Book ~ "No Place Like Rome" (2013) Julie Moffett

From Goodreads ~ Italy might seem like a long way to go to hide after a disastrous date. But when sexy uberhacker Slash (no, that's not his real name) asks me to go with him to Rome on an investigation, the timing is sort of perfect. My messed-up love life becomes the least of my worries, though, after the dead body, the near-kidnapping and the discovery of a top secret encrypted file that even I can't hack.

With time running out, there's only one thing to do: call in the legendary Zimmerman twins and my best fluent-in-Italian friend, Basia, to crack the code. Now if only someone could help me solve the mystery of whether Slash is flirting or if all the kissing is just one of those "when in Rome" things.

But when we finally uncover the secret someone would kill to keep, it's up to me to solve the case and save the lives of my best friends.

Just another week in the life of geek-girl Lexi Carmichael.

Lexi has exceptional hacking and math skills and works for X-Corp, an intelligence and security company.  Slash is a government agent and fellow hacker and his uncle has been accused of money-laundering at the Vatican Bank, where he works, of about 18 million euros.  Slash hires X-Corp to find out what's going on and Lexi goes to Rome with him to investigate.

Lexi finds an encrypted file on the computer of an employee of the bank and sets out to hack into it.  Even with her and Slash working on it, they can't get into it.  So they send for Elvis and Xavier, the Zimmerman twins, who are genius hackers, and Basia, Lexi's best friend, who is a translator and the opposite of Lexi (far from geeky).  Eventually they are in and the file leads them to a dangerous and creepy destination.

Throughout all this, Slash has made it clear that he likes Lexi (and she likes him), which she finds confusing since he is handsome and sexy and she's not.  Plus she has feelings for her boss, Finn, which seems to be reciprocated.  Lexi hasn't had a lot of experience with men so is fumbling around, unlike Basia who is dating Xavier but also is seeing other men.

Though this is the fourth in the Lexi Carmichael series (there are currently seven in the series and the fourth one I've read), it works as a stand alone as you are provided with enough background.  I enjoyed it and I'm enjoying this series.  I liked the writing style and found it funny as Lexi gets in some awkward social situations.  It is written in first person perspective from Lexi's point of view.