The writing is very juvenile. I lost count of how many times the author told me how Conner was a badass because of his past. And that’s exactly how he did it. Author seemed to forget the first rule of writing: show-not-tell.
And it was too easy. Half way down the road the kid suddenly has a back pack full of stuff he’ll need for camping. Why? Oh, because Connor had once taught him that. Oh wait. That’s the answer for every problem in the book!
The door is locked but the kid can pick it! How? I guess we’ll just tell the reader it was Connor who showed him.
A good author maybe describes a scene where the protagonist is a boy in the IRA. He doesn’t just go, “He learned to be tough because his uncles were IRA and he hung out with them.” That’s lazy writing. Especially the fifth and sixth time it’s used.
I couldn’t make it through the whole first book, let alone the series. Maybe spend less on cover art and take a writing class.