Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 04, 2010

Zosia rated it:

I liked this book, became annoyed in some places, and then really liked it by the end. It may not be a five star read, but it’s a VERY good read, and by the end I was having trouble remembering what I didn’t like about it!

The best thing? The great balance between emotion and suspense. It’s so hard to find romantic suspense that gets the balance right; Maya Banks knew what she was doing.

The Darkest Hour does, however bear striking resemblance to two other romantic suspense More...

59 comments like (40 people liked it)

May 12, 2011

Mojca rated it:

Your wife is alive. Four simple words and Ethan’s life implodes. Again. After losing his wife in a plane crash, a year after her death someone concocts a sick joke. Making him believe she might be alive. There’re pictures of her being a prisoner in a Colombian drug cartel camp. Guard change schedules, topographic maps, camp layouts...Everything he might need to get Rachel out of that hell. If he believed she was still alive that is.

And he does. Despite everything, he does. Because m More...

7 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2012

Jacqueline rated it:

I loved this book. The writing was solid. The plot was solid. Ex SEAL Ethan's wife, Rachel, died in a plane crash a year ago but he gets some info that she is not dead but being held by a drug cartel in South America. He and his brothers, who have a spec ops type agency, go to get her back. She doesn't remember that their marriage had been troubled and Ethan doesn't want her to remember because the trouble was all his fault and he wants a second chance to do better.

There wasn't a More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Buggy rated it:

Ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly is hangover again, it's been a year since his wife Rachael was killed in a plane crash in South America and he can't seem to move on, the pain as fresh as the day she died. Ethan has cut himself off from his large family and refuses to have anything to do with his brother's top secret business, that of KGI (Kelly Group International) With their expensive military backgrounds the Kelly brother's are essentially guns for hire taking the tricky jobs the government can't and More...

9 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2010

Keri rated it:

If you have read Amy Fetzer, Cindy Gerard, Suzanne Brockman, Cherry Adair or even Lora Leigh then you have read this book. That is part of the problem with this book, it has been done before. Lots of times, which is what I think hurt this book the most. There wasn't much about this book that was different enough to separate it from the pack. I won't go into a lot of detail about the book itself, as of course I am late to the game and everybody else has told it better than I.

The story More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

Pearl rated it:

4.25 stars!

First line:He'd hoped if he drank enough the night before he'd sleep right through today. Instead his eyes popped open at eight A.M., and sunlight promptly fried his retinas.
Memorable Scenes:
- bathtub scene > heartbreaking
- first time they make love after Rachel returns > so beautifully written

Ethan Kelly is grieving for the wife he lost in a self-destructive way: drinking, holding on to everything that reminds him of her, consu More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Hbeebti rated it:

I have never read anything of hers before. At least I don't think so. But I really liked this one. A lot of drama thats for sure. Can I just say I want to be in the Kelly family! Gezz to imagine what that kinda of unity feels like. UGH! Anyway this one was kinda sad and so heartfelt that I think that is why I enjoyed it so much. Who was the baddie and why she was taken was kinda typical I guess but as a whole it made the story great. The characters were wonderful and made me look forward to the More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

BamaGal rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. There are a few kinks to work out before the next one, but all in all, it is a really good start to the series. Hope it turns out to be a long series. Don't be looking for the old raunchy and crude Maya Banks. This is Maya Banks all grown up and writing a solid adult romantic suspense. Maya Banks has always been hit or miss for me. I really liked her Falcon Mercenary series, I wish she'd kept that one going; but I've found her Colter series to be downright silly, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Pamela(AllHoney) rated it:

Pretty good. A bit of an emotional roller coaster but well worth reading. Ethan, the hero, is a tortured soul who believed his wife to be dead and suddenly he receives information that she may be alive. Alpha protector mode clicks on and so the story goes. I am looking forward to the future additions to this series.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

ReaderOz rated it:

This is a decent romantic suspense book that kind of forgets about the danger in the middle of the story.

In many ways very similar to Cindy Gerard’s To the Brink (but not as good), and also a little to Lora Leigh’s Wild Card (but cleaner and more intelligent than that book).

I loved the concept of the wife presumed dead who has actually been held hostage in Colombia for a year, and the military guys – husband included – who go to rescue her. But the men were far too good t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2010

Shawna rated it:

5 stars – Romantic Suspense

I’m a big fan of Maya Banks and military romantic suspense, so I was really looking forward to this first book in her new KGI series. I’m not at all surprised that I liked and enjoyed it, but I was amazed and impressed by the emotional depth and intensity of the story. Ethan might be an alpha military hero, but he’s not afraid to express his love, demonstrate his feelings, or shed tears of grief, relief, joy, and gratitude. The homecoming scene where Et More...

4 comments like (21 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2011

Shabby Girl rated it:

Wow, this was a really good book. I loved it. It's just so fabulous when you pick up a book and it hooks you right from the first page, right through the middle and right to the very end, and you wish there was a bit more. This was just such a book.

Maya Banks is a funny writer to me, in that she can put out books that seem like they've been written by a teenager, such as Colters Woman, and then books with depth, like Stay With Me, which is about an established menage relationship More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2011

Sofia rated it:

If you crossed Cindy Gerard with Lora Leigh and added a dash of too good to be true, super-sensitive men, then you’d get Maya Banks’ KGI series.
Good enough, but nowhere near as good as Cindy Gerard’s excellent romantic suspense.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2011

Crystal ♥ RBtWBC rated it:

4.5 Stars
Maya Banks did not disappoint, loved Ethan!

Series Review, books #1-3
The Kelly/KGI Series is a dark and sinfully sexy romantic suspense series that centers on a tight-knit military family, the Kelly’s. There are six Kelly brothers, all of whom served in different branches of the military and together form a special private security agency called the Kelly Group International, which take on the missions that even the government can’t handle. These brothers are ha More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Lady Vale rated it:

I'm not even sure of what to say about this book. I did love it and I definitely had a great time reading it. From the first page I was completely entailed by it. What's not to love? A great family, 6 HAWT bad ass brothers with a huge love towards their family and a special soft spot for their mother, a guy who thought he had lost his wife forever without being able to apologize for huge mistakes he made to one day find out she is actually alive... So many things made this such an appealing stor More...

9 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Taryn-does it have romance? rated it:

I go back and forth on whether or not I should rate this book. Most of the time I do not like the first book to a series. There's so much going on and its thrown at you all at once sometimes making it hard for you to keep up. There were close to 15 people introduced to you in this book and almost all of them fawned over Rachel in some way or another. I will say it was easy to keep up with who the characters are though. I was surprised. I have read a few series where it took me a few books in to More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 04, 2011

Anja rated it:

3.75 stars.

I really liked Ethan and Rachel. I wanted more information on how they got together in the first place and a few more scenes of them together either with him trying to jog her memory by reminiscing on the past or forming a new happy memory.

There was too much focus on the runaway teenager that the Kelly parents adopt who I’m guessing will become a heroine for a future book in the series. There was also a lot of information on the entire large family. I would’ More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

Erika rated it:

3.25/5

So... I didn't find this book all that suspenseful <shrug>
Ethan believes his wife Rachel died while in South America. On her one year anniversary he gets a package with coordinates, photo's and other documentation that Rachel is alive after all that time. Ethan, who has been wallowing in the bottle since, races to his brothers office (KGI operatives) (all of whom are former military) They embark on a rescue/recon mission.

The rest of the book is fill More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Teena rated it:

I found this book to be a weird combination of an action thriller and a Harlequin Romance. It's like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be so it went with both. And the cover tends to think it's a Harlequin Romance.

The beginning of the book deals with Ethan discovering his wife is not actually dead but held captive in South America. He and his brothers (who coincidentally do missions like this for a living) go in and rescue her with guns blasting. There's blood and some tense momen More...

0 comments like

Jan 28, 2012

Felicia rated it:

Bought on Amazon to read for Book Club

What I Loved: The Kelly's are such a wonderful close-knit family that was the first thing that struck me about this book. The brothers each had such unique personalities and yet they mashed together really well. This was one cohesive unit even when they were disagreeing, mad because others were making unilateral decisions, and at times growling at each other (mom and dad included) but it all seemed to reinforce how important family was to them. The More...

0 comments like

Jan 19, 2012

KatiD rated it:

I used to really adore Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series. I broke up with it after Sam and Alyssa's book mostly because I couldn't take the multiple storylines, including a WWII one that I always skimmed, and being strung along by one couple over multiple books. In The Darkest Hour by Maya Banks, I remembered why it is I enjoy paramilitary romance novels.

Ethan Kelly is in mourning. His wife, Rachel, died last year while on a mercy mission in South America. She left with harsh More...

0 comments like

Jan 13, 2012

Mimi rated it:

3.5 stars

The Suspense

I have to admit I wasn't vowed and amazed by this one. The story is:someone kidnapped Rachel a year ago and then faked her death, so everyone, including her family, thought she was dead. Now, a letter arrives to Rachel's husband Kelly, with pictures of his supposedly dead wife and her coordinates. They get her out, but who did this to her? And why?
I felt the suspense part could have been done better. The premise could be a good one, but it was p More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2011

Tina rated it:

The main story, between the hero and the heroine was sickeningly sweet and is worth about 3 stars read overall, but I thought the author didn't spend enough time on them to make this book worth recommending to my friends. The heroine is babied and treated like a mentally fragile 7 year old by everyone through out the story and the hero seems to spend most of the book clinging to her or weeping because of her. It was romantic the first time he started to cry, even the second, and perhaps the t More...

0 comments like

Oct 30, 2011

FicTalk rated it:

Reviewed by Lisa. 1.5 stars on Fic-Talk.comm

It had great potential, but in the end it was just: Meh. I’m actually sad to say that because I hate giving bad reviews. I like honesty but I know that sometimes being honest hurts.

This story had so much potential, but I think the author got a little flustered with all the new characters she had to introduce to the readers. There were a lot. The family consisted of the parents and their six grown sons. Then we had the one son – More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Alyson rated it:

Thin plot, too many characters. Rachel's all right, and Ethan's all right, but I never really got why they're together (in fact, it felt like Rachel should have married a different Kelly boy); this should have been an exploration of a relationship from a new Day One, but it just wasn't. The Kelly family is goody-goody and vaguely sickening because of that, while the brothers are entirely indistinguishable. Rusty was pointless, useless, and apparently only there to show how much of a sucker Ma More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Holly rated it:

Ethan is miserable, just going through the one year anniversary of his wife's death is hard enough, but when he gets an envelope full of information and pictured saying she is alive he isnt sure if he is crazy to believe it could be possible. Ethan turns to his brothers at KGI to help him on the rescue mission of his possible wife. Rachel, if she is true in believing that is her name, is in a drug induced haze and dreaming of a man who will come rescue her. One day her rescuer finally shows up, More...

0 comments like

Oct 14, 2011

Kathy rated it:

First in the KGI action-romance series revolving around a group of brothers who have formed a private special-ops group, Kelly Group International, rescuing hostages, blowing shit up, rescuing people from impossible situations based near Kentucky Lake, Stewart County in Tennessee.

The couple focus is on Ethan and Rachel Kelly.

The Story
When Darkest Hour opens, Rachel has been dead precisely one year now. Burned to death in a plane crash coming home from Columbia with a gro More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Ryan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jul 04, 2011

Irrish rated it:

It was a chore getting though this book and quite frankly I'm baffled by all the good reviews. The plot was thin, it felt like she just cobbled a few ideas together and hoped for the best. And seriously what's up with the goody two shoes family? Rusty was a waste of space. The brothers felt flat to me because there were so many of them and the book wasn't that long to give them justice.

(minor spoiler)

The reason behind the heroine's "death" was laughable. Come on, th More...

0 comments like

Jun 27, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Really and truly I give this book 1.5 stars.
It had great potential, but in the end it was just: Meh.
I'm actually sad to say that because I hate giving bad reviews.
I like honesty but I know that sometimes being honest hurts.

This story had so much potential, but I think the author got a little flustered with all
the new characters she had to introduce to the readers. There were a lot.
The family consisted of the parents and their six grown sons.
Then we ha More...

0 comments like