Another thrilling saga with the dynamic cast of mercenaries and assassins.

Almost all of the characters story lines are started in a previous book so I recommend reading this series in order. We met Trevor Callaghan and Isabel Roma in the previous two books. When we first met Trevor he was on a suicide mission due to the loss of his wife. Isabel was paired with him on a couple of missions over the years and managed to bring him back from his brink of despair. But once she’d done that and saw there was something beginning to spark between them she ran for five months. Now she is back and realizes she needs to do the right thing and go to Trevor and apologize. But shortly after arriving at the compound a full on attack is launched against them leaving a few secondary characters dead. Right before the attack Jim Morgan who heads up the mercenaries disappears and they fear whoever attack them is responsible for his disappearance. With their base destroyed Isabel suggest they go to one of her boss Noelle's safe locations to regroup and figure out what is going on.

The complexities of both the men (the mercenaries) and the women (the assassins) only get more frustrating in this book. Noelle the leader of the assassins is one cold blooded woman but she agrees to lead the team of mercenaries in the fact finding mission of figuring out who is after them and where there leader is even though she hates Jim Morgan. An interesting twist was presented in this book between her and one of the more deadly mercenaries. All this did was leave me screaming at the book wanting to know what is deal between her and Morgan. Don’t take my ramblings there to mean I didn’t like the book. I loved it. I love every character in this series even though the author's slow torturous revealing of the history of certain characters is driving me nuts. But hey that means I am for sure invested in all the future books in this series because I have to know what the h – e – double l is going on…
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Overall Rating: 4.90
Action: 4.5 / Emotion: 4.5 / Romance: 4.5 / Sensuous: 3.0 / Suspense: 4.0 // Laughter: 4 / Giggle: 0 // Tears: 2 / Teary: 2

Midnight Games: 4.90:
This Romantic Suspense book is an un-put-down-able read. Kennedy did a great job of keeping readers on the edge of their seats and tense with excitement as she told a story with plenty of unique twists that kept readers guessing.

Hero: 4.50:
Trevor "Trev" Callaghan: a hunky, alpha, but flawed hero, who not only shows his more than capable leadership skills, but also his strengths and vulnerabilities as he pursues the woman he has grown to love.

Heroine: 4.50:
Isabel "Izzy" Roma: a beautiful, strong-willed, compassionate heroine, who hides her vulnerabilities behind the personas she adopts in her line of work as an undercover operative.

Secondary Hero: 5.00:
Derek "D" Pratt: the sub-plot hero, whose presence is so powerful whenever he appeared on the pages of the book, that he almost supplanted Trevor's role as the number one male in this book.

Secondary Heroine: 4.50:
Noelle: the sub-plot heroine, a cold, emotionless leader of a group of female assassins, whose presence was so potent she could have stolen the show.

Story Line: 4.00:
Very creative, interesting, and entertaining story line in which Trevor and Isabel work through their various issues to find love, as they search for the man who hired mercenaries to destroy the Morgan compound and to try and find the missing Jim Morgan.

Action: 4.50:
Exciting well-described action scenes kept the story moving at a quick, steady pace.

Emotion: 4.50:
Kennedy created such an emotional connection to the cast of characters that it was impossible not to laugh and cry along with them.

Romance: 4.50:
The romantic awareness that existed between Trevor and Isabel was always prevalent in the background of the story.

Suspense: 4.00:
An edge-of-your-seat degree of suspense permeated the entire story as the characters tried to find {a} the bad guys who were trying to eliminate Morgan's Mercenaries and {b} what happened to Jim Morgan.

Sensuous: 3.00:
There was a great deal of sensuality, heat, and spice during the lovemaking scenes (and some definite heat during the sex scenes).

Secondary Characters: 5.00:
Kennedy does such a great job of including titillating details about her supporting cast members that it really brings these characters to life and adds an exciting flavor to the story. Very fascinating, well-written supporting characters that really added to the enjoyment factor of the book (and the series) include: {1} Jim Morgan, {1} Kane Woodland, {3} Abby Sinclair, {4} Ethan Hayes, {5} Juliet Mason, {6} Sullivan "Sully" Port; {7} Liam MacGregor, {8} Sean Reilly, {9} Holden McCall, {10} Ed "Eddie" Marion Lassiter, {11} Tomas Meiro, {12} Renee Beaumont Meiro, as well as Isabel's personas, {1} Valerie Parker-Smith and {2} Paloma Dominguez-Martin.

A more in-depth, detailed, spoiler-ridden review of *Midnight Games* appears at Wolf Bear Does Books (http://goo.gl/nhE3LM). ( )

This romantic suspense had a good plot and exciting action but the romance was lacking. The heroine spent most of the story fighting the relationship because of low self-esteem although she was good at her job. Mercenaries Trevor and Isabel are in a house that explodes and work together to find out who did it. ( )

Review courtesy of dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Nonstop action and incredible tension keep you hooked until the very end.

Opening Sentence: “He called again last night.”

The Review:

Midnight Games starts off with a bang (literally) and doesn’t stop until the end. Jim Morgan’s crew is in between jobs and are celebrating the recent marriage of Kane and Abby (from Midnight Rescue) at Jim compound in Mexico. The happiness doesn’t last long when the compound is attacked and bombed. Several people die which gets this book off to a depressing start. In the meantime, Trevor and Isabel have had a rocky relationship. Trevor has made his feelings known to Isabel but instead of reciprocating, she leaves and disappears on Trevor for many months. Isabel arrives at the compound just before the attack but she still can’t bring herself to tell Trevor why she left him. I really enjoyed their nervous tension around each other at the beginning of the novel.

After the attack, Trevor lets Isabel off the hook long enough to come up with a plan to find out why the compound was attacked and to find out where Jim Morgan is. The team has been trying to contact their leader but he seems to have disappeared too. Isabel takes the team members to a mansion in California that is owned by the fearless and badass Noelle. She is the leader of the female operatives, who are often used as assassins or “chameleons” infiltrating enemy groups. Isabel is one of her “chameleons”. Noelle hates Jim Morgan and doesn’t want to be involved in this mess but eventually she caves and helps Jim Morgan’s team to find out the answers they have been seeking.

Trevor spends much of the novel trying to prove why he feels the way he does for Isabel. Trying to prove to her that she needs him and that she can trust him. That she doesn’t always need to run away from her feelings. Isabel is trying to figure out why her numb outer & inner shell is cracking towards his warmth and love. Isabel is always hiding behind her other characters while Trevor is trying to prove that he loves Isabel and not just one of her other creations.

Trevor and Isabel are my favorite characters in the series so far. Isabel is just so complex and I like how Trevor had been trying to win her over for a while now. I really enjoyed the tension between them. Trevor does start to get a wee bit overprotective of Isabel which is kind of annoying, especially when she is so good at what she does. I don’t really see how they could work together on any future jobs but that may be remedied in one of the sequels.

Along with the couple, this has to be my favorite book in the series thus far. Sadly, I knew who one of the people getting killed before the scene even happened, which made me mad but at the same time I wasn’t expecting it to happen so quick. I feel like there is a theme for that in these novels which I hope never happens again.

There is a crazy side story with Noelle and D. It’s there to set up a future story with Noelle but it really shows how both of these people have virtually no feelings and are almost entirely selfish. It also made me want to read this story fast enough to get to their stories but sadly neither of those have been released just yet.

Overall, this was a very good novel, with lots of action and lots of mystery. The tension could almost be cut by a knife. Midnight Games could be read as a standalone but I don’t think you could grasp the tension right away or keep track of the huge cast of characters from the beginning.

Notable Scene:

Meiro spoke after they’d settled on a plush burgundy couch. “Nothing is wrong. To be honest, I’m captivated by your overwhelming beauty and I’m having trouble concen­trating on anything else.”

Trevor made a sound of disgust that rumbled in her ear.

Once again, the disturbance snapped her right out of character. For a second, she couldn’t formulate a single re­sponse to Meiro’s gruff admission.

Shit. Fucking shit. Flirting came as naturally to Valerie Parker-Smith as brushing her teeth in the morning. She didn’t get flustered or hesitate or forget how to string to­gether a few seductive words to create a provocative re­sponse.

A spark of anger lit Isabel’s belly. This wasn’t the way she operated, damn it. She worked solo, not with a team, and she certainly didn’t have someone blabbering in her ear in the middle of an op.

“I do tend to have that effect on men,” she said cheekily, finally managing to regroup.

When she crossed her legs, Meiro’s dark eyes instantly homed in on the creamy expanse of thigh revealed by the dress’s perilously high slit. Appreciation and desire washed over his face, fueling her returning confidence.

His voice lowered to a smoky pitch. “Tell me about your­self, chérie. I want to know everything about you.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Everything?”

“Everything.” Meiro slid closer. So close she could smell his spicy aftershave again, feel the heat of his body. He placed a hand on her knee, his touch possessive. “I want to know you inside and out.”

Sullivan laughed in her ear.

Isabel had officially had enough.

Fortunately, the waiter chose that exact moment to ap­proach their table with a bottle of Romanée-Conti and two wineglasses in his hands.

Meiro insisted on uncorking the expensive vintage him­self, and Isabel waited until he was focused on the task be­fore reaching up and unclipping her right earring. She let the dangling string of diamonds slip through her fingers and land in her lap, then released an exasperated squeal.

“This bloody clasp!” she huffed. “This is the third time tonight it’s come undone by itself.”

Meiro glanced over with an indulgent smile. “Perhaps the hotel jeweler can take a look at it.”

She feigned annoyance. “Yes, I might need to get it fixed. For now, I’ll just take them off before I end up losing one.”

With a sigh, she removed her other earring and pro­ceeded to drop both into her clutch.

Then she snapped the little purse closed.

Effectively cutting off contact with the team.

FTC Advisory: Signet/Penguin provided me with a copy of Midnight Games. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )