Cover of Darkness

Again, I won't rehash the story, I'll simply tell you what I liked about the book and why I gave it five stars, all in the wrong order:First of all, the belly dance portion of the book. Too many times my head has hit the desk when an author describes the dance as 'the dance of seduction', has nekked harem girls dancing around to lure the sultan or has a historical with dancers wearing circa 1920's NYC Burlesque two piece bedlahs in 1820's Cairo. Kaylea Cross is a dancer, and does a great job of describing what its like to dance in a family setting versus an all male (non-family) setting. There was one or two moments that made me cringe (paraphrase 'shimmy looking like an orgasm' and 'she moved as well as a stripper') but I let it pass because it was from the hero's POV and well....after umpteen years of dancing and teaching myself, I've pretty much given up on getting the guys to see anything other than sex. It was fun to read about it in a book where it was mostly correct. BTW, my shimmies look more like earthquakes & tsunamis...maybe it's body type. ;)Secondly, it's a military romance that is super well researched, not PC'd to death or where the reader feels they're getting a dose of politcal preaching with a bit of romance. Cross doesn't pull punches or try to make villians out to be heroes, though she does make them 3D and more human. The good guys are flawed, but still driven by an internal moral compass that is the key to Crosses writing style. Life and reality are both brutal...it's how you respond that makes the difference. So with some of the same crossroads, choices are made and we see how a hero or a monster can be formed.Thirdly, The romance is sweet. No dark edges or awkward moments. Just sweet from the start. Bryn and Dec are just so likeable, though I found more of my maternal instincts being triggered by the cover (could they have found a 16 year old instead of a 12 year old for the guy?) The romance is slightly slower to start than in other books, but once it does...Oh boy!Which brings me to...Fourthly, Cross writes good sex scenes-- just the right mix of passion, affection, heat but not so graphic you start hearing 'bow bow chicka bow bow' in the background.And lastly, she knows what she's writing about--- whether it's the culture, the scenery, the military tactics, lingo and super-toys, the ethics, behaviors...nothing rings off or untrue. You feel like you're reading a friend's intimate journal instead of a story.There is more information given without redundancy that can make some books in a series a slog fest of rehashing. There are characters who are either introduced or mentioned that will have their own stories later and plot points are reinforced as a forshadowing of what will appear again. Most of all, Crosses books read 'real' and her characters are people you actually like and care about making this second book in the series worth 5 stars and highly recommended.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:Way too much stupidity and illogic by both the heroine and the good guys. At one point I thought boy these SEALS are incompetent. An example of illogic: the good guys want to get into a nightclub to wait for a bad guy to show up. They know they won't be admitted by themselves. So they want a belly dancer prostitute to perform at the club with one of them going inside with her. You'd think they would get a local prostitute to do this. But no, they ask Bryn (our heroine) to do it, but to disguise herself so the bad guy won't recognize her. Of course something bad happens to her because the bad guy recognizes her. Later they go on a mission to attack a compound where the bad guy is staying. There was no need for Bryn to go along. All she did was yell, run when she shouldn't have, and not follow orders. Another time Luke told Bryn to stay at someone's home "alone" without any of the guys on his team to protect her. Luke knew he was sending her to the home of one of the leaks. Yes something bad happens to her. Why didn't he send one of his team to protect her? He wanted all of them to help him investigate the source of the car bomb. Of course the author doesn't show us any of the investigating activities.Way too much telling and no showing. For example an explosion happens. It is described after-the-fact by someone thinking about what happened and saying there must have been a leak. We didn't see the bad guys planning or doing it. We didn't hear any conversation between the leak and the bad guys. Too many events were done this way - not enough showing. I never got into the heads of the bad guys. There were occasions where the bad guys took action against the good guys based on leaks, but we never saw any details about the leaks. In one case bad guy B realizes X gave info to the good guys, so B kills X. Then B thinks there must be a second leak, but there was no reason for him to think there were two leaks.What was good? I liked the way the bad guy loved his horse. There were several action scenes of people running and shooting. I suppose those were ok, I just didn't care for the reasons behind them.STORY BRIEF:Bryn is visiting her father who is a diplomat in Lebanon. They are kidnapped by Tehrazzi and thrown in a hole in the ground in the desert to die. They are rescued by some Navy SEALS. The father dies but Bryn survives. Tehrazzi is angry and wants Bryn dead because her escape makes him look bad. Luke works for the CIA and has been after Tehrazzi for years. He wants to use Bryn as bait to get Tehrazzi. She agrees. Dec is one of the Navy SEALS who is part of Luke's group. Bryn and Dec are attracted to each other. Dec won't follow his feelings for her because he needs to stay focused on the job. Bryn hurts because she wants him.This is book 2 in the series. Various characters are introduced in one book and then have their own stories in other books in the series. In book 1 the main story is about Rayne, and we briefly meet Rayne's friend Bryn and his father Luke. You do NOT need to read book 1 before this book.DATA:Story length: 337 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Total number of sex scene pages: 10. Setting: current day mostly Syria, Lebanon, and Irag, with one scene in Oregon, U.S. Copyright: 2009. Genre: romantic suspense.

*Deep Breath In Deep Breath Out* Wow! It took me several days to come down from the adrenaline high that I was on from reading this book.The author did a great job of immersing the reader into the action. I literally felt like I was in Beirut. I could vividly feel the sun beating down on my back while I hiked through the hot sand right along with the H/H.I liked Bryn from the moment we were introduced to her. She is strong but not too much where she didn't know to be afraid when it was normal to be so. This was really hard to do since she was surrounded by uber alpha Navy Seals. I loved her character. She was honest about her feelings for Declan.Declan....loved loved loved him. He was so stoic, solid, strong, and your ultimate alpha. I loved how he tried to stay all business around Bryn to keep her safe but yielding to his feelings when they were alone.Simply put.. I loved this story. As others have stated, it is full of action and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am still thinking about this book. This book has been in my TBR pile for the longest. I am so happy I finally decided to read it. I will definitely be adding Kaylea Cross as one of my auto buy authors!

We met Bryn McAllister in book 1 of the series but in this book she is overseas in the Beirut Embassy. She is the half-Lebanese, half-American daugher of Jamul Daoud, her heritage making her "the perfect addition to the diplomatic conference". Jamul has many enemies, many wish him dead due to "his desire to maintain political relations with the U.S" or "because he'd had a daughter with an American woman". The book gets off to an exciting start with a bombing in the embassy and a kidnapping all within the first few pages, providing us with an introduction to characters and the basics of the plot.We have met Luke Hutchinson in book 1 too, we didn't know much about him except he was an ex SEAL, now we know he's working in Beirut doing contract work for the CIA. He is an expert on Farouk Tehrazzi, the man suspected of being behind the scene at the embassy, who if caught could help them catch the big fish himself, Muqtada al-Sadr. Luke has a no nonsense approach, he's abrupt but no rude, just says what's needed and nothing more. Luke has a reputation among the military, he's "a patient, cunning predator. Smart and lethal to the core".Navy SEAL Lieutenant Declan McCabe is due to go home having completed his tour but his team is called in to rescue the hostages. Dec is also well known within the service due to his military successful record, "he had a steady, competent air about him, a certain calmness that came from being very sure of himself". He is teamed up to work alongside Luke who also recruits two of Jamul's security team, brothers Ben and Rhys.Tehrazzi is ruthless "he has a duty to Allah to rid his land of the Zionist and Christian invaders, and Jamul and his daughter would serve as a symbol of his authority". He's afraid of only one thing, his teacher, the identity of which we discover later in the book.You're on guard throughout. Who can you trust? The informants Luke is paying off, are they loyal or are they also in Tehrazzi's back pocket as a double informant? In this war against extremists no one can be trusted, "people back in suburban USA could be living right next to a sleeper cell member". Each time they get so close to capturing Tehrazzi they find he's got word of attack and that means they have a leak somewhere.When a new character is introduced in Kaylea Cross' books, each new bit of information about them gets me intrigued and wanting to know more. Wanting to know more about a character is a dead cert to make me read the next book. Very clever writing, as is the plot not being complete and the bad guy still out there. The book concludes the mini adventure within the larger plot but you need to read on to see how it all pans out.I was trying to leave off reading books 3-5 until a boring train journey in a couple of days but I can't wait that long to find out what happens, so, bye for now, I'm off to Kindle Land for some answers.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25252590-cover-of-darkness" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Cover of Darkness" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437166759m/25252590.jpg" ></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25252590-cover-of-darkness">Cover of Darkness</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2902054.Kaylea_Cross">Kaylea Cross</a><br/>My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1415751296">5 of 5 stars</a>very fast action packed read. intense, scary, very believable, the sort of things you think are probably happening out in these countries all the time. you hear of bombings, kidnappings, torture and worse on the news all the time. reading this feels very real, you get involved with both the story and the characters. keeping you on the edge of your seat, fingers crossed that all will end well. this story background continues on through the series, though each book focuses the main events on different members of the team. very good, well written and researched for all the military stuff.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20353481-wendy-hodges">View all my reviews</a>

After enjoying the previous book in this series - Out Of Her League - downloaded the rest of the series because "I Knew" that this was going to be a great read.This book moves into the world of Seals, Special Ops and terrorism. This is a good, fast paced read, although there were a couple of times that I wish I could have given Bryn a good telling off for not doing as she had been told.You would not neccessarily have to have read Out Of Her League before reading this book as it does stand alone, but there are characters mentioned in the previous book that are central to this (and I presume the other books to follow.

I'm so glad to have discovered Kaylea Cross. Having read all the books by my other favourite authors I had been trying new writers and having read one of Kaylea's I now cannot get enough of her. This book, Cover of Darkness is book 2 in the Suspense series and as with all her others it is totally gripping. It has everything - excitement, dashing heroes, a strong heroine and just enough romance. I couldn't put it down and if you haven't discovered her yet, get reading. You won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this book! The fast paced and graphic detail of life in and out of warzone and in hostile situations really made me feel like I was there living it! Not to mention Declan and Bryn those two are strong, brave and unstoppable when it comes to each other.