Reviewer: Casee
Midnight Captive by Elle Kennedy
Series: Killer Instincts #6
Also in this series: Midnight Revenge, Midnight Rescue, Midnight Alias, Midnight Games, Midnight Pursuits, Midnight Action, Midnight Revenge, Midnight Target, Midnight Target
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: June 2nd 2015
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Series Rating:

“For those who enjoy their romantic suspense on the dark and steamy side,”* here’s the blisteringly sexy new novel in the Killer Instincts series by the author of Midnight Action and Midnight Pursuits...
Former CIA agent Bailey Jones has spent months trying to forget her night of passion with mercenary Sean Reilly. An elite and methodical assassin, she has no room in her life for a reckless, rule-breaking Irishman, and she’s vowed to steer clear of the tempting bad boy who lured her into his bed under false pretenses.
When Sean is implicated in the robbery of a Dublin bank, Bailey knows something isn’t right. So what if she can’t trust him? There’s no way Sean would end up on the wrong side of the law. In fact, he’s stuck in the middle of a dark and dirty conspiracy that could put his twin brother’s life at risk with one wrong move. And Bailey’s life too when she agrees to help.
As the stakes are raised and Bailey finds herself torn between two brothers, the fine line between danger and desire is crossed…and it’ll take more than a killer instinct to survive.
*New York Times bestselling author Christina Reece

There is always a character in a series that pisses you right off. Bailey Jones was it for me. What a raging bitch. I have no idea what Sean saw in her. There were almost no redeeming qualities in her. She lied to herself, she lied to Sean, she lied to everyone. She constantly hurt Sean. It was unbearable.

Bailey was visiting her friend and fellow assassin, Paige, when she saw the news about a bank in Dublin being robbed. Even with a mask on his face, she immediately recognized Sean Reilly. She immediately springs into action and leaves London for Dublin, determined to help me. A year ago, she had an unforgettable night with Sean, but Sean thinks that Bailey thinks it was his twin brother, Oliver, she was with. She’s happy to let him think that because Sean is dangerous to her. She doesn’t question why she’s racing to his rescue. She tells herself it’s for Oliver. Because when Sean is in trouble, Oliver is not far behind.

While in the bank, Sean is wondering how he and Oliver let themselves get in this bloody mess. They got out of Dublin years ago and are in the information business now. Him and Ollie are happy with their lives and want nothing to do with their father’s legacy. Unfortunately his former boss, Rabbit, has other ideas. Which include kidnapping Ollie to make Sean get a thumb drive from the bank.

While he’s formulating a plan to get out, who drops in other than Bailey, the woman he’s been after for five long years. It doesn’t surprise him. She’s been in love with Oliver for five years. She would come running the moment that he’s in trouble. He still feels guilty for taking her from Oliver. Not guilty enough to regret the night that changed his life. Bailey on the other hand just wants to get Sean out of there and has no thought to where Ollie is. She just wants Sean safe.

They work together to get Oliver free and to take care of business for Rabbit. Back to their relationship; it’s fucked. Sean is fiercely, obsessively protective of Bailey. Her safety is his number one concern. He knows she can take care of herself, but he doesn’t want to put her in a position where she has to do that. That maddens her. It also reminds her of her former boss, who took over her life and job. So I did understand Bailey in that way, but Sean wasn’t trying to take over her life. She was still a bitch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Reviewer: Casee
Midnight Action by Elle Kennedy
Series: Killer Instincts #5
Also in this series: Midnight Revenge, Midnight Rescue, Midnight Alias, Midnight Games, Midnight Pursuits, Midnight Revenge, Midnight Captive, Midnight Target, Midnight Target
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: November 4th 2014
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Series Rating:

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.

This is probably my least favorite book of the series. Which is surprising considering I was so fascinated by these two at the beginning of the series. By book three, I didn’t want to read their book. By book four, I was actually considering skipping it. But secondary characters run strong in this series and I couldn’t skip it. Liam and Sully. ::sigh:: Love those two. Noelle and Morgan? Not so much. They were okay, but Noelle was not my cuppa. I ended up liking her, but not loving her.

Noelle is the Queen of Assassins. She’s hardcore. A total bitch. She has no feelings. In previous books she was fucking Derek Pratt, one of Morgan’s mercs. I have to use that term because there is no other word for it. She wasn’t doing it to make Morgan jealous because they don’t feel that base of feelings for each other. They feel hate, loathing, feelings like that. Their history is deep and long. When Noelle picks up a job to assassinate a target, she is surprised that the target is Jim himself. What surprises her even more is when she goes to warn him instead of kill him. She always has known that she would one day kill him, but obviously that day isn’t today. See, that’s weird. How can you setup a couple in a book like that? These two literally want to kill each other.

Morgan is surprised that Noelle came to warn him. He hates her with a passion that surpasses everything and anything he’s ever known. He also once loved her with the same passion. Until she was responsible for taking the woman out of his life that was pregnant with his child. She doesn’t know why he’s looked for Ariana for the last 17 years. She thinks he’s in love with the woman and he’s let her think that to hurt her. When he follows her back to Paris to find who is trying to kill him, their past comes full circle.

Morgan finds his child after all these years and finally explains to Noelle that he never loved Arianna. Noelle doesn’t give a crap. She will never forgive him for pretending to love her to get to her father and then ultimately getting him killed. Morgan realizes that he wants it all, his daughter and Noelle. Noelle is having none of that. She’s not the girl that Morgan once loved. She’s ruthless, an assassin, someone that has buried her feelings under layers of ice. Ice that can’t be broken by the man that is responsible for it.

These two just rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t know why. It’s not that I didn’t like their story, because I did. It resonated with me. I felt bad for Noelle. The sex was a good read. Their feelings for each other were open and raw. Morgan really loved Noelle. There was just something off about it. Liam and Sully were my favorite part of the book. This is where their problems started and they sure didn’t end here.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Reviewer: Casee
Midnight Pursuits by Elle Kennedy
Series: Killer Instincts #4
Also in this series: Midnight Revenge, Midnight Rescue, Midnight Alias, Midnight Games, Midnight Action, Midnight Revenge, Midnight Captive, Midnight Target, Midnight Target
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: April 1st 2014
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Series Rating:

Her job is to stay hidden.Too bad he can’t take his eyes off her.
Soldier-for-hire Ethan Hayes is the youngest member of an elite mercenary team. While he may be affectionately nicknamed the rookie, the skills Ethan honed as a Marine make him seriously dangerous. But when a sudden distress call puts him in close quarters with a rival, he finds more than his field skills being put to the test.
Juliet Mason stands out as the master thief in a covert group of assassins and spies. Her latest mission is personal—and it’s gone horribly wrong. Juliet may prefer to work alone, but when the rookie comes to her aid in snowy Eastern Europe, she can’t deny they make a good team. But even up against a powerful enemy, their most challenging task yet may be fighting the passion between them...

Still in love with this series.

The Queen of Assassins assassins are dropping like flies for Jim Morgan’s mercenaries. It is quite amusing. Juliet Mason has no intention of falling for Ethan Hayes. The rookie merc is too young, too green, and too innocent for her. She can’t deny the attraction to herself, but she can deny Ethan. Which she has and will continue to do. Then she gets into trouble and finds that Ethan is the one that comes to her rescue.

Juliet is a thorn in Ethan’s side. Since the day he met her, she has rubbed him the wrong way. She has yet to see him as anything but a boy, but he’s determined to prove her wrong. He gets the chance when she phones Isabel for help and gets him instead. He questions why he feels the need to race to her rescue, but still does it. The feelings the Juliet invokes in him are something that he’s accepted.

When he finally is at her side, he realizes that Juliet is in more trouble than he first realizes. She’s on a revenge mission. Her brother has been murdered and she will stop at nothing to avenge him. Ethan can’t do anything but stay by her side and help her. He’s determined to show her that he’s more than “the rookie”.

I love the suspense in this book. Juliet is a badass. She freaking broke the Siberian Wolf who is the assassin that killed her brother. Only Juliet or her boss could do something that awesome. Yet when she’s around Ethan, there’s a side to her that is only for him. Elle Kennedy writes these characters and their relationships in a way that I haven’t read for some time. The heroes and heroines are hardcore, but when it comes to their relationships, they change.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Reviewer: Casee
Midnight Games by Elle Kennedy
Series: Killer Instincts #3
Also in this series: Midnight Revenge, Midnight Rescue, Midnight Alias, Midnight Pursuits, Midnight Action, Midnight Revenge, Midnight Captive, Midnight Target, Midnight Target
Publisher: Signet
Publication Date: August 6th 2013
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 345
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Series Rating:

She wears a thousand deadly identities. He sees through them all.
A master of disguise, Isabel Roma spends her life pretending to be other women. Normally, her emotions are reined in tight—but sexy mercenary Trevor Callaghan has a knack for getting under her skin. The elite operative’s quiet strength and raw magnetism affect her in ways she’s never felt before, a distraction that can quickly turn deadly in their dangerous line of work.
After putting his tragic past behind him, Trevor is ready to focus on his future—and he damn well intends for Isabel to be in it. When their entire operation is thrown into chaos, Trevor enlists Isabel’s talent for deception. And as they attempt to save their team in a world where the stakes are high and the danger is grave, Trevor must convince Isabel that the woman beneath all the disguises is the one worth having...

It bears repeating. I love this series. Love it. Have I said it enough? You’re missing out if you haven’t read it. Midnight Games is my favorite book of the series and I’ve read the entire series by now. Trevor and Isabel? Sigh. I heart both of them.

Jim Morgan’s compound has been attacked. Shocking. The place is a fortress, so how the fuck has that happened? I am still in shock and it happened, like, three weeks ago. People died. It was heartbreaking. Trevor and Isabel were in the middle of a heart-to-heart and they needed it. After Midnight Rescue and Midnight Alias, those two had some crap to work through.

In Midnight Rescue, Trevor was a hot mess after the death of his fiancé. He wanted nothing to do with life. Isabel was all life and wanted nothing to do with Trevor on their mission. She was worried that he would get them both killed, which he almost did. Instead, she saved his life and got shot in the process. In Midnight Alias, she got scared and ran, leaving him waiting for her. See? Heartbreaking. This time Trevor isn’t going to let her go so easily. There is that pesky little thing about figuring out who is trying to kill the team. And finding their boss, who is suddenly off the grid.

The team heads to Monte Carlo after they get a lead on who hired the team that attacked the compound. They have no idea why this guy wants to kill them, but why does anyone go after a group of mercenaries? Bringing in the Queen of Assassins, Noelle is heading the op and is none too happy about brining her people in. She and Jim’s relationship is contentious at best.

It isn’t long before they discover that the attack tracks back to the first mission that Isabel and Trevor were on together. Isabel immediately takes the deaths from the compound on her own shoulders and draws even further away from Trevor. Trevor doesn’t let Isabel get away that easily.

I adored this book. I loved how much Trevor changed and grew from Midnight Rescue. He took a painful loss and grew from it. He realized that he loved Isabel and wouldn’t let her hide from him. This couple is one of my favorites so far this year.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5.