I thought that the most interesting aspect of this book was the way that the two lead characters met. Karly Farnham is a journalist visiting a resort in Thailand where the new Ambassador to that country is staying. She is on assignment to interview him. When the resort is taken over by terrorists, some of the tourists are killed and the rest taken hostage. Karly is out on a dive boat when the attack occurs, giving her the opportunity to escape and hide. She is found hours later by Ethan Dunn, a member of the SEAL team who responds to the short SOS call Karly was able to make from the boat in the midst of the attack.

The rescue mission is successful and Karly and Ethan, who share an incredible attraction from the beginning, spend a passionate night together.

A few weeks later, Ethan contacts Karly wanting to see her, but she ducks his calls. When he is finally able to confront her and spend a little time with her, the attraction and some deeper feelings are still between them. Karly is really gun shy over Ethan and his interest in her. When she is soon in a situation of intense danger, her perspective begins to change.

I liked the way Ethan and Karly met during the rescue mission, and I loved how protective he was of her throughout the story. I thought Karly showed courage during the terrible ordeal she experienced. The two had good chemistry and I enjoyed their dialogue and interactions.

The action and suspense part of the story kept the book moving at a fast pace, and gave it lots of action.

I thought that this was a very good one for a short novella, and it is a nice addition to the Alpha Crew Series.

Cover of Night is a great follow up to Books 1-2. The entire situation in Thailand was so intense and fun to read. I do wish the book was longer, as I felt a lot of aspects were either rushed or brushed under the rug. The "present" time in San Diego was not nearly as long enough, and the climax near the end was so short and a bit anticlimatic. I also wished that Karly's PTSD was addressed more in seeing her progress/recovery. We didn't really get a clear idea of where her head is exactly, as she evaded answering the truth. I think if the book was longer, LG could have fleshed out this story in a better way. But overall, this was an enjoyable quick read if you're looking for a romantic suspense on the shorter side.

A well-paced, well-balanced military romance that manages to have enough action without overwhelming the story. I can't wait for the next in the series.

3 1\2 stars out of 4
I wish I had been told this was a novellas series. I wouldn't have been nearly as disappointed with the pace of the story and better able to write a review.
As a reader I would have like this to be a full length novel because of the different story lines involved. I still have questions what happened to the other people in the story? What was the terrorist end game? The author gives readers action scenes as well as strong female lead. The story felt unfinished leaving readers a little confused and wanting what just happened.
If you need something to read at the beach this is a fast easy readers but will not leave reader nssasified.
I will not be reviewing any more of the Alpha Crew novellas series.

I will admit that Laura Griffin is able to take a complex story line and reduce it to less than 140 pages and give readers sex, romance, action and a story line but its is far from believable that HEA is really in the picture for any of the characters..
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy

This book was just as good as the first two. I feel like you don't have to read the first two to read this one though. If you're looking for a good action packed yet romantic book or series, I definitely recommend these ones.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/9258396?shelf=2017&utm_campaign=mybooksnav&utm_content=mybooks_cta&utm_medium=web&utm_source=homepage

3.5 Stars!

Cover of Night was a fun, sexy romantic suspense book that was a quick and enjoyable read.

Journalist Karly Bonham is on her first assignment overseas where she’s to write a piece on the new US ambassador to Thailand. On the final day of her trip, the resort island she’s staying at is taken over by terrorists, but Karly manages to get a message of warning to the outside. Soon elite SEAL team Alpha Crew, including Navy SEAL Ethan Dunn, arrive on the island for a rescue mission. Ethan is immediately drawn to Karly and despite the risks, decides to work with her to rescue the hostages when she refuses to be hidden out of harm’s way. Ethan and Karly soon realize they’ll need each other to stop the terrorists’ plot and bring down one of the worst criminal masterminds the world has ever seen.

Karly isn’t the damsel in distress type and does a great job at saving herself before help arrives which was something I really liked about her character. Also, I think she was very brave in wanting to help rescue everyone despite the danger it would put her in. The author did a great job showing how the events on the island affected Karly and I liked that aspect of the story. I do wish she’d expanded on Karly’s life as a journalist after the island, but that was mostly glossed over with only one or two short conversations about it.

Ethan is definitely an alpha male and he gets to the “must protect Karly at all costs” portion of things pretty quickly. I didn’t get why he would be drawn to her so quickly at the start, but I for the most part was able to look past it as it’s a common trope in romantic suspense. I did however, really enjoy Ethan’s relationship with his fellow teammates. There’s obviously a great deal of trust there and the love and loyalty they have for one another is wonderful.

Karly and Ethan’s relationship develops very quickly, but both of them realize that their feelings are, in part, a result of the events on the island. Their sexual chemistry is off the charts though and the scenes where they’re together are definitely hot. Unfortunately, because of how short this book is, I felt their relationship didn’t have enough time to develop. Karly brings up some real concerns about how everything will work and in the end they’re never actually dealt with.

The plot centering on the terrorists taking over the island is very fast paced and easily kept my interest. I would have liked to know more about what was happening with the other hostages, but I get that the story was focused around Karly. *minor spoilers* I do think it’s unrealistic that the SEALs would have accepted Karly’s offer of help so easily. To me it seemed more likely that they would have pumped her for information and then stashed her somewhere as originally planned. *end spoilers* The plotline that picks up five weeks after the rescue was a bit less interesting and unfortunately didn’t grab me the way the first half did although I do think the two plots were well connected.

Overall, Cover of Night was an enjoyable read, but I think it would have benefited from being a bit longer to expand on some aspects of the story. However, I would definitely recommend this book (and the first two in the Alpha Crew series) if you’re in need of a quick fix of romance and action.

Cover Of Night, book 3 in the Alpha Crew series, is what you would expect from author Laura Griffin; a perfect mix of action, suspense and romance. This time around we focus on Karly Barnham, a journalist who has traveled to Thailand to do a story on the new US Ambassador who is there on vacation with his daughter. Everyone on the island is taken hostage. That's when an elite Navy SEAL team (Alpha Crew) shows up to rescue and we meet one of their members Ethan, and of course like most of the service men in Laura Griffin books he is hunky, confident and more than capable on the job and in the bedroom! Circumstances lead Karly to assist Ethan and the Alpha Crew and their chemistry is immediate building throughout each scenario. Cover of Night is a quick, fun, sexy read keeping your attention from first page to last. Because it is more a short story there is not much room for character building and I found myself wishing this was a full novel. It has an interesting story line and a few subplots that would have been natural to explore. All in all, my only complaint about the Alpha Crew Series so far is that the stories aren't longer but they succeed in keeping your attention and make me want to go back and read Laura Griffin's equally compelling Tracers series.

Full review to be published online in mid September.

In COVER OF NIGHT, Karly Bonham is a journalist who is in Thailand to do a story on the US Ambassador. They are at a very exclusive island resort when terrorists attack. The Ambassador, his daughter and other guests are taken hostage. Karly manages to escape. The elite Navy Seal Alpha Crew is sent in to do reconnaissance ahead of a rescue team. Ethan Dunn is part of the Alpha Crew. While scouting the island he comes across Karly, who has been hiding from the terrorists. Ethan is immediately impressed by her resourcefulness. Karly has intel that can help their mission.

COVER OF NIGHT is a nice addition to the Alpha Crew series. It is book three in the “Alpha Crew” series but could easily be read as a standalone. There is action, suspense and romance in this book. The book is well written and kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. I look forward to the next book by Laura Griffin. It must be noted, however, that this is a series of novellas, none are full length novels. The short length impacted the development of the storyline

Terrorists attack a small resort where Karly has gone to interview with an ambassador. This is the most riveting part of the entire book and establishes our central characters.

If the reader considers this a short story, which I do, then it's a 4-star story. There is minimal character development and there is HFN/possible HEA ending. The is a mini-resolution to the story but not for the overall plot of a terrorist attack in the states.

As a long time fan of Laura Griffin, I am disappointed in this series. The grit is there in the beginning but lost as these short stories (novellas) move past the exposition. The characters would benefit from greater depth. The events of the story feel rushed because Griffin has to get them to fit inside a short story format.

This could be a fantastic novel. Sadly, that's not what we get.

Although I’m a huge Laura Griffin fan (she’s one of my favourite authors and always an auto-buy for me), I had some gripes with the two-part story that marked the start of her Alpha Crew series of military romantic suspense. It’s heartening to see that she--and her publisher-- took reader feedback to heart and delivered a complete standalone story with Alpha Crew #3. COVER OF NIGHT reads rather like a compressed Tracers novel, with less forensics and more military action but the same taut pacing and crisp writing. Clocking in at ~100 pages, it does suffer from all the pitfalls of novellas and short novels--chiefly an abridged story arc and flatter characters that make the undying love and devotion of the HEA feel extremely rushed and unrealistic-- but Ms. Griffin handles the issues with aplomb to deliver an action-packed, sexy story you can read in one sitting. Though I prefer her longer-form work, COVER OF NIGHT was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I look forward to more from the Alpha Crew team.

Laura Griffin’s ‘Alpha Crew’ series has been a very different read so far from her ‘Tracers’ series. The books in there are short, action-packed, with significant time lapses between several chapters and in many ways, a very, very distilled and disappointing version of a military/paramilitary romantic suspense novel.

The short length of the book does the whole story a disservice. I’ve no doubts about Griffin’s writing to begin with, nor with her ability to handle intricate plot lines and elaborate setups that have made some of her books so memorable for me.

But with ‘Cover of Night’ topping out at a mere 100-ish pages, I felt that Karly’s and Ethan’s connection did exist, though it was harder to be convinced by their relationship and the love declarations when all they had was a one-night stand fuelled by the thrill of a rescue and the let down of adrenaline. What for instance, made Ethan, who didn’t do relationships, want something more with Karly when there didn’t seem to be any other indication that she was different from the other women he picked up except for the fact that she rebuffed him? Moreover, Karly’s sudden change in attitude towards the end towards Ethan when he was pushing her for something more the night before he was about to be shipped out was beyond abrupt especially when the story ended just there.

In other words, everything felt too rushed and unfinished, from their relationship to the terrorist plot that was supposedly foiled with a significant arrest. ‘Cover of Night’ simply had so much potential which wasn’t quite fulfilled by the end, leaving me rather mixed about this series because it really could have been so much better.

Cover of Night, is a very fast pace book. It was hard to find stopping points. So pretty much read it in one sitting.

Karly Bonham is a journalist who is in Thailand to do a story on the US Ambassador. They are at a very exclusive island resort when terrorists attack. The Ambassador, his daughter and other guests are taken hostage. Karly manages to escape. The elite Navy Seal Alpha Crew is sent in to do reconnaissance ahead of a rescue team. Ethan Dunn is part of the Alpha Crew. While scouting the island he comes across Karly, who has been hiding from the terrorists. Ethan is immediately impressed by her resourcefulness. Karly has intel that can help their mission.

This is a great addition to the Alpha Crew series. It is book 3 in the series but could be read as a stand alone. There is action, suspense and romance in this book. The book is well written and kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. I look forward to the next book by Laura, she is one of my must read authors. Thank you to net galley for an advanced copy of this book.

That's actually very mature of you, Natalie. Your father should appreciate that.

Jeezus, what just happened?!

No time for chitchat, woman!

Women are stronger than men, hands down, Ethan.

Ewww.

Crazy man. This is not fun!

After a hostage crisis, eating snails is nothing.

He is so the needy girl in this relationship. I love it.

Mays seems nice. Usually FBI agents are portrayed as being one step away from evil.

Josh is a scumbag.

Phew, that was exciting! Next time, if something feels off, don't go inside, Karly!

This was an intense action filled romantic suspense and Ethan and Karly were relatable characters. I felt their connection right from the moment they met. Awesome read that you won't want to put down.