I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book, what's there not to like, but I found the characters to be forced and the scenes to be too long. I did not feel the chemistry at all.

I normally enjoy anything technology related and this story has that, the romance balances it out to a point, of course a HEA is always good, but there were too many disjointed parts that left me less then fulfilled with the characters and their story.

Though this is not the first book in the series and the author does a good job with the backstory to keep any confusion to a minimum. Though this story wasn't to my liking, that was on me, there are plenty of others who did like it to put that blame on me.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

DNF....3% of the way in and I couldn't get into the book.

April had a website where military widows could come together and support one another (financially and otherwise). The website gets hacked and credit card information is stolen.

Seems like something that happens pretty much every day (except the military widow part); websites are constantly hacked. Yet we're led to believe that April's website is hacked and now people have been hired to kill her or injure her. Why? What made her website so special?

The beginning of the book is weird...she references feeling like people are stealing from her, but no one can see them and that she must go on with her life knowing people are stealing from her. Honestly, this made her sound as if she had mental health issues.

I gave up reading the book, it just seemed too far fetched.

Looking for something a little different in the romance genre? Seconds from Sunrise is a thrill ride of suspense, anxiety, and, yes, romance.
April is a war widow whose husband was killed by an IED. To help herself find a purpose April learned to code and set up a website about her experiences as a widow. Other women in the same position found support and encouragement on the site until unknown hackers used her servers as a mirror site to hide their own information and steal the widows’ personal data and their finances. When April discovered the ruse and shut down her site she unwittingly set up a chain of events that has her on the run for her life.
James is a black ops quasi-military man who works for a shadow organization called Automatik. His goal is to be invisible as he watches April and quietly protects her from the mercenaries who are involved with the hackers. What James doesn’t expect is to fall in lust and then in love with his target. Once they are on the move across the country, running and hiding from those who want to kill April, it’s just a matter of time until they find themselves in bed with each other.
The final third of the book is one of the most electrifying, spine-tingling chases I’ve ever read. Seconds to Sunrise is the third book in the Black Ops: Automatik series by Nico Rosso, but it is easily a stand-alone novel. I loved this book so much I am ready to read the first two books in the series and look forward to whatever comes next. Nico Rosso’s style of writing is an adventure a minute and a pure pleasure to read.

April Banks won't stop looking for the notorious hackers who took everything from her website that supported war widows. When the hackers take their antics offline and hire hitmen to take her out, April finds herself on the run. Luckily Automatik, is looking out for her and sends former special forces agent James Sant to protect her. Together they are going to take down the hackers once and for all. But can James be April's hero before his dark past catches up with him ?

Seconds To Sunrise is third book in Ross's Automatik series and it follows the basic formula each of the books in this series has; we get a quick introduction, some small undercover scenes to establish sexual tension, awkwardly shoving in the characters from the previous novels and of course a fast paced ending where the bullets are flying. So many bullets.

This one was just okay. The tech stuff just didn't work for me. I just wasn't sure all the tech stuff. I also didn't understand the story ? Like why did the hackers wanted to kill her, she didn't seem like that much of a threat.. Also April is a self-taught in web design and encryption, but her computer skills seems to be. . . Whatever is necessary or the plot to work?

April and James romance didn't really sizzle, it just felt like a forgone conclusion. I was way more interested in James' past as point man for a notorious hitman (cause he can't be too bad) I liked that he had to come to terms with it in the course of the novel. Everything else just felt like filler.

A predictable romance with some interesting characters, decent action but a plot that never really picks up.

Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso is full of action and danger.

I had a difficult time really getting into Seconds to Sunrise. I found the suspenseful plot to be somewhat unrealistic and a bit confusing at times. April finds her life in danger from the hackers of her website. They want all the information on there and will apparently stop at nothing to get it. I couldn't wrap my head around that idea, that they would go so far, and keep pushing even as April tries to stop them. But why her? Why her site? Why did they keep pushing? I had some unanswered questions that I felt would help me understand the whole plot more. Just as physical danger finds April, Automatik agent James, who has been covertly watching her since the hack was discovered, steps in to save the day...because he knows this is just the beginning. Suddenly they are together, on the run from determined killers. James and his team will have to work hard and fast if April is to stay safe, and live to tell about it.

I liked the main characters, James and April. I like what April is doing with her life, how she's trying to help others even as she moves on from the death of her husband. James has dark secrets in his past, and he doesn't feel deserving of someone like April. But through this mess they have found each other. I liked how they were with each other and way they connect despite the speed, and the risks they are faced with. I felt like a future relationship between them would be so good for both of them, even if the road to it is not an easy one.

Seconds to Sunrise is the third book in Nico Rosso's Automatik series, but can be read as a stand alone. My difficulty with the plot was entirely within this book. I felt like he laid a good background of what Automatik was, and gave me a good sense of who April and James were, but the complete unbelievability of the plot and unanswered questions made it slightly less enjoyable for me.

Is this the way forward? April is so mad that someone has hacked her site and she is afraid that all her members will be made public. Her site is for widows of military men that have been killed and she is doing a really good thing. This has been her saving grace after she lost her husband Mark, she is still learning to cope everyday and now she is thrust into a nightmare world.
Can James keep his head in the game and keep her safe? He is very attracted to April but his past is very colorful and full of darkness, he can't allow that to fall on April.
Can April find the hackers and shut them down for good and hopefully before they kill her as there is a contract on her life and only her & James can stop it.
April is one amazing woman that has made a big difference to so many others but she is still cut of from everyone and James is missing out on so much, he has friends but no life really. Can they both find what they are missing and can they both be able to work for the same organization if this go bad between them? What a action packed book great to see of the other characters from the previous books. Really enjoyed it. Can't wait for another one. I received a copy via Netgalley & the publishing house in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Nico Rosso’s Seconds to Sunrise, the third in his Black Ops: Automatik series, felt very much like a book of two halves. But I don’t mean in that terms of the pagination; I’m talking about the difference in the successful (or not) treatment of the two plot elements, because one worked well and the other… didn’t. A good romantic suspense novel has to work in both areas, and while the suspense plot is fairly effective, the romance is stilted, with a lot of telling rather than showing and a singular lack of chemistry between the two leads.

April Banks’ husband, Mark, was killed during a tour in Afghanistan four years earlier. Utterly devastated, she has gradually re-built herself and her life, even though she is still living quietly in the shadows. She doesn’t have close friends or family, but she has a large support network she has built up through her website foundafter.com, a forum for women who are similarly circumstanced. The site has been a real lifeline for April, so when she discovers it’s been hacked, she feels as though she has been personally violated and exposed – but she isn’t going to give up without a fight. Her own computer skills are a match for the hackers, who have yet to break through her deeply encrypted security protocols. But she fears it’s only a matter of time before whoever is behind the hack breaks through and is able to steal all the personal and financial information belonging to the thousands of forum members.

Former SAS operative James Sant was at a loss when he left the army and did some things he’s not proud of. Joining Automatik offered him a way back into helping people again, and he’s never looked back – even though he is still haunted by the years he spent at the bottom of a bottle when he wasn’t running operations for a former colleague who wasn’t very discriminating about the jobs and clients he took on.

I haven’t read the other books in this series, but that’s not a hindrance, because the story in this one is self-contained, and the author includes enough information about Automatik for the reader to be able to work out that it’s a secret organisation made up of former military and special services operatives who now work to solve problems that nobody else can. They fly under the radar and won’t hestitate to use any means necessary to ensure the success of their missions.

Automatik is aware of what’s happened to April’s website and has quickly taken steps designed to protect her – and it’s just as well, because only days after the hack, she is attacked in the supermarket car park by two hired thugs and saved only by the fact that James and one of his colleagues are keeping an eye on her and are able to act quickly to deal with the attackers and get April away. Even though she’s scared and has no experience of what she’s unwittingly become a part of, she needs to find the people who have done this to her. James wants to get her to safety while Automatik does its job, but she quickly convinces him that her computer skills are necessary if they’re going to track down the hackers. Together they head out to follow the leads April has gathered so far.

As I said at the outset, the action/suspense side of the story is handled well for the most part, and the incorporation of the element of cybercrime gives it a really up-to-the-minute feel. There are some well-written set-pieces; car chases, shoot-outs, a dramatic helicopter escape… and with the end approaching, I was looking forward to finding out why April’s site had been targeted and by whom. The bad guys get caught, and – epilogue. Huh? I thought I’d missed something but no, no explanations. I’d have thought that given the lengths the hackers went to in order to protect themselves, we’d have been told that some major crime/espionage syndicate was responsible and told why they had targeted April’s website specifically. Even if those details are contained in one of the earlier books, or one that’s still to come, it’s a pretty major omission in terms of the plot resolution and it was a big let-down.

Unfortunately, the same is true of the romance, which feels forced and almost as though it’s been tacked on. I was constantly told (rather than shown) that April and James are attracted to each other but I never felt there was any emotional connection between them at all. There’s a lot of back and forth between them, by which I mean that as soon as they find themselves feeling comfortable around each other, one of them will think of something – usually for April, it’s Mark and for James it’s his murky past – and close themselves off, which the other interprets as meaning they can never be together. Even during the book’s single sex scene, April is on/off – she wants James, but then feels it’s wrong… she’s been a widow for four years and hasn’t had a relationship (or sex) since her husband’s death, so I could understand why she would feel nervous. But if she really felt as though she was somehow betraying her husband’s memory – which is what I inferred – then a high-adrenaline, high-stakes situation probably wasn’t the best time to be trying to work out whether she wanted to have sex with someone else or not.

I also had a big problem with the writing style, which may or may not be something that bothers others. One thing I really dislike in a body of writing is having lots and lots of short sentences all running one after the other. It’s fine to do it occasionally for effect, but when it’s the norm, it quickly becomes annoying as it breaks the flow of the words and makes the whole thing feel really choppy. It had a big impact on my reading and broke my concentration frequently. And there were some really odd turns of phrase; one that sticks in my mind is “… the kiss parted”. Surely, that should be “… the kiss ended”. Or “… their lips parted”? Another is “her tumult fell into place again” – what does that even mean? (Of course, I know what is meant, but it’s a very strange phrase.)

The reviews for the previous books in this series have been fairly positive, so perhaps this is a case “it’s not you, it’s me.” But the non-resolution to what is an otherwise intriguing suspense plot and the poorly executed romance make Seconds to Sunrise a book I can’t recommend.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
This is the first that I've read in this series and I believe that I would have understood more if I had read the previous books in the series. However, with that being said, I could infer a lot and what I didn't really understand only slightly detracted.

James is working for "the good guys" and hoping to stop mercenaries from hurting his charge. His past is colored and he is somewhat ashamed – at least it seems that way. He has a great team, but you really only learn about his past because it comes back to bite him a little. His mentor, the one who he was in business with before he joined the good side is the hunter – James is supposed to protect his charge from his mentor. When he gets his charge, April, things begin to change in his mind. Not only is April brave, she's mentally tough and doesn't take a lot of crap from anyone.

April is trying to protect all of the women who were using her website to gain a support community – those women who have lost military husbands/partners to IEDs or any other awful way that those in the military are injured. She has created a website that was hacked. Despite knowing how good her security is, she is distraught that the women who trusted her to protect their information might be at risk. This is where, potentially, reading the previous books might have come in handy. I have no idea what type of information April is trying to protect or why the hackers are so interested in the information – other than monetary gains. However, this hunt seems to be motivated by a lot more, but I never quite figured out what.

The story was faced paced, but I thought that it lacked chemistry between the two main characters. There was a lot of hot and cold within their relationship and you never really knew why they denied what could have been. Despite the lack of chemistry, I thought that their relationship was fairly organic – charge to friend, friend to love interest. Overall, this was a good mystery with a lot of action, but the resolution was somewhat tame.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This was an exciting whirlwind adventure. With a little suspended disbelief, I loved James and April’s story. Full of fantastic chase scenes, fights, shootouts, and great sex, I enjoyed every moment.

April is a great character. The Army widow who created a social network to support other military widows, she is a strong and talented woman. There aren’t many men writing romance and I loved the strength and complexity this author put into April’s character. She is a worthy heroine.

James is a Bourne-like shadow operative. I don’t know whether I loved his muscles, his weapons, or his tortured soul more – but he was a great lead and his chemistry with April was fantastic.

The romance in this book is a little instalove – it reads more like an action film than a romance. The sex is very hot. The relationship does work, but there were some eye roll moments when April and James find time to get naked or confide their deepest secrets while simultaneously racing to save their lives and kill the bad guys.

This is a fun, fast adventure with great sex and a little romance. There’s not much substance but I really enjoyed the characters and their story.

She thought she’d lost everything…

April Banks thought her website crashing was just a glitch. Starting the online forum for war widows has been the only thing keeping her together since her husband died, and she won’t let anything interfere with her work. But this is no technical malfunction—cyberterrorists have targeted the information locked in April’s website and they’ll do anything to get it. Even if that means removing April. Permanently.

He’ll make them pay…

Automatik gave former SAS agent James Sant a way to protect the innocent again. He thinks life in the shadows is all he deserves…until he meets his newest assignment. April is everything James has never let himself want and he knows she’s already had too much heartbreak in her life to risk feeling for him. But keeping things professional while hunting the hackers with the gorgeous widow is going to be the hardest job he’s ever taken on.

Review:

Cyber hacking makes this a very interesting, timely and exciting back drop for this story.

What I liked the most about this story was the fast pace, it really gave the feeling of running for your life. Even though they are running you get to both characters. Though I have to say, I felt I got to know James better and especially about his past. I can't really say the same for April, I mean we learn about her past, but I felt much more connected to James. I have not read the other titles in the series, though I did not feel like I missed anything by reading out of order. I liked this one and Mr. Russo's other works to go back and catch with the series.

3.5Stars

*I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this book provided by the publisher.*

This book had a great premise. A widow who has worked hard to build an online support forum/website for military widows is a victim of a heinous hacker invasion. She works hard to save and protect the personal information and identities of these woman when a mysterious former mercenary, now member of a secret organization, is suddenly there to protect her from these attackers out to get her.

While I enjoyed this novel, I felt like the story was very very rushed and their initial meeting was out of nowhere. Things jumped around so much that it also left me very confused. In addition, I did not feel the chemistry between the hero and heroine AT ALL. All in all, this was a nice book with an intriguing story line but it left me more confused than satisfied. 3 stars!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Carina Press for an advanced copy of this novel for review.

Seconds to Sunrise is the third book in Nico Rosso’s Black Ops: Automatik series. The series itself is about a secret paramilitary organization that helps good people get out of dangerous situations and they usually take down a criminal organization while they are at it. I would look at them as a well-funded, modern-day A-Team. The second book, One Minute to Midnight, focused on a male and female pair of operators that ended up falling in love during their mission. In this sequel, website designer/host April Banks has a website that has been hacked. Her website is a great support system for military spouses that have lost someone in battle. Automatik has sent in James Sant to protect April as the hackers have sent in thugs to prevent her from trying to stop them from using the personal information that they have obtained from the hack. In fact, her encryption is so good, they have not actually been able to access the truly personal and important information yet.

James is former British SAS which is an elite military unit. He has also done a few not so commendable ops in his time so he is trying to atone for those acts by helping people through Automatik. April’s husband was killed by an IED while serving in the military so she has a personal connection to her site and the people that have been affected by the hack. James and April decide to track down the hackers. This sends them on a dangerous trek across the Western United States. All of the time that April and James spend in close quarters draws them close together. Consequently, they end up having a steamy tryst which brings them even closer together and gives them both hope for the future. They find themselves in some life threatening situations that take all of James’ training and resources to keep them safe.

I really enjoyed all of the action that was laced throughout the book. There was a good balance of romance and suspense. I especially liked the fact that they didn’t spend the entire book on defense. At some point, they took the fight to the hackers and that made them an admirable team. The more and more I learn about Automatik and its members, the more I look forward to reading another sequel. I must also mention that the Nico Rosso does a great job of showing a diverse group of people throughout this series. I’m always impressed when an author doesn’t forget to include different ethnicities in their books. It’s not only very inclusive, it makes the books more realistic.

Seconds to Sunrise by Nico Rosso
Black Ops Automatik #3

April Banks, military widow, has clawed her way back from the darkness creating a website to help and support other military widows. Her site has been hacked and Automatik, fearing trouble for her, are keeping a protective eye on her. James Sant and his partner are on the scene when thugs accost her and save her from a thumping. Then, James talks her into leaving with him. She worms her way into the operation and becomes a member of the team rather quickly and then there are road trips to potential sites the hacker might be hiding, meet-ups with a friend of hers and some of his, some action scenes with baddies and an eventual location of and taking out of the hacker.

I kept thinking this book did not grab me quite as much as the first two books in the series – ones I rated highly at five stars. I am sitting here thinking about why I am going to give this book a three and have decided it is because this book didn’t feel quite as believable, didn’t have the character development of April that I needed and the romance between the April and James didn’t flow as easily and warmly as I had hoped. I guess I didn’t FEEL the connection for some reason.

That said, the story is well written, action scenes are intense and gripping to read, interaction with the teammates was fine and it was fun to see them again. Perhaps with a bit more fleshing out of April’s backstory and a bit more chemistry before the bedding I would be able to rate this higher than a three but it was still a good story and fun to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC. This is my honest review.

3 Stars

Intriguing, suspenseful and deliciously steamy!

This is the third book in the Black Ops: Automatic series, and once again Nico Rosso has written a novel full of danger, deception, mystery, attraction, chemistry, dirty talk and romance.

The writing is clear and fluent. The characters are intelligent, strong, damaged and lonely. And although the plot in the first half of the novel is a little slow, the second half is definitely more exciting, compelling and action packed.

Overall, I would have to say that this is a fun, easy read that is certainly enjoyable and entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley, especially Carina Press, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third book in Nico Rosso’s Black Ops: Automatik series, and this time we meet Automatik operator James Sant, who is called in to help widow April Banks. April runs a website for war widows, and it’s given her a purpose and helped her move on after her own husband died in combat. The site was hacked and brought down, though, and personal data of site visitors was stolen. (Why? Personally I was never clear on why the hackers were trying to accomplish. The premise seemed a little flimsy.) James and April have to physically track down the hackers so they can protect the site users and put a stop to whoever is behind the attack.

This book is a bit of fun and fast paced action. I always love a good road trip, and we get one here. James and April have to chase clues through multiple states to track down the hackers, which leads to some great get-to-know-you time. James is an interesting character because he’s not always been with the “good guys”. He has some major guilt and you can see why he’d be so dedicated to spending the rest of his life making up for past choices, as it were. I enjoyed seeing him work to move beyond his past and acknowledge the good he has done since. I also loved the short scene with his dad. I wish we had gotten to spend more time with him, because seeing James with his family really drove home the point that he WAS a decent guy who just made some questionable choices.

I often feel like Rosso’s books are great for the action but not as great at touching your heartstrings, and Seconds to Sunrise was no exception. I expected more emotion from April’s story in particular, as she lost a husband she loved to war. Instead, I felt like the story just assumed it was obvious that such a loss was really painful, instead of helping us see April’s pain. There was also a little depth missing from James and April’s relationship. The right pieces are all there, but the dialogue and inner thoughts just don’t quite express that deeper emotional connection that I personally enjoy in romances. It’s not that I didn’t like them as a couple or enjoy reading their story, but I certainly didn’t end the book with a sweet sigh and won’t be fondly remembering their relationship. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just something you want to know going in.

If you like action packed romances with racially/ethnically diverse characters and some hot sex, check this one out.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

Review by Amber for Love Romance Boos Blog

April runs a website for military widows. She has a typical life, with typical routines, until her website is hacked. All of that data compromised, and she wants to track it down before her encryption is cracked. She encounters James at the supermarket, but it is not your typical meet-cute in the produce aisle. April is attacked in the parking lot, and James jumps in to help. After the attack, she discovers that James and his group Automatik have been looking out for her since her husband's death. James is convinced that April will be attacked again, and together they decide to solve the problem of the missing data.

I didn't know what to make of this book. I thought it was well written, and I liked the characters, but I had a really hard time buying that a woman smart enough to write her own data encryption software would voluntarily let an armed stranger she just met take her out in the desert in an unmarked car. Sure, he saved her from an attack in the parking lot. Still, it just didn't make sense to me, especially when James adopts three different accents and personas to fool people not even a quarter into the book. Honestly, I'd be trying to get away from this guy, no matter how hot he was!

Once I set all that aside and just focused on the story, though, I enjoyed the book. As April and James got closer to solving the problem, it definitely got more interesting. Overall, I would give this book 3 stars.

I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series with its action, danger and intense passion; from the very first book I have been hooked, and can’t see that ending any time soon.

Engaging characters, fast-paced, adrenaline fueled storylines and a wonderful HEA (yep, no cliffhangers), make this a captivating and thrilling read that will be devoured easily in one sitting.

Here’s hoping there’s more to come!

Seconds to Sunrise starts off with no backstory or intro to the action. While I appreciate the quick pace, I did feel that this story could have used a little more background. So, April is a widow who created a website for other widows; the thing that makes her site unique is that it is for widows of military men. She has built a large community online. Then her website gets hacked and people are trying to kill her.

Ok, I would be willing to buy that premise if it were explained a little more. Why would anyone be willing to hunt down and KILL April for her website? From what is explained in the story, the hackers would get personal info and maybe some banking info. Useful? Sure, but you could get that info from millions of websites and I can't imagine someone sending a team of mercenaries out to kill a woman over the data. Again, I would be willing to buy it if the website had something more valuable, but that isn't made clear at all.

So, April is in mortal peril because of her website and she doesn't even know it until she is attacked in the parking lot of the grocery story. James and Automatik have been following her, expecting this attack and manage to save her. James sweeps her away for her safety so they can figure out where the hacker is and how to stop him. Again, the believability here is a bit of a stretch with the little info you are given, but I can roll with it. From that point on, it is NON STOP. They are on the run and in danger all the time. The book takes place over just a few days and its a busy couple of days for April and James. Their relationship is born from the intense situation they find themselves in, and slightly rushed if you are looking for a really love connection. But, I do feel the relationship being rushed matches well with the story and the danger leading to heightened emotions.

Bottom line? If you like romantic suspense with lots of action, Seconds to Sunrise is a great pick. Be prepared to suspend belief though; if you prefer your romantic suspense to be more believable, this might not be the book for you. I will probably go back and pick up books 1 and 2. This was a quick read and a nice escape-my-reality binge book!

Have I mentioned how much I really like the concept of Automatik and the different members of the team? Well, I do. So much so that I don't even read the blurb anymore. I just know that I want to read it. And it's a good thing I picked this one up. I'm always down for a good suspense thriller with nonstop action and mystery. And this doesn't disappoint.

Computer savvy? April is. In fact, not only has she created a website to help widows of fallen soldiers, she's created an encryption within the program that so difficult to get in to that the hackers or her site are now hunting her down. It's a good thing someone other than the hackers have been spying on her, because if not for Automatik, she never would have made it out of that grocery store parking lot. Now if she can only snap out of the nightmare shock she's in.

James is a member of Automatik. He was specifically tasked to tail April and protect because Automatik has been on to the hackers ever since they targeted April's site. Unfortunately, they have no leads as to who or where they are in order to stop them. Which only means one thing. They're still bait and need to find out as much information as possible before they're caught by the hackers themselves. But the chemistry between James and April builds quickly while on the run and emotions become part of the mission, unbeknownst to James.

This isn't exactly my "favorite" in the series, but it was still very entertaining. Like I said before, I'm a sucker for suspense mystery thrillers with some romance thrown in there for good measure. So...duh...yeah, I liked this one. As usually, I'm already chomping at the bit to see what Mr. Rosso has in store for us next time. Until then....

reviewed by Chris