Wow -- action packed and great characters. Set in Scotland, plot involves a lost SEAL platoon and a marine ecologist who ends up needing from one of those lost SEALS. Lots of suspense and set up for the next book in the series... can't wait!

SEAL team nine is so covert that they don't exist except for those who need to know. When their latest mission goes so far South that half the team is dead they have to find out who leaked the intel. Dan, goes undercover as a dive boat captain to find out what happened. He meets Annie when she is chartering his boat to protest off shore drilling. He finds her cute but her save the world mentality is foreign to him. What she doesn't know if that she has joined a group that wants to do more than protest and her life is in danger. Great romantic suspense novel!

This is a great start to a new series from Ms. McCarty.
The first chapter blew me away with the camaraderie and joking between the team as they headed into danger and what turns out to be a trap. As the book continues I was happy to see that some of the team has survived though it is still not clear who survived and who's pulling the strings. Never the less its a great romance and I look forward to the unfolding of the story and hopefully finding the traitor who betrayed the team.

I’ve read Monica McCarty before and overall enjoyed her books, but Going Dark fell a little short for me. It wasn’t a bad read, but it wasn’t great one either. I will admit, it has potential to be a good series.

Dean is a Chief Seal who has gone dark after a failed covert mission. While trying to stay low to figure out what happened, Dean finds himself caught up with a marine ecologist and activist that makes his situation even worse.

I had a hard time enjoying this book. I found myself disliking the heroine more than I liked the story. Her stupid naive choices as an activist annoyed me. I just couldn’t agree with the way she protested for her cause. Her hate for the military was ridiculous, yet when in trouble she expected them to save her. By the end of this book, I thought she was nothing but a rich girl who has nothing else better to do in her life. The funny thing is, the further I write this review, the more I remember how much she annoyed me.

However, I found Dean’s fascination for Annie intriguing. He couldn’t stop himself from wanting to save her stupid a**. I almost wanted to hate him for it as well, but I do love a hero who saves the day. Dean is just that; very alpha, very sexy, and a take charge kind of guy. I liked him enough.

I think this series has potential to be good. There was plenty of action, steamy scenes, and the background story of betrayals within the ranks was interesting, a very Bourne kind of plot. I think romantic suspense readers would enjoy this series as long as they can overlook the shortcomings of the heroine. I’m hoping Mccarty will up her game in the next installment though I’m not sure if I will follow this particular series.

Good story that could have been great! To start I must say the Prologue is one of the longest I have read and one you must pay attention to. It's almost too much.

I was really excited to read this story and delve deeper into it. However, it took me a while to read this book because of how much was going on in it. The main female lead kind of aggravated me with her decisions during parts. There were so many different side stories and it was difficult to follow at times. I think this book could have been great if it focused a little more on one story line instead of so many different stories and perspectives. Great action and the side stories were nice but probably would have been better in another book.

Received an ebook ARC from NetGalley

Going Dark by Monica McCarty
Berkley Book, 2017
Romance (Suspense); 352 pgs
Source: E-Copy provided by publisher via NetGalley for review.

I have read three of Monica McCarty’s Highlander romance novels and was curious to try her new contemporary series featuring a Navy SEAL team. In this first book in the series, the reader discovers that a top secret mission of the SEALs has gone terribly wrong. As a result, they have scattered across the world and are in hiding, believed to be dead.

Marine Ecologist Annie Henderson is unaware of any of that when she travels to the Western Isles of Scotland with her boyfriend of 3 months to protest off-shore drilling. Her suspicions that something sinister is afoot and that there is more to the protest than she's been told turn into a horrific reality. she finds herself turning to the captain of the charter boat she and her friends have rented. Dan Warren (aka Dean) is secretive to a fault, but for some reason she feels like she can trust him. He, of course, is trying to stay under the radar, but soon realizes that getting involved with Annie will likely have the opposite effect.

While the attraction between the two protagonists is obvious from the first moment they meet, they do not hit it off well initially. Besides, Annie is in a relationship already. It is clear though that the relationship will be short lived—even Annie is doubting herself for traveling all the way to Scotland from the U.S. with a man she has only known a short time. It took me a moment to warm up to Annie, but eventually I did. I liked Dean’s character right away.

I liked the way the two interacted. They have very different ideas politically, which made for interesting conversations at times, but it was clear they respected each other’s opinions. In today’s political climate I sometimes feel like I fall far left, but in reading this book, I was reminded that I really am more moderate. That said, don’t think this book is heavy in politics. It isn’t at all, and the author does a good job of not really taking sides.

This falls into the insta-lust to love in a high stress situation and short amount of time romance category. I liked Annie and Dean together, but I was not completely sold that it was true love even by the end. While I found the eco-terrorist story line compelling, I was even more drawn into the lost platoon arc, wondering who had betrayed the team and what was going to happen from there. I imagine that will be a continued theme throughout the series. I enjoyed reading Going Dark. It was a nice change of pace after some heavier and sadder books I recently read. There was quite a bit of tension and suspense which made this a fast read.

There were a lot of elemen's here I really liked, but I struggled with the political conversation that took up a lot of the romance back & forth. It may be an effect of the time of writing just doesn't match with the current political environment, but the discourse just left me very unsettled, especially in a time when I prefer romance to be an escape from the dismal state of affairs of our country right now.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

So I am on the fence about this one. First when I started reading I was so confused in who was who. We meet the whole team of SEALS and spend some time getting to know each and every one. Just to later read the team mission has gone bad and they need to go into hiding. I was really really confused…. Just too many people….

Oddly enough while we spent so much time learning about the characters they seemed a bit one dimensional. There didn’t seem to be much connection between the two. The conversations just seem so odd. Nothing seems to flow naturally.

I honestly think there was just too much going on that everything felt off. The concept of the story is good. We never really think of a SEAL team having to deal with a bad mission, betrayal and having to go into hiding so the concept is great. Problem was so much was in the author’s head that the reader really was lost.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

There isn’t anything I don’t like about the setup for this series. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

SEALS
Espionage
Rogue MCs
Action/Adventure

Check, check, checkity check! And giddyupp!

Monica McCarty is a new to be author and I’m glad I took a chance on Going Dark because it is a strong set up for a series. Her writing style flows pretty well. The word ‘but’ is used. A lot. The translations of English idioms was unnecessary for me and the whole thing *hopefully* got a proof before it was published, but the story is engaging and held my attention.

SEAL Team 9 is sabotaged on a mission in Russia and wind up losing over half their platoon. The rest scatter, “going dark” presumably all over the world with minimal contact with each other. The overarching story arc linking the books is figuring out who the leak(s) is and what their motivation was.

Senior Chief Dean Baylor is our first SEAL. Known as Dan the scruffy charter boat Captain in the Scottish Isles. An alpha with a capital A, plainspoken, gruff, Texan and a Big Un. *growls* Part of his being a SEAL is traveling light, so he’s perfected the art of wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.

Annie is an idealistic environmental scientist fresh off obtaining her Ph.D. and she’s come to the Scottish Isles to protest offshore drilling with Julien, her French boyfriend WHO LOOKS LIKE OLIVIER MARTINEZ!!!. *dies* Initially I thought we were going down ‘comparison highway’ wherein Annie would compare her boyfriend to death and come realize he didn’t stack up against Hotty McHotterseal which isn’t something I’m real fond of. Thankfully we avoided that car crash.

Stuff happens and they end up in a dinghy together, something I still contend was a bad call but I understand if it had gone the other way-the smart way-the whole narrative would’ve been dead in the water. I get it. But still. Dumb.

They’re on the run together which ratchets up the chemistry and tension to eleventy kagrillion degrees despite Annie’s protestations regarding alphas. Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of hibbity-gibbity which was kind of disappointing given the page count. However they did manage to never use a condom. The stupidity of this is… *siiiiiiiiggghhhh* Why people? Whhhhhhyyyyyy?

Anyways, my disappointment in grown adults not having the conversion beforehand notwithstanding I liked these characters. Both are well constructed and strongly fleshed out. I particularly liked the big tough SEAL having substantial knowledge of Disney movies and the opposites attract trope was executed well. Even though they are opposites they respect the other’s opinion, play off each other well, manage to have moments of levity and McCarty did a great job of showing their emotional investment in the other by using dual POVs.

Now, hang tight I’m going somewhere with this. So I had a conversation about romance as a genre and she said what puts her off about it is how everyone is so breathtakingly beautiful to which I said, ‘not always but I see what you’re saying’. Then I went on to say that I think oftentimes it’s realistic in that everyone has their “type” be it gingers, beefcakes, Asians, Tom Hardy, whatever. So one person’s ‘meh’ is another person’s ‘my underwear just combusted’. I’m not sure I won the argument but there was a meaningful pause and some nodding so perhaps. At any rate, I say all this because the beauty thing skirted the line betwixt our opposing sides. I get that they are attracted to each other, but I think the physical aspects of how attractive they are was heavy handed.

Another thing I wasn’t crazy about was the push/pull between them. Dean’s reasons for pushing her away are sound, but Annie’s were weaksauce. Both played games and I’m not a fan of that, though Annie does get points for being straight with him at the end.

There was a good balance struck between the romance and the adventure, though the last “big gesture” was unforgivably stupid. Don’t get me wrong, it was romantic and dramatic but… oh my sweet lord. *face palm* HOW? How does one forget that? Someone trained and seasoned????

A word of caution, the SEAL/military-speak is heavy. It’s evident a substantial amount of research was done on the military, environmental statistics and science all of which I appreciated and served to make these characters more credible, in my opinion.

I’m not sure I’m up for the entire series but I’m definitely interested in the next one and would recommend this to romantic suspense fans.

ARC received for review

3.5 stars

I love Ms. McCarty's Highland Guard, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. Is was a very slow start, and then dragged a little. Lots of people introduced that I'm not really sure who they are going to be, and it was a little confusing at times. Dean is all kinds of yummy and hot. Annie not a lot to say about her. There is a HEA, but no resolution to who tried to blow up all of the SEAL team...not even any hints or ideas.

I had some trouble in the beginning with this book because of the big info dump re: the team members of the to-be Lost Platoon. It took some time for me to remember who's who and to get used to the POVs (I was a bit surprised that the first POV in the book wasn't the Main POV, LOL).

Plot-wise, I would have liked for it to have more on the suspense/thriller side. I also would have liked for the plot involving the main characters, Annie and Dean, to be related to whatever it is behind The Lost Platoon instead of something else altogether. It felt to me like their story is more of a side-plot to What Happened to The Lost Platoon? thing. They spent most of the time on the run in this book while Dean's contacts worked behind the scenes to clear their names and to uncover the truth re: the Lost Platoon. Admittedly I was more interested in those BTS workings than the mess Annie and Dean found themselves in, and I was also more interested in the side characters: Colt-Kate-Scott? I detect a boatload of angst there and I'm excited for their book(s).

Other than that, it's a solid and entertaining start to a series. I'm definitely intrigued to know more about the conspiracy behind the events that led to the whole team going dark. I love Annie and Dean, and their intellectual banters and nicknames for each other. I love seeing how their relationship developed from mutual dislike to something different and more intimate, though I do think it's a bit too quick for them to be in love with each other. That saying, I really adore the epilogue.

4.5 Stars

Annie, a marine ecologist, left the US to protest an oil drilling off the pristine coast of Scotland with her boyfriend, Julien. Her new boyfriend, and she can’t hardly believe her hasty decision. Sure, she’s all for saving the planet from greedy big corporations that care for nothing but the bottom line, but now that she’s in Scotland the plans seem a little more intense that she bargained for. Also, Annie’s getting wicked bad vibes from Julien’s best friend, Jean Paul, the leader of the group.

Annie’s in the middle of the ocean when she realized exactly how dangerous her situation is, and unfortunately, she has no one to confide in or ask for help except for the rude boat captain, Dan. Even with his gruff demeanor, there’s something about Dan that feels trustworthy, and she has no other options.

Dan is working as a boat captain in Scotland, lying low after his covert SEAL mission went to hell. Helping Annie could blow his cover and his isn’t the only life at risk.

Going Dark is romantic suspense at its finest! After a little settling in, sorting out the members of SEAL Team Nine, the story takes off, and we focus on just one of the guys, Dan. Not his real name, but you find out exactly which teammate he is relatively quickly.

Dan and Annie don’t get off to the best start, because he’s kind of an ass, but who can blame him with everything that happened? Doesn’t matter what kind of manners he had, because he turned out to be Annie’s rock. They try and stay ahead of the danger and survive, whether from the elements or evil people, and it’s a non-stop action filled ride to stay alive! Let me tell you, Dan’s pretty impressive; that SEAL training definitely paid off! The attraction Dan and Annie felt from the moment they laid eyes on each other simmers and spills over into some wickedly hot encounters sure to leave you hot and bothered! That lifeboat ride, oh my!

No worries about the “boyfriend” Julien. Things didn’t look good early on, and he’s basically a non-issue, IMO.

Even though the romance and current situation is settled nicely, there is an ongoing story arc, the covert mission that went horribly wrong for SEAL Team Nine. The reason they’re hiding out. They’re getting some inside help, trying to figure out how they were betrayed and by whom. This sets up the stories to come, and there’s a couple of romances in the works from what I can tell. I’m curious about Kate and Colt. Will they be a couple of will Kate be paired with Scott? I’m kind of rooting for Colt, but either could be possible.

At any rate, Going Dark was an excellent kick off to The Lost Platoon series! Monica McCarty’s writing was fast-paced and addictive, balanced with well-developed characters I grew to love. Count me in for the coming books!

A copy was kindly provided by Berkley Books in exchange for an honest review.

I had a really difficult time getting into the believability of Going Dark. The plot was seemingly going in a good direction, but mainly I experienced difficulty in understanding the main female character and her naivety (that felt beyond what could be considered naive and went into the territory of willful ignorance). I couldn't find enough redeeming qualities in her to like her and understand her actions, which unfortunately made it hard to keep reading the story. It was my first Monica McCarty novel, but it won't be my last as I enjoyed the other aspects to the story so I'll keep trying.

This is an ARC from the publishers and netgalley.com.

I gave this a 3 star review because the story was just another military romance and the action was ok. Not much happened until around the 30% mark. Dan/Dean was a good character but was a typical alpha male. Some peoples ideal man; strong, mysterious, looking out for the little guy. Don't forget he had a ten (not five) o'clock shadow. What? Why? Did that make him MORE masculine?

I didn't like Annie at all. She was tstl. Annie doesn't like the US military. Why? Because her daddy was in the military? I'm a proud Army brat. Thank you to all who serve and have served!! Annie talks with Dan/Dean for about 3 conversations and she knows what he is like? He's hiding things, she knows, but she can tell "that's him....matter of fact and without innuendo." Once Annie finds the explosives she tells Dan/Dean and also tells him that her and her friends were only supposed to break the drill. She gets all upset about Dan/Dean hiding things. "Clearly the captain didn't want to risk a run-in with the police. Was he on the run? Some kind of criminal?" Ah, no, Annie, YOU are the one who's some kind of criminal! Ok, no more about Annie. She's giving me a headache.

Ok, another irritating character is Julian. Oh, the poor put upon baby. I just didn't like him no matter how much he wanted to be nice.

John-Paul, another stereotypical bad guy.

.....well, now it's all giving me a headache. I think I'll stick with Suzanne Brockmanns TroubleShooters Inc. series. She knows how to write great male and female characters.

Going Dark was a story full of action,suspense and a great romance.I really enjoyed this story, the plot was great and fast paced.The story kept my interest until the end.

Annie is determined,strong and fierce heroine.I can say that I like it most of the time but there were some moments that she frustrate me a little bit.Dean is tough,dark and sexy.They were so opposite but they have an amazing chemistry.

Overall it was a great story,if you like action to your stories then you should definitely pick this one.I'm excited for the next book!

Monica McCarty surprised the heck out of me when I saw that she started a romantic suspense series after years of writing historical highlanders. Going Dark is her first foray into a contemporary series and it was nonstop danger and suspense. A platoon of Navy SEALS was detected on a dark op and it completely when to hell in a hand basket. Dean Baylor is in hiding on the coast of Scotland, captaining a diving boat, while he waits and tries to figure out who betrayed the team and why. Annie has come to Scotland to protest the oil dredging and naively found herself with a band of ecoterrorist out to blow up the oil platform. When she’s caught Dean comes to her rescue and they find themselves on the run.

Annie and Dean couldn’t deny their attraction to one another even when things are precariously dangerous surrounding them. Dean is fighting this knowing it couldn’t go anywhere and you could feel the angst and hurt when you can see how good they are for one another. Putting a liberal with a conservative led to lively conversations but it showed them a different point of view they need to consider. They may not look like they would work, but opposites make it work because they find themselves in love.

From start to finish I was totally engrossed with this story and the danger that Dean and Annie were embroiled in. I am captivated by the mystery of so many unanswered questions and can’t wait to read more. Monica McCarty is a favorite who writes wonderful stories and I see great things for this series. I look forward to reading more about these men and the reason for them going dark.

This book had political undertones to it and it is not something I appreciate when I am reading. It was a DNF.

Thank you for the chance to read and review this book. I loved Monica McCarty's HIGHLAND GUARD series and fully expected to love this new one too. Sadly, it was just okay for me. There was a lot going on, so much so, it became distracting. I understand side stories that most likely set up the couple in the next book (Colt and Kate), but too many and they pull me out of the main story. Annie was really annoying and while I liked Dean, I thought he could do better than her.

This review was written by Marie:

3.5 Stars

I have… mixed feelings about this book.

The concept of the story was intriguing to me, so I was anxious to get started. I opened the book, and HOLY PROGLOGUE. Trust me when I tell you that you MUST read this slowly and you HAVE to pay close attention. It’s honestly the longest, most arduous prologue I have ever read. Seriously.

From there, I delved deep into the story, hooked on Annie and Dan. Hoping with every turn of the page that their interactions would develop in to something more. But… then came the side stories. There was SO MUCH going on in this book, that Dan and Annie’s story (the main story) took a back burner, and I felt as though their emotional development toward one another was stunted, and made their “relationship” feel forced and unimportant.

Now, I’m not saying that the sub plots weren’t exciting. They were. Perhaps they should have been saved for the next book? I suppose there will be some sort of resolution for them in future books, but they took away from what I really wanted, which was the meat and potatoes of Dan and Annie.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book. There was action and mystery. The book never had me bored. It was entertaining and I like the Lost Platoon guys. I just hope that in future books, the author doesn’t spend more time developing the secondary characters than she does the main characters.

***I voluntarily read a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own***

3.75 stars--GOING DARK is the first installment in Monica McCarty’s contemporary, adult THE LOST PLATOON romantic, military suspense series focusing on a top secret Navy SEAL team whose members are MIA following an unsanctioned and undercover mission to Russia. This is Navy SEAL Senior Chief Dean ‘Tex’ Baylor (aka Dan Warren), and Marine ecologist Annie Henderson’s story line.

Told from several third person points of view including Dean and Annie GOING DARK follows in the aftermath of a mission that went horribly wrong. Following months of training SEAL Team Nine landed their first assignment in Russia but things went from bad to worse when most of the Team members didn’t make it out alive. Presumed dead, the US government has all but closed the books on their missing Navy SEALs.

Marine ecologist Annie Henderson is an activist whose latest target is the North Sea Offshore Drilling exploration in the Scottish Hebrides. When her boyfriend of two months and fellow activist Julien Bernard hired crusty boat captain Dan Warren something stirred deep within our story line heroine whose current relationship was hindered by secrets and lies. Enter Dan Warren, formerly known as Senior Chief Dean Baylor, US Navy SEAL, whose whereabouts are known only to a few. What ensues is the fall out when the expedition becomes more than our heroine bargained for placing Annie as the pawn in a dangerous, high stakes adventure; the building but forbidden relationship between Dean and Annie as the couple find themselves on the run; and Dean’s (Dan) struggle to remain hidden in light of Annie’s ongoing battles.

GOING DARK introduces some of the players in a game of political espionage, betrayal and the ensuing fall out when the surviving members of SEAL Team Nine must remain ‘dark’; to stay undercover, out of the public eye as the people back home search for the truth. Trust is fleeting; the people in charge refuse to admit that something went wrong; powerful political and governmental forces hide the truth behind closed doors.

Monica McCarty’s forte is historical romance but her foray into contemporary, romantic suspense lacked the palpable energy of her Highlander romances. Our heroine’s shortage of common sense is disconcerting; her views and beliefs one-sided and oft-times slanted. Like many introductory story lines the initial info-dumping and emergence of Team Nine is slightly overwhelming; the background information is limited; the world building somewhat two dimensional as the author has yet to reveal the true purpose of Team Nine’s deployment and betrayal– I am hoping each successive story line will be less confusing, and more revealing as the series progresses. The premise is entertaining and interesting; the romance is seductive but struggled with our hero’s need to remain ‘dark’.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

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