Midnight Revenge

Killer Instincts Series, Book 7

By: Elle Kennedy

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Out of all the stone-cold mercenaries in Jim Morgan's black ops organization, Derek "D" Pratt is the most intimidating. He is tight-lipped and covered in tattoos, and even the other guys on his team are afraid to ask him about his past. D's been off the grid for years, but after his teammate, Sullivan, is mistakenly captured in his place, D is forced to come out of hiding and face his demons. When D lands in Mexico, he's ready to risk everything to save his friend.

To complicate matters, Sofia Amaro, a feisty doctor who D had a one-night stand with months ago, has tracked him down. And in an instant she's unintentionally caught up in his life-threatening rescue mission. Now D must extract not one but two people from the most violent world he's ever encountered. And one of them is carrying his child....

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Leeanne Kenedy (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Elle Kennedy...leaves you breathless." (Vivian Arend, author of Rocky Mountain Shelter)

I didn’t want it to end!

This installment, of the Killer instincts, was one of the most touching stories, in this series. We finally get to learn something about D , the mysterious. Of all the terrible things I thought might have happened to him, it was much worse than what I thought. In addition, we find out what happened to Sully, after he’s mistaken for D, by someone from D’s past.

Boston does finally get his BFF back but, is forced to leave him within 48 hours. This is definitely an emotional roller coaster but, definitely worth the time spent listening to it.
-V from Kansas

What a surprising story!

I always wondered about D’s story, and it didn’t disappoint. Filled with hot sex, emotion, a lot of bad-ss and disturbing scenarios. Well worth the listen. Great narration by Ms Ryan.

Utter nonsense … and yet

Here I’ve been, bemoaning the all the prickly, emotionally unavailable FMCs, and when we finally get a compassionate doctor, I’m still not happy. But, gah! I’ll take prickly ladies over dimwit damsels.
Sadly, Team Noelle barely play a role here. Instead it’s a lot of torture, abuse of women,
and unbelievable romance…and yet…

The most aggravating thing about this story was civilian Sofia constantly heading into danger, like Bambi to the slaughter. And, Noelle helping Sofia jet off to a foreign country to join D on a mission … with only the rookie member of the team to join her?! Riiight. This was another installment where the group was behind the ball for the entire book, getting out of situations by luck and external factors rather than the supposed skill of Team Morgan.

Then there’s the plot about Sully held prisoner for six months, and a kingpin not torturing the intel out of him with brute force, but instead using mind games. Completely unrealistic types of torture and also unrealistic that Sully would hold out for so long. Then the ridiculous plots get even worse, like an undercover operator working for nine years without knowing the operation was over.

And amid the nonsense prisoner plot, we have a romance based on a single (admittedly hot) sex scene resulting in pregnancy, followed by unrealistic romantic interludes while in a dungeon, or in a motel room when you’d think D and Sofia should be worried about the welfare of Sully or the rest of the group.

And after how many books, the sub-arc for Sully and Liam’s MM romance still goes unfulfilled.
Tarnation! I’m so frustrated!!

And yet, as D would say, “you make me feel,” and yes, I felt a lot, good, bad, wrecked. This was stupid.
This was nonsense. The behavior of everyone was aggravating. The sex scenes (other than the first one) weren’t sexy. And yet, I felt for D, hurt for D, cheered for D. I haven’t been so invested in the HEA since book 1. I hated this. I loved this. If Sully and Liam had gotten closure, I’d have five starred this, sigh.

Respect to the author. Respect to the narrator.
The next book closes the series, including for Sully and Liam, but tragically switches to a new narrator.

Dumb Doctor

Although the first few books in this series were entertaining, the last couple have been entirely disappointing.

For a highly educated women, doctor Sophie was dumber than dirt. She had sex with violent, sociopath Derek, got pregnant, then decided she had to tell him about the baby. While I normally believe that a man deserves to know about a pregnancy, I didn't understand why Sophia trusted Derek so easily.

Rather than wait for Derek to return from his latest mission, Sophie followed him into a dangerous situation without considering the consequences to her unborn child. Why would an intelligent doctor, who has treated too many victims of violence, be so naïve?

Derek's mission (saving a team member from a sadistic human slaver) was dark and depressing, with lots a graphic descriptions of rape, torture and murder. The sex scene (in a dirty prison cell) was particularly unromantic and unbelievable.

Needless to say, I did not find Midnight Revenge romantic or enjoyable.