stop action. The characters were good (Natasha still was my favorite). I almost didn't like Ava. She could be a bit bratty at times.

I hated, hated the ending. I kept flipping through the pages unable to believe what happened really happened. Maybe it was how the last bits were set up, or the writing, but it felt like a big joke that the author was pulling and she would eventually tell us everything was fine. Nope. The ending made me almost not like the book.

I'm curious to see where this series will go, but I'm not going to have as high of expectations for the future books, just to be disappointed again.