Another great thriller with the dynamic cast of mercenaries and assassins.

Jim Morgan's group was hired by the DEA to find one of their agents who's been undercover with the mob and is suspected to be dead. Trevor is leading the team this time in New York but its Luke Dubois who's staking out inside the strip club of the suspected mobster. He becomes fascinated with one of the dancers. When a tip tells them to check into Olivia Taylor further Luke finds out she is the club owner/mobster's girlfriend and decides to tell her about their mission to get her help in trying to find the missing agent.

One of the things I like about this series is its not just about the main hero/heroine. The team gets plenty of face time and many story arc's that were started in the first book are continued on in this book, again with no resolution, but it just makes you all the more hungry for there stories.

The author does a great job of story telling. Even though this book doesn't have the huge conflict like the first one I was still captivated from beginning to end. There are plenty of suspense and dangerous moments to keep you on the edge of your seat and also more puzzling clues to the what's going on with some of the other members of the team.

The tease at the back of the book of Trevor and Isabel's book was soooo good. I cannot wait for there book August. ( )

Overall Rating: 4.75
Action: 4.5 / Emotion: 4.0 / Romance: 4.5 / Sensuous: 2.5 / Suspense: 3.5 // Laughter: 0 / Giggle: 2 // Tears: 1 / Teary: 1

Midnight Alias: 4.75:
A thrilling, action-packed, entertaining story with plenty of romance and sensuality. This book was so enthralling that it was a one-night read.

Hero: 4.00:
Luke Gustave Dubois: a former Navy SEAL, who was now a member Morgan's Mercenaries. A hunky, handsome Cajun bad boy who wasn't afraid to express his feelings to the heroine. A wonderful hero that was not only a skilled member of his team, but his joy of life came across the pages.

Heroine: 4.00:
Olivia "Liv" Taylor: a wonderful heroine who didn't know the word quit. She displayed an amazing sense of perseverance against the incredible odds of {1} a mother fighting cancer for the third time and {2} a boss who was obsessed with her. Her compassionate nature was indomitable.

Secondary Hero: 4.00:
Trevor "Trev" Callaghan: The current team leader of Morgan's Mercenaries. Really liked the way that this secondary hero has overcome his death wish and displays his calm leadership skills and is perceptive enough to look under the layers that make up Isabel.

Secondary Heroine: 5.00:
Isabel "Izzy" Roma: There is just something special about this secondary heroine that grabs your heart. Not only is her talent at being a chameleon incredibly impressive, but underneath her hard shell, she hides a heart that cries out for love.

Story Line: 4.50:
Kennedy did a great job of writing an entertaining story about Luke, the adrenaline junkie, who fell for the beautiful, intelligent stripper who was determined to have a normal "nine to five," stable, steady life -- after she figured out how to get herself out of the mess in which she currently found herself enmeshed.

Action: 4.50:
The book was full of action and adventure scenes, which kept the story moving at a steady, exciting pace.

Emotion: 4.00:
Kennedy did a great job of connecting the reader to the characters in a manner that made it was easy to share their experiences on an emotional level, feeling their shame, their compassion, their need to do the right thing.

Romance: 4.50:
The story was full of the awareness that Luke was experiencing for Olivia and vice versa, as well as the relationship that was developing between Trevor and Isabel. Loved the way that Luke pursued Olivia and after realizing that he was everything she didn't want in a man, continued to impress upon her that he was the man for her.

Suspense: 3.50:
A strong, tense aura of suspense about {a} how Morgan's Mercenaries were going to complete their assignment, and {b} how Olivia was going to escape the clutches of her boss kept readers on edge as the story progressed.

Sensuous: 2.50:
Kennedy did a great job of writing spicy, heated, passionate scenes between Luke and Olivia and included several impressive love scenes cementing their relationship.

Secondary Characters: 5.00:
Kennedy included some extremely interesting, well-developed secondary characters that added greatly to the depth and enjoyment of the story line: They included: {1} a point of view villain, Vince Angelo; {2} Derek "D" Pratt; {3} Sullivan "Sully" Port; {4} Holden McCall; {5} Kathleen Taylor; {6} Cora Malcolm; {7} Heaven Moore; {8} Liam MacGregor; {9} Ethan Hayes; {10} Adam; and {11} Castle.

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

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A dark and gritty special ops thriller with deadly consequences.

Opening Sentence: “This is boring as fuck,” Luke Dubois declared as he flopped down on the couch.

The Review:

Midnight Alias is the second novel in the Killer Elite series. It picks up about six months after Midnight Rescue when the team is on a mission looking for a missing DEA agent. This mission seems rather uneventful, a lot of sitting around and not enough shooting or blowing things up, but after a while the mission takes a strange turn and the boys aren’t as bored as they thought they’d be. The missing DEA agent was last seen at a strip club of all places, so Luke is tasked to go inside to see if he ever sees the agent inside. Instead Luke ends up getting eyes for Olivia, a dancer who just happens to be the girlfriend of the man running the establishment.

Olivia finds herself in a tricky situation. Her mother is sick and she needs the money from dancing to help pay her bills but she is also indebted to Vince Angelo, a mobster and the owner of the strip club she works at. Vince won’t just let her go easily. Olivia eventually learns that if she crosses Vince there will be deadly consequences so the Team’s mission goes from finding a missing DEA agent to doing what they can to get Olivia out of the grasp of the crazy mobster.

Midnight Alias is a contemporary romance that is set in the New York City area. The story is told through multiple points of view including Luke, Olivia, several “team” members and Vince. There are a couple parts where the story drags out but there is plenty of action to break it up. The interaction between Olivia and Vince is also full of tension that you want to know how that is going to end because it is not going to be as easy as Olivia thinks to get away from him. This novel is quite dark at times because of murders, cancer and torture.

Olivia is smart and tough but at times I found her kind of annoying but only in the fact that she was indebted to one guy and in order to remedy her situation she would have to rely on another guy to get her out, whom she also didn’t want to be indebted to also. She does pull a few stupid moves but for the sake of the reader it is entertaining.

Luke is from New Orleans and has a sexy Cajun accent, which I enjoyed very much. Luke is a professional but risks blowing his cover because he is incredibly attracted to Olivia. He knows this when he first confronts Olivia about turning against her boyfriend but he doesn’t hide his attraction to her. Luke is sexy but way overprotective of Olivia.

I really enjoyed the side characters, the other “team” members and their interactions with the storyline. Elle Kennedy uses this novel to really set up the next romance/novel in the series. You don’t necessarily have to read the first book in the series before picking this one up. It is a standalone story but in order to understand some of the characters better, you may want to read Midnight Rescue.

Overall, if you are a fan of contemporary special ops novels then you should enjoy this series with its dark themes but generally with its enjoyable characters.

Notable Scene:

She glanced to the left, her gaze drawn to the heavy metal door she’d seen Vince and his goons coming out of so many times before.

Luke wanted something of value? Well, chances were, that something was right behind that door.

“I should investigate the back rooms,” she murmured without moving her lips.

“No, you shouldn’t,’ came his sharp reply. “Get downstairs, Olivia.”

She stayed rooted in place. “But that’s probably where he handles all the drug stuff, right? He bags it up and the dealers come and get it?”

Silly as it was, her words brought to mind the image of rooms filled with floor-to-ceiling piles of heroin. And then, in a flash, those pictures were replaced with the very real scene she’d stumbled on in Cora’s apartment. The brown powder. The spoon and the syringe and Cora’s blank eyes.

Ignoring a burst of pain, she clenched her teeth and said, “If you want something incriminating, it’ll be back there, Luke.”

“This wasn’t part of the plan. If you’re caught, it’ll be impossible to explain why you’re there.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Olivia–”

“I can’t do this again,” she cut in, desperation rising in her throat. “I told you I’d snoop around, but this is too damn stressful and I only plan on doing this once. I’m already up here, so why not check it out?” She paused in hindsight. “Is there anyone there? Can you see on the cameras?”

“I see forty dudes with machine guns.”

“Seriously?”

He swore loudly. “No. But–”

“Will the cameras pick me up?”

“No, but–”

She lifted her chin in resolve, “Then I’m going back there.”

FTC Advisory: I purchased my own copy of Midnight Alias. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )