An explosive, long-running series wrap up filled with gun blazing action and two couples trying to stay alive while finding their way to happily ever after. I am positive that the readers who have been following the series are thrilled with this title, where they get to meet the characters from the previous stories, where everyone gets a little bit of screen time, where the loose ends are tied up, and the questions answered. The setting of the scenes is through enough that even a newbie to the series can enjoy it if the like new adult and/or male-male romance mixed into their suspense.
The fiery and violent action against the cartel with constant twists and turns leaves numerous bodies behind, elevates the energy of the tale and brings tension to the scenes. The fact that Jim, the superman, got hurt rattles everyone involved.
Cate and Ash had battled with the attraction they feel for each other ever since they met. I liked Ash, he was a genuine, southern charmer, and while a fierce warrior, he had a mellow heart to Cate.
Cate drove me to bonkers with her immaturity. I hoped she would have grown and developed during the story but that hope was in vain, even in the epilog she managed to get an eye roll from me. She is young and inexperienced to be dealing in the world where she seemed to think she was an expert in. The drama around her is constant and mostly created by her, while she doesn't take responsibility for it. I am not a fan of young adult stories so take that into consideration, I am sure the fans of the genre finds the angst just perfect.
Sullivan and Liam's romance came as a surprise for me, somehow I missed the notion of the male-male romance with the plot. It is the first in that genre that I have read, and I think it was done in a fabulous way. The intensity of the feelings, the roughness of two alpha males colliding, the hesitation of coming out, the catholic background, it all made a realistic storyline that was some of the best parts of the book as a whole.
The language is rough, the action is deadly, the passion is blatant, the life as a mercenary unpredictable and dangerous giving the plot constant spins and turns.
~ Three Spoons

Midnight Target hits the ground running and never lets up. Emotions are high, sexual tension runs hot, and the action is top-notch. As the final book in the Killer Instincts series, the stakes are bigger than ever with the full force of Jim’s mercenaries and Noelle’s chameleons all out for blood when Jim is critically wounded. Elle Kennedy definitely knows how to send her badass heroes and heroines off in style, and this is one hell of a satisfying end to the series with almost all of our favorite characters getting a moment or two to shine and not one, but two sexy-as-sin romances taking center stage.

Cate Morgan grew up in a gilded cage, a prisoner of her maniac grandfather until she was found by her father, Jim. Cate’s cut from the same cloth as her father. She’s a thrill-seeker, someone who – even as a teenager – knew she wasn’t cut out for a normal life. But Jim wants her wrapped in cotton, and his overbearing protectiveness pushed her away. Now a photojournalist on assignment in South America, Cate’s life takes a turn when she snaps a photo of a supposedly dead drug dealer. With killers hot on her heels, she has no choice but to call her father. And when Jim’s wounded rescuing her, Cate is forced to work with David “Ash” Ashton – the one man she wants nothing to do with. Ash broke her heart, and nothing makes her madder than the fact that she’s still attracted to him.

Ash has had it bad for Cate for years, but he knows he can never have her. Their difference in ages and the fact that he’d never do anything to lose the respect of Jim, the man who gave him a chance, a job, and a home, makes her off-limits. But with blood running hot and danger around every corner, the sexual tension between them is about to boil over. Cate and Ash are two people clearly meant to be together, and I loved the flashbacks that showed their history, built up the tension, and had me rooting for these two to get together. It isn’t easy for them. Ash’s loyalty to Jim means he tries to push Cate away, and he hurts her in the process. But readers can see how completely head over heels he is for her, and the fact that he’s so totally in love with her just melted my heart. They come into their own both as individuals and as a couple in Midnight Target and their growth is fantastic to watch.

As previously mentioned, there’s a second romance in this book and it’s the one I’ve been waiting for: Liam Macgregor and Sullivan Port. For the past few books Ms. Kennedy has been ramping up the tension between these two smokin’ hot mercs and I’ve been dying for their story. It’s been two years since Liam and Sully last saw each other and when they reconnect…holy smokes. Attraction, longing, anger, fear, and love are all intertwined and bottled up in each of the men. Their confrontations are insanely hot and you could power a whole village with the emotional charge from their scenes. Every minute Ms. Kennedy made us wait for their love story was absolutely worth it because Liam and Sully rocked. The angst, raw desire, and pure want between them packs one heck of a punch and I stayed up way too late reading Midnight Target because I could not put the book down until Liam and Sully got their happily ever after. Nobody can mix passion, anger, and love together quite like Elle Kennedy, and Liam and Sully are perfect examples of her talent.

I could spend pages going on about Liam and Sully because they rank right up there with Jim and Noelle when it comes to favorite couples of mine, but it’d be remiss of me not to mention the action outside the two romances. The mission is personal this time for all the characters and the upped stakes definitely kept me engaged. Ms. Kennedy isn’t afraid to make things dark and gritty, and with a drug lord targeting first Cate, then the entire team, the suspense is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. The world these mercs and assassins live in is bloody and grim, but it makes the characters and romances shine all the brighter in contrast.

Midnight Target has raw passion, high stakes, boundless energy, and two powerful love stories. It’s a stellar read fans old and new of the Killer Instincts series are sure to enjoy. Every obstacle the protagonists face is worth it when there’s an ending as satisfying as the one in this book. I loved Midnight Target and I cannot wait to read it again and again!

I picked this book in a random moment because the excerpt looked exciting and the story seemed like my cup of tea. I am glad for the random moment because I definitely enjoyed the fast paced story which has several different threads.
The central thread is Cate and Ash who have been love since Cate was first rescued by her mercenary father and brought to his compound at the age of seventeen. Ash then twenty five had just joined the team and was pathetically grateful for the chance he's been given to join the team. I like how the author blends in past events with the current story giving the reader a great perspective on the mind set and background that motivates the characters.
The side thread of Liam and Sully is an interesting story about two men who are in love with each other but don't have the courage to admit to their feelings for a variety of reasons. The reader constantly wonders through out the story how it will all turn out..
Cate , tired of being protected and smothered in cotton wool snubs her father's attempts and wanders all over the world as a photo journalist until she finds herself in trouble in a hot spot in South America. Soon bullets are flying and her father flies in with his team for a rescue attempt that goes FUBAR when he's shot trying to protect his daughter.
Readers get ready for a fast paced cut and parry between the Riviera cartel and the mercenary teams as they retaliate and try to intimidate each other. It's a wild ride and I enjoyed every moment of it. Ms. Kennedy is definitely going to join my list of authors to read.

Whew. This one is hot. and really good. Did I mention hot?

This one has a solid plot that ties together two separate couples (Cate and Ash, and Liam and Sully). While this is a continuation of her series, this one works pretty great as a stand-alone.

The character development is solid, the plot development is tight, the sexual tension is off the charts, and the love scenes are off-the-charts.

4 solid stars.

*I received a review copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

Elle Kennedy is hands down the best at writing badass female leads. Midnight Target was an excellent conclusion to the Killer Instincts series. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

I enjoyed this book, but I really hope that this wasn't the end of the series.

I'm really sad that this book marks the end of our Killers Instincts journey. It's been a wild and bumpy ride and I adored every, well almost every minute of it. So many people in this world found their true love while blowing shit up and killing bad guys and at the end of the day, that's pretty freaking fantastic.

This book follows two couples as they circle each other toward that elusive happy ending. These guys fought their feelings for so long that it was great to finally get somewhere where they were concerned. Cate and Ash's romance is one that I low key struggled with in this book because for a huge chunk of the story, I wanted to kick Cate's ass. She was a complete brat with a shitty attitude that pissed me off left and right in the beginning. I'm glad that she finally comes around and stops being a little shit but by that time, I was so over her and fully invested in everything else that was happening.

I struggled a bit with Ash's devotion to Jim Morgan. I understood it but I wanted him to get over himself and tell Jim point blank that he wasn't messing around with Cate. It was beyond obvious that he was in love with her, almost from the very beginning and I wish that he would have had a little faith in Jim...let Jim know where you stand as far as his daughter goes and stop being a little scaredy cat. As dumb as I thought Ash acted, he was still sexy as hell. Haha. I adored how alpha he was and how determined he was to protect his boo, even when she was being a freaking shit-head. Their romance wasn't my favorite part of this book but I enjoyed everything else so I wasn't too disappointed in that.

Liam and Sully have been circling each other for some time now and Liam's got it pretty bad for the hottie Australian. Their story starts a few books before this one and I loved seeing Liam come as far as he did, where his sexuality was concerned. I loved how fully he owned himself and his feelings in the end when things fell into place for him and Sully.

Their romance was hot and it was passionate and I completely adored the both of them. I loved seeing Sully doing better than the last time I saw him. I loved seeing Liam struggle and then get things right in the end. I also really liked that Liam stood up for himself and didn't let Sully ruin love for him.

The overall story regarding the shit going down in Guatana was pretty entertaining too. I mean, I loved seeing everyone come together to help Jim Morgan. Holy cow, my heart hurt for Isabel, Holden and everyone else who was shitted on during the whole mission. But, Elle Kennedy did a great job of bringing everyone together and showcasing just how super this team was when they worked together.

So while Cate drove me nuts for a good chunk of the book, everything else made up for my frustrations with her. I'm sad that this series has come to an end but I thought this book ended the story on a high note.

<strong>4 out of 5</strong>

❤❤❤❤❤
4.5-5 stars

Such a brilliant story!Midnight Target is an incredible mix of plot twists, action, suspense and two hot romances with the perfect amount of angst.

We have Cate with Ash and Sully with Liam!!I loved that Elle managed to fit perfectly the two romances. Both romance are hot and intense.

I find it addictive,and now I'm more eager to read the rest books of this series!!If you are looking for a fast paced,hot with action read this book was perfect!

<i>One of these days she was going to tie him down, though what she was going to do with him once she had him secured, she wasn't sure. Either fuck him or kill him. Maybe both.</i>

MIDNIGHT TARGET is a book a lot of fans of the <i>Killer Instincts</i> series have been waiting a long time for. And Kennedy didn't disappoint. Having dropped out of college and separated herself from her father's influence, Cate travels to Guatana as a freelance photographer with a journalist-friend. And it's there that she ends up taking a photograph that necessitates the need for her father's contacts and aid. It's there that this one photo sets off a chain reaction of horror, loss and betrayal as the mercenaries go to war with a presumed-dead leader of a cartel. The phrase "and shit hit the fan" is basically a good pitch for this book.

<i>Ash always had an urge to cup himself protectively when she was around, but he refrained because he knew, as with any predator, that you couldn't let them know you feared them.</i>

This is one giant dose of a novel in the sense that <b>everything</b> feels bigger. The time jump was my first clue that things had not gone well for our heroes, and heroine, after the ending of book seven. We knew Sully and Liam were parting ways after Sullivan's terrible ordeal but couldn't know how long that would be. Not until the synopsis came out. It was sad to see it play out but so so necessary. Especially now as I reminisce over the course of the story for this review.

<i>Morgan had spent hours with her to ensure she could take care of herself. Target shooting, tracking, self-defense. Why had he bothered with all that if he was determined to lock her up in a cage like a helpless little bird?</i>

In addition to resolving Sully and Liam's arcs, we had the bonus of a second couple in MIDNIGHT TARGET. And for them that time was spent much differently. Instead of hearing about it, we were taken back and forth throughout the timeline, jumping one year, two, four, all over the place, in regards to setting the scene on Cate and Ash's story. It would've been one to thing to hear about the interactions between them that brought them to where they are in book eight but it was better to see it play out. That did mean things got a wee bit repetitive but it wasn't annoying in any way.

"<i>I might not be a man whisperer like Noelle's chameleons but since when do men want to <b>talk</b> when they can be <b>naked</b></i>?"

As for Liam and Sully.. good. gravy. They were the highlight for me. Angsty, sexy, tortured, hopeful.. I definitely have a weakness for m/m, it's true, but their journey was so so good and felt so deserved. Which isn't to say I was disappointed with Cate and Ash. There was a lot of frustrating dancing around in the present-day scenes, making me enjoy the flashbacks a little more, but the gradual shift over the course of events therefore felt very natural. I almost tore my hair out near the end but thankfully Ash didn't disappoint me. Also, I really enjoyed the parallel to Jim and Noelle's situation which worked as a nice wake-up call for both of them (well, Ash) at a certain point and their hot and heavy times were.. damn. Same with Sully and Liam. But I mean, this is Kennedy. She knows how to wrangle a wicked sexy scene.

<i>That was Sullivan Port's MO. When shit got too real, the man shut down.</i>

When it came to the plot itself, I'll say this : holy damn. I mentioned that things felt bigger this time around and to hammer that home Kennedy did not pull any punches. The stakes were high, forcing Jim & co. to call in the reserves, those who had gone off the grid -- everyone. And it was so nice to see everyone interacting and get the little updates on their lives along the way. But of course it wasn't all rainbows and snark. The body count was shockingly brutal and, well, shocking, and as per the course of these high-stakes and intense books, things went to a dark place at times. Which is why I was kind of disappointed by how quickly the Big Bad plot was resolved. It didn't feel rushed but neither did it feel true to the rest of the story and the lead-up. Everything else though? I laughed, I was tied in knots, I swooned, I was frustrated. This book had me hooked.

<i>Chris, if Ash thought Jim would castrate him for looking at Noelle funny, that punishment would be a birthday party compared to what Jim would do if he knew who starred in Ash's nightly -- and daytime -- fantasies.</i>

MIDNIGHT TARGET is an absolute must-read for fans; I couldn't possibly recommend this installment to someone wanting to give this series a go because while these books might more or less stand alone, there's so much history for the banter and the interactions in this installment and this feels almost like.. a culmination for the series. I don't actually know if it's all over for these characters, for this series, but if it is.. that was one hell of a ride. And if there's more? I'm here for it.

4 "finding out someone was bisexual wasn't exactly gasp worthy" stars

Midnight Target is the eighth installment in Elle Kennedy's Killer Instincts series. It's the best one yet!

And yes, seeing all that turmoil broke her heart, but at the same time, someone needed to be here to capture this. To show the rest of the world what was going on right under their noses.

Cate is tired of being excluded from her father's group of mercenaries and she's tired of being coddled. She takes off to a war-torn country to photograph the turmoil. When she gets a picture of a cartel leader who's supposed to be dead, she gets more than she bargained for.

Ash spends much of his time warding off Cate's advances while seeking her father, Jim Morgan's approval. When Ash learns Cate is in trouble, he's worried and it's all hands on deck. If only she would listen to him and her father and stay out of trouble. When things go south, the whole team is called in and old acquaintances in Liam and Sully reconnect. Is it too late to change their fates?

Doing was how she felt alive.

This entire series has action and suspense woven so seamlessly with the romance. There's not one but two romance plot lines, and it never felt too complex or like there's too much going on. I'm in awe of Kennedy's talent in this arena. Lots of strategy and pulse-pounding action, but equal time devoted to the emotional experience and adventure.

My heart broke so many times while reading this one. Sully and Liam still have so much to work through and talk through, and the attraction simmers beneath the surface until it too boils over. Ash and Cate have been walking around each other for years as well, and we see both the past and present in their story line.

All the characters from the previous books show up, and the camaraderie and friendship is deep, making the story all the more touching. There's a hint of the forbidden, wanting someone you shouldn't have. There's age difference and best friends to more. But a common thread in this one is fear--how to overcome it, accept it, and move on from it. How to own it. Their personal growth make all of these plot and storylines fit together so remarkably well.

If you haven't you really need to read all the previous books to fully enjoy this one. The epic push-pull is here, the internal and external conflict up and rocking, and the tension alive and kicking. Midnight Target is not to be missed!

I love romantic suspense, I didn't realize this was part of a series, but worked enough as a standalone.

I just want everyone to know that as I was writing this review I was listening to the to all four Transformers film scores. Because that’s how I roll and the music has always suited this series. Also, this is the longest book in the series so there’s a lot to cover in my review but I’ll try and keep the gushing to a minimum.

Midnight Target takes place four years after the previous book and super soldier Jim Morgan’s daughter Cate is all grown up and working as a freelance photographer. And getting a crash course introduction to the life her father never wanted for her. When she snaps a photo that links a South American politician with the leader of a notorious drug cartel, Cate immediately becomes a target and Jim leads a team to get her out of the country alive but he’s shot and critically wounded in the process. Now the team bands together to seek revenge as old faces resurface to help, including Liam MacGregor and Sullivan Port who have unfinished business with each other. Meanwhile Cate is forced to work with David “Ash” Ashton who broke her heart two years before and still wants to protect her as if she were incapable of doing it on her own.

Bottom Line: It’s all out war in Midnight Target with the team facing down a powerful cartel all while dealing with overdue personal matters.

I’m always excited when a new Killer Instincts book is coming out but never have I looked at a book with a mixture of awe and dread. Awe because no one writes romantic suspense like Elle Kennedy, and dread because this will be the last time I see these characters in a new adventure. Midnight Target is the final book in a series that combines high stakes action with red hot romance.

Kennedy is THE highest standard for romantic suspense in my opinion. Not only are her stories to die for but her heroines are the absolute best in RS. These women are no weeping willows who are happy to hand their problems over to a big strong man. These women kick a** and don’t bother taking names. I want heroines who can fight their own battles but at the same time show their vulnerable sides without making them seem like they’re weak for being vulnerable and I want heroes who respect their skills enough to see them as equals and to be confident having these women watching their backs. That’s exactly what Kennedy gives her readers and it’s the biggest reason I’m going to miss this series so much.

That said, Cate had me a little nervous at first because she’s not a trained assassin like Noelle and her girls or a mercenary like her father and his men but she sure did get a lot of lessons from both sides in the four years since she came to live with them and it showed. She carried her weight, fought, and contributed to the team like she had been with them all her life but she didn’t have the hardened, jaded soul of the men and women surrounding her larger than life father which put a different spin on this story. Cate brought a little bit of an innocent vibe to the plot because of her sheltered background and I understood why everyone BUT Noelle, Cate’s stepmother, wanted to continue protecting her. At the same time though I totally got why that infuriated Cate and why she had to distance herself from her father and even Ash. To me, Midnight Target was Cate’s coming of age story but you know, with guns, death, and violence. She and Ash had a lot of chemistry that actually started way back when Cate was still a teenager and had just found her father and I loved how much these two characters had grown since then. The tension between them was incredible and their story sort of paralleled that of Cate’s father and stepmother. As far as being what I was hoping, these two aced my expectations.

But while Cate and Ash take center stage in Midnight Target, there is another story that has been years in the making, Elle Kennedy finally brings Liam McGregor and Sullivan Port face to face after two years apart and forces these two to deal with the events of previous books and the tense attraction between the two best friends. I have a soft spot for both characters because they were so close for most of the series until a shared kiss made them reevaluate their lives. I loved how Kennedy didn’t make it easy for these two to figure out just what was going on between them. Liam comes from a traditional Irish family which presented a huge obstacle for him and Sully had a tragic history that made him reluctant to be anything other than a playboy. Their story was very emotional and I’m not ashamed to say I shed a few tears for these two.

There has always been an element of danger and unpredictability in this series but never more so than with this last book. These characters aren’t invincible and they’re far from perfect which balances out how dangerous they are. Midnight Target really brought their mortality to the spotlight and put every single character in an emotionally vulnerable position. For characters that have made their living out of putting themselves in life or death situations with smiles on their faces this was a huge difference. The odds were really stacked against this team that prior to this book always seemed unbeatable. It seemed fitting to me that the author put them through the ringer and had them come out on top but not without a cost.

Overall, Midnight Target gave these characters an unforgettable sendoff, the plot was edge-of-your-seat addictive, the characters raw and emotional, and the romance was off the charts good. My only real complaint aside from the fact that this is the last book is that there was a lot kind of jammed into this book. Cate and Ash, Cate’s deteriorating relationship with her father, Liam and Sully, the cartel, old friends with new problems, etc and I felt it could have been better handled in two books rather than one long one. Cate’s relationship with her father wasn’t exactly fixed by the end and I would have liked it to be because despite his faults, Jim Morgan was a good father who needed to develop a new relationship with his adult daughter instead of always picturing her as a little lost girl. But even with that complaint Midnight Target was still a solid winner. Elle Kennedy’s characters tore me apart, broke my heart, and then put me back together again in a way only they can. I really am going to miss this series and I doubt anything could ever compare to it.

Midnight Target brings the Killer Instincts series to a close. I have to say, I haven’t enjoyed a series as much as this one in quite sometime. It’s sad to see it come to a close.

Cate Morgan has only known her father for five years, but they are alike in every way that counts. They both crave the adrenaline that they know a dangerous job can bring. Morgan wants his daughter to live the normal life that he never had. He wants her to go to college, marry a normal man, live in the suburbs. Cate wants adventure, danger, and love. She’s rebelled against everything that her father wants for her.

Cate is in Guantana where the civil unrest is at an all time high. The military is barely keeping the peace and the drug cartels almost have full control of the country. Cate is there with a colleague taking pictures and she snaps a photo of the most dangerous man in the world. Which might not be a big deal if he wasn’t supposed to be dead. When men come after her, she has no choice but to call her father and his men in for extraction.

When her father is critically wounded while trying to rescue her, Cate is devastated. She’s also furious. She desperately wants to be a part of the operation to strike back at those responsible. Her stepmother, Noelle, is fine with it, but David “Ash” Ashton is far from fine with putting Cate in the line of fire.

I loved Ash. He was spectacular. I completely disliked Cate. She was a spoiled brat. I really liked her in Midnight Action. I thought I would like her in this book, but she was only twenty one. I don’t think she had enough time to grow up.

My favorite part of this book was Liam and Sully. They have been dancing around each other since Midnight Action. Liam was devastated when Sully disappeared. Their love story was told over many of the books, and the conclusion was perfect. Their story is why I loved this book. Elle Kennedy really pushed the envelope with their relationship and I applaud her for that.

Cate and Ash rating: 3 out of 5.

Liam and Sully rating: 4.25 out of 5.

4.5*

It’s always bittersweet when one of your favourite series comes to an end, as is the case with MIDNIGHT TARGET, the 8th and final book in Elle Kennedy’s Killer Instincts dark romantic suspense series. The series as a whole is raw, gritty, and discomfiting; as far from a pleasurable, feel-good read as one can get with its focus on the most despicable, heinous acts humans are capable of committing. The good guys aren’t always quintessentially ‘good’ but the bad guys are absolutely reprehensible so you find yourself siding with and rooting for Jim Morgan’s mercenaries and Noelle’s chameleons despite questionable motives, ethics, and actions. It’s a testament to Ms. Kennedy’s writing prowess that she can thread this needle so skillfully for 8 full-length novels to deliver interconnected, hard-hitting stories that remain with you long after you’ve read ‘The End’. As the final book in the series, MIDNIGHT TARGET has the formidable task of tying up all loose ends of the series’ overarching story arc whilst delivering a gripping, action-packed plot and a believable, compelling romance--times two, since it features two love stories that share almost equal billing. As with every other entry in the series, Ms. Kennedy delivers admirably: the plot will grab you from page one and not let up until the end, the dual romances will both leave you hot and bothered thanks to the scorching sexytimes and make you want to throttle each of the protagonists (repeatedly) due to sheer stupidity whilst simultaneously tugging on all your heartstrings, and the crisp writing will make flying through the pages a breeze. MIDNIGHT TARGET is a boon for lovers of the star-crossed lovers trope, delivering a double dose of it with Cate and Ash (reminiscent of a less fraught Jim and Noelle) and Sully and Liam (several books in the making and both tastefully done and emotionally engaging even for readers--like myself-- who don’t actively seek out M/M romances). If you’re already an Elle Kennedy/Killer Instincts fan, do yourself the favour of seeing the series off in style (and with a heartwarming, feel-good epilogue); if you’ve never read a Killer Instincts book but are a fan of dark romantic suspense, do yourself a favour and read up from MIDNIGHT RESCUE to MIDNIGHT TARGET-- you won’t regret it!

Action-packed, exotic locales, a story with many twists and turns and heart-rending moments and morally-questionable characters that somehow manage to find their HEA…that probably sums up Elle Kennedy’s Killer Instinct series. And it’s a series, I think—objectively—that could be called one of the more memorable ones in the romantic suspense genre.

‘Midnight Target’ however, wouldn’t work well as a standalone. Rather it’s like a culmination of all the previous 7 books and picks up after a lapse of several years with a few flashbacks in between to explain the developments between the characters, then pushes us all on a ride that finally closes 3 years in the future. A revenge plot drives the story, where the usual tit-for-tat business gets things going in some lawless regions of South America, with over-the-top villains, yet Kennedy still surprises me at times by upping her game here.

But juggling action and the emotional bits of romance can be a difficult, ambitious task and ‘Midnight Target’ doesn’t quite succeed in this aspect, perhaps because Kennedy handled not one but two pairings in the story: Cate/Ash and Sully/Liam, who were the last, unresolved couples hinted in the previous books.

I felt for Cate throughout—a young woman whom no one wants to see as a grown-up—but loved her spirit and daring courage as she struggles and fights against being smothered in cotton wool by the men in her life. Her connection with Ash was evident in the rest of the books, and as I was interested to know their story, I hadn’t expected the bastard he’d morphed into here, treating Cate so badly that I felt that she deserves way better than him. In fact, Ash himself drives the wedge between them at the very end, when he made it clear that Cate was never his choice at all. Only when a drastic turn of events throws them together again does he start to question whether his self-pitying attitude was really right to begin with.

But the unrelenting action means that the romance is almost glossed over, despite the sheer amount of sexy times in the book. Ash barely makes up for the wrongs he’d done to Cate (whom I wished had given him a harder time for it)—sleeping with every other woman while not having the balls to go after who he really wants—and as torn between loyalties as he is, I was rather unhappy that he hadn’t needed to do too much to get Cate back, then unable to decide till the very end that he actually wanted to be with her. From there, the ending seemed rushed and abrupt, like a drop into the glowing sunset as everything suddenly righted around them.

Liam/Sully was the other m/m pairing that didn’t come as a surprise, yet it could be said that their journey is an even more tortured one, with years of separation and so much back and forth that I wondered how they were going to resolve their issues. Yet it’s a resolution—though it feels rushed as well—that caps off the series in a lavish fashion…where hardened mercenaries suddenly turn, rather laughingly, into ‘family men’ ruled by their women and their children.

5 STARS

I think this is the first book of the year I have given five stars to. This book tied two couples, as well as the original team perfectly. We had double the romance, double the mystery, double the action. I really couldn't have asked for a better book. This one sounded like the last one of the series, which I'm so incredibly sad about. I hope she continues but there's no more characters really to further the story, BUT I'M STILL GOING TO HOLD OUT HOPE BECAUSE DAMN. No one writes about a group of assassins/mercenaries quite like Ms. Elle Kennedy.

The story begins with Cate while she's working as a photojournalist in Guatana. She's looking for a break of the century and she finds it in the background of one of her photographs. She didn't know that it would serve as the catalyst that would render her father near lifeless from a few gunshot wounds, bring together Liam, Sully and Holden who hadn't worked with the team in over four years, and kill those around her... All while she deals with her conflicting feelings for David Ashton. The man who broke her heart and tossed her away a year prior. She all but laid herself bare but his fierce loyalty for her father appears will always lay between them, no matter how hard she tries to convince him otherwise. Ash, was everything I wanted him to be, although he was a minor character in the previous books, we understood that he was a good ole' southern flirt. Throughout this book, we see another side of Ash. Dirty-talking, loves-to-fuck, Ash. Which by the way, was incredibly awesome. Almost as awesome as how Ethan reacted to Juliet that no one saw coming. I don't want to give too much away of their relationship but damn, Cate was the heroine I could relate to, in every way. As a daughter of a super soldier, the need for adventure thrives in her blood, but Jim's protective. My favourite advancement during the story is that Ash trusts Cate to be the woman she knows she is despite the danger it might put her in.

ON THE OTHER HAND, we see what Liam has been doing for the past four years. Working a dead-end job that doesn't inspire the lust for violence, dating a woman who does't heat his blood like Sully did, and still closeted from his family. Although, he's still afraid of coming out to his catholic family, he's accepted his identity as bisexual, not to Sully's knowledge that is. When they come face to face, lust takes over and Sully kisses Liam but Liam pushes him away, pissed. Sully takes this as Liam is in denial about how he feels, when in reality, Liam is angry because Sully thinks he can just come back four years later, and throw caution to the wind despite the entire reason Liam and Sully didn't take the next step years before was because Sully didn't want to risk their friendship. As their relationship progresses, there are realizations and some intense moments.

The grouping of these pairs matched the story so damn perfectly. Both pairs stuck in a limbo they can't escape because of cowardice and fear that once they move forward, they can't have what they had before.

ULTIMATELY, the only thing I have left to tell you is READ THIS BOOK. READ THIS FUCKING SERIES. One of my favorites of all time. Up there with Harry Potter and the Mortal Instruments. READ IT, LOVE IT, FEEL WHAT I'VE FELT. There's nothing better than an arising romance in the midst of chaos.