Midnight Alias

Killer Instincts Series #2

By: Elle Kennedy

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

An undercover DEA agent has gone off the radar. Suspecting an internal mole, the government needs Luke Dubois and his elite team of operatives to recover their man, and the New Orleans native thinks he's found his way inside the dark underbelly of Manhattan: Olivia Taylor, the girlfriend of a mob boss and the sexiest woman he's ever laid eyes on. His new mission objective? Get past Olivia's defenses and convince her to take a chance - on him.

All Olivia wanted was to finish law school and live a normal life, but that dream was shattered when one dangerous night put her deeply in a mobster's debt. Now Luke and his team will help her escape - in exchange for intel on the missing agent. But Olivia doesn't anticipate her intense attraction to the reckless Louisiana charmer or that she'll be forced to risk everything - including her heart.

©2013 Leeanne Kenedy (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The author shows a real flair for penning thrillers that are passionate, gritty and extremely suspenseful." ( RT Book Reviews)

This Heroine lacks common sense!

I liked this story, overall, with exception of the Heroine. She is supposed to be exceptionally intelligent but, she allows herself to be put in a terrible position that she could have stopped by involving law enforcement from the start. However, she allows some crazy since of loyalty to make her perpetuate her problems.

The other characters are pretty great. The plot is military like with a side of romance. This book is definitely very different from your typical romance and as long as bloodshed doesn’t bother you, this series is welcome change from a typical romance novel.
-V from Kansas

Another great romantic thriller

Lots of action, suspense, intrigue and a very sexy romantic tale. Terrific narration by Ms Ryan, love her accents looking forward to the next in this series.

Strong Men - No Bullies

I loved the strong men in Midnight Alias, a group of special operators who used their deadly skills to rescue and protect women rather than bully and dominate.

I found the 1st book in this series well-written but a little too dark & depressing due to the horrific subject of human trafficking. While this 2nd book contained some graphic violence, Luke and the rest of his team were competent, caring and sometimes humorous.

I also liked how the female characters were portrayed as smart and assertive, not just victims waiting for a man to save them. The plot was engrossing and suspenseful, with some romance and well developed, mature characters.

I Love A Strong Heroine but.....

I love this series so far, this edition kept me up listening until the wee hours of the morning! The heroine was stubborn and strong on the stupid side. I am waiting for an author to write a story where the heroine is seriously thoughtful, cautious and logical about her moves. We women are not quite this silly.

Another good addition

3.5 rounded up - because secondary characters. 😉

This isn’t my favorite of the series, but still a solid listen. There’s a few parts that stretch believability a little further than I like & there’s Olivia’s insistence (despite her ill mother) to repeatedly be involved in Ops that sort of annoys me. She and Luke are adorable together. We get to know Isabel, Trevor, & D better, meet Liam & Sullivan, and Kane, Abby & Ethan get little cameos.

Kennedy does a great job of giving us many moving parts/ smaller arcs that coalesce into a good overall story.

Allyson Ryan is solid in narrating this whole series. She keeps voices, accents, & mannerisms consistent throughout and it’s absolutely binge worthy.

The old ‘stripper with a heart of gold’ plot

This was an alright protector romance, but not nearly as engaging as the first book, mainly because both he and she are on the bland end compared to the rest of MCs.

She’s stripping to pay for her mom’s cancer treatments. She’s also not very bright for someone allegedly getting a degree. I get that the FMCs can’t all be warrior women, but I had to work really hard to suspend disbelief at Olivia having no clue that her strip club boss (and known hider of bodies) was a drug dealing mob boss. Then I worked even harder to swallow the idea of passive, ‘play it safe’ Olivia taking the initiative to do things like investigating or taking down a drug deal.

He’s a smoker who first appreciates her body as she’s stripping and I’m supposed to find him appealing because he’s clumsy with the sweet talking? It’s also hard to respect a guy in his thirties who’s still climbing through windows to get it on with a girl, instead of sticking with the mission like the professional he’s supposed to be.

In addition to bland MCs, there’s not a lot of action or clever mystery to make up for the romantic fizzle. The mission doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, nor do the bad guy’s actions. Finally, when good guys die, there’s a really weird ‘oh no, they killed Kevin’ lack of gravitas. For one death, they joke about a tattoo, and for another, they note his death and move on a second later without further ado. It felt like the tragedies were merely plot points to move quickly onto the next scene.

There were some things I liked, including more groundwork for the future couples. I am especially enjoying the buildup for D, who is digging himself a hole the size of Montana - let’s hope his comeuppance brings the fireworks. And my respect for the narrator continues to grow.
This is a series best heard in order, so even though this wasn’t spectacular, I’m still glad I tuned in.

Disappointing follow up Special Ops

Not sure why Luke was the subject of this next installment. For me he was one of the least interesting characters from the first book. But worst is the love interest Olivia. It was like Elle pulled her out of a hat. The romance fell flat. But I will the interplay for the rest of the cast in this series was good. I'll hang in for book three to see if there is improvement