Rowena’s review of Midnight Alias (Killer Instincts #2) by Elle Kennedy.
She’s smart, seductive, and in way over her head.
He’s her only way out.
An undercover DEA agent has gone off the radar. Suspecting an internal mole, the government needs Luke Dubois and his elite team of operatives to recover their man, and the New Orleans native thinks he’s found his way inside the dark underbelly of Manhattan: Olivia Taylor, the girlfriend of a mob boss and the sexiest woman he’s ever laid eyes on. His new mission objective? Get past Olivia’s defenses and convince her to take a chance—on him.
All Olivia wanted was to finish law school and live a normal life, but that dream was shattered when one dangerous night put her deeply in a mobster’s debt. Now Luke and his team will help her escape—in exchange for intel on the missing agent. But Olivia doesn’t anticipate her intense attraction to the reckless Louisiana charmer or that she’ll be forced to risk everything—including her heart.
Book 2 in the Killer Instincts series follows Luke Dubois, a member of Jim Morgan’s team of mercenaries as he stumbles toward his happily ever after with Olivia Taylor.
Luke is on a mission to find a missing DEA Agent and his last known whereabouts was a stripper joint where Olivia Taylor works at. Olivia has a lot of bills to pay. Tuition, medical bills for her mother and when a classmate tells her that she can make big bucks as a stripper, Olivia becomes one. But living a double life is not an easy life and Olivia finds herself getting deeper over her head with each passing day. She’s got a thug boyfriend that she doesn’t want but won’t go away, she’s got a huge secret that she’s forced to keep and the only way she can think to get out of this mess is to save enough money to get out of the business and out of the city. When Olivia meets Luke Dubois, he promises to help her get out if she promises to help him find the missing DEA Agent. They both were not expecting the chemistry that pops up every time they’re together.
I was really excited to jump into this book because I enjoyed Luke in the first book. I thought he was funny and loved his personality. Getting to know him in this book was even more fun because I liked him so much in the other book. Some great additions to the series is the introduction of the Reilly brothers, Liam MacGregor and Sullivan Port. I adore all of these guys. It was also really good to see Isabel and Trevor again. Oh, those two. I heart them. I love seeing the chemistry between those two. There’s so much of it and it’s got me all swoon happy for their book.
There’s so much to like about this book and this series because there’s so much going on and Kennedy does such a great job with the action stuff, the romance stuff and the characters too. Each character that is introduced in this book serves a purpose to the story. I didn’t feel like we got a lot of wasted page time on characters that bring nothing to the table. Even when we’re getting the low down on the bad guys, they came alive for me.
Luke was a great hero. I love how straight forward he is. What you see is what you get and I loved that he called Olivia “darling” at every turn. I loved seeing him fall in love with Olivia and I loved seeing him try to protect not just her, but her mother too. There was a time or two when he was so distracted by lust for Olivia that I rolled my eyes because hello? You’re a SEAL but the deeper into the story, I got, the more I loved his love for Olivia.
I liked Olivia. I respected what she was trying to accomplish and I thought Kennedy did a great job of showing us just how backed up against the wall Olivia was. She did what she thought was right and she kept to herself because she didn’t trust anyone to help her out. But when Luke comes into her life and kind of plants himself in, I loved seeing him melt her defenses. I loved seeing Olivia finally let someone in.
These two were good together. They were interesting and they made the reading adventure fun because their romance was steamy. But as much as I loved both Luke and Olivia, I gotta say that I’m still so invested in Trevor and Isabel’s story. I loved that they were together again and I really like the way that they are together. I’m SO anxious for their story already. I’m so glad that I have their story to read next. Yay.
Overall, this was another solid story by Elle Kennedy and I’m kicking myself because I can’t believe that I haven’t tried Kennedy’s stuff before now. I am loving all of this Elle Kennedy goodness. This was another winner for me in the Killer Instincts series and I’m looking forward to the next one.
Grade: 4.25 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.
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