Jen’s review of Midnight Action (Killer Instincts, #5) by Elle Kennedy
She’s got a broken heart…
and a fully loaded arsenal….
Ex–army ranger Jim Morgan leads a team of elite mercenaries, but eighteen years ago in Paris, he was part of a black ops unit whose mission was to hunt down a rogue operative. In order to trap the criminal, Jim seduced Noelle, the man’s daughter—a ruthless act that cost him the love of his life and turned her into a mortal enemy. Now he can’t trust her, but he still desires her. He also needs her help….
Older, wiser, and unwilling to play the fool again, Noelle runs a group of highly skilled assassins. And she’s just been offered the hit of the century: Eliminate Jim Morgan. History gives them no reason to trust each other, but with their lives in jeopardy at the hands of a common enemy, the lines between love and hate are soon blurred. Now Noelle and Jim must face the past if they want to have a future—let alone a future together.
Thriller about a sexy female assassin AND a group of mercenaries with hearts of gold? Two of my favorite tropes at once! Add the fact that I’d read one of Kennedy’s other series before and liked it, and I was already primed to enjoy this book. Fortunately, it lived up to my expectations.
Noelle runs a business of very sexy, very deadly female assassins. When she is given a contract to kill Jim Morgan, she knows it’s one job she won’t be able to complete, despite the fact that she hates his guts. Jim owns a mercenary business, but many years ago he seduced seventeen year old Noelle as part of an operation to stop a traitor. Noelle was young and genuinely in love with Jim, and his betrayal, and events that happened after it, broke her heart. For his part, Jim hates Noelle too (for reasons that become clear as the book progresses), but he can’t deny that he needs her help to figure out who wants him dead and why. The two join forces to save Jim, but they end up running headlong into their very painful past issues.
Noelle is the quintessential femme fatale. She is one of the top assassins in the world, and she runs a business full of other stunningly gorgeous female assassins. Noelle loves sex and isn’t afraid to use her sexuality both for her own pleasure or to take advantage of others, and she makes no apologies for any of that. She’s had some lousy things happen to her in life, and as a result she’s developed a tough, detached, and calculating persona. I found her fun to read because she’s just so kick ass, but she still has some humor that keeps things from being too gritty. Jim has to scrape and scrounge for every inch with her because she refuses to trust him again, which I thought was well deserved. All the important men in her life grossly violated her trust. If she gave it again easily, I would question her sanity. Seeing Jim slowly win back her trust was actually kind of moving.
For a tough mercenary, Jim is a pretty big softy underneath. He is surprisingly tender with Noelle at times, even though he is furious with her for much of the book. I love the way he eventually faces up to why he is truly angry, and I love that he just wants to do right by everyone. Without either of them realizing it, Noelle becomes a major support for Jim during a difficult time, and I could see how their lives might fit together later. (The quintessential example is the grand romantic gesture Jim makes to Noelle in the end, which made me laugh out loud in a kind of macabre way. Let’s just say it’s definitely not something I have seen in a romance novel before, but it was absolutely perfect for Noelle.) He and Noelle have incendiary chemistry, despite their mutual animosity, and the sex scenes were hot and, as the story progressed, increasingly emotional.
There were plenty of unique side characters to keep things interesting, and there’s a set up for at least one (maybe even two?) very interesting looking future couples. As an exciting, fast paced read, Midnight Action is fantastic. You can’t think too hard about it (i.e, wait, assassins kill people for money!), but I loved the fun ride while it lasted. I’ll definitely be backtracking to read the rest of the series.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Signet. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I loved her Out of uniform series but just couldn’t get into her Killer Instincts books no matter how hard I tried.
I haven’t read the rest of this series so who knows if they’ll be duds for me, but I did enjoy this book. I really am a sucker for anything spy-ish, especially when the heroine is the spy! The Out of Uniform books are still stuck on my TBR pile, but I have read some of her Intrigue and Suspense stuff for Harlequin, like the Hunted series, which is a short trilogy. Nice little bite sized books. 🙂