Tracy’s review of Echoes at Dawn (KGI #5) by Maya Banks.
Grace Peterson is desperate, in hiding, and on the run after escaping a shadowy group determined to exploit her extraordinary ability to heal others. Her only lifeline – an unerring telepathic ability she shares with her sister – has been severed, leaving her alone and vulnerable. And time is fast running out…
Enlisted to bring Grace home is Rio, relentless member of the KGI. He’s unprepared for his reaction to this wounded, damaged woman, and he’s fiercely determined to protect her from those who nearly destroyed her. In Rio, she finds a safe haven, and for the first time…hope. But the mission is far from over. The danger Grace has eluded is fast closing in. And now it’s pitching two lovers toward an unfamiliar horizon, with no place left to hide.
Grace Peterson has escaped her captors and is in the mountains trying to hide. She is in a very bad state both emotionally and physically and basically she wants to die. Rio, part of KGI, is in search of Grace and finds her right before others who are after her come on the scene. He manages to get her off the mountain in a pretty harrowing escape and manages to get her to his home in Belize where she can recover.
Rio has known since the first time that he saw Grace on a surveillance tape that she was the woman for him and would change his life. He volunteered to go after her and would not accept anything more than getting her to safety. When he does get her to his home he takes nothing but great care of her while hiding her from those who are looking for her and would do her harm. But Rio wants more from Grace than to just take care of her. He wants everything and he’ll not stop until he gets it.
Gordon Farnsworth is a very wealthy man and only cares for one thing in the world and that’s his daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is dying and riddled with cancer. Gordon knows that Grace can take the cancer from Elizabeth’s body and make her well. He hires a black ops group, Titan, to bring Grace to him and will not take failure as an option.
Grace is almost dead when Rio finds her but she really dug down deep for the courage and strength to get herself off the mountain, with Rio’s help, and I had to admire her for her strength. Throughout the book she showed herself as someone who was strong and intelligent and I really liked her for the most part. What I didn’t really care for was the fact that she was almost desperate for a normal life – that in itself is wonderful and something she should try for. I think, however, in her desperation to find someone to love her for herself and not what she could do she latched on to Rio incredibly quickly and it for some reason just didn’t ring true to me.
Rio was a stand up guy. He was honorable and took care of his team members as well as those others around him he felt responsibility for. He just didn’t do it because he felt responsible though, he did it because he truly cared about them. I believed that he really loved Grace and knew that she was his but frankly it was just a tad creepy to me that he was SO incredibly possessive of her. I love a man who is possessive…to a point and Rio just kind of passed that point in my opinion. He was a great guy – just a little too over the top for my liking.
Secondary characters in this story mainly focused around Rio’s team and boy did I like them – Terrence and Diego being my favorites. I certainly hope that they get books of their own in this series because I loved them so much.
I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of the Kelly family in this book but they were there on the periphery and that was good.
There was a part that had to do with the little girl, Gordon Farnsworth’s daughter, in the end of the book that truly had me shaking my head in wonder over some decisions that were made about her well-being. I can’t get into it without giving you major spoilers but suffice it to say I didn’t quite agree with all the decisions that were made for her.
Echoes at Dawn was definitely a good book, I just didn’t feel it was on par with what I’ve read from the rest of the series. I will continue to read however because Banks always provides me with a decent romance.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Berkley Sensation. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Leave a Reply