Midnight Alias by Elle Kennedy (Killer Instincts #2)
Romantic Suspense
February 5, 2013
Berkley

Reviewed by Mandi

I really enjoy Elle Kennedy’s Out of Uniform series she writes for Samhain so when I saw she was writing a romantic suspense series, I thought I’d give book two a try. It didn’t quite do it for me though.

The book starts out strong. Due to her mom’s cancer and huge medical bills, Olivia had to drop out of college and work to pay all the bills. When her friends offers her to dance as a stripper and Olivia realizes just how much money she can make doing it, she reluctantly agrees. But she runs into rough company and one night she gets attacked while walking to her car. She fends off her attacker, and wakes up in the hospital. She soon learns her boss, Vince  took care of her attacker, paid off the cops to keep it quiet, and had decided that Olivia is now his. He starts paying all her bills, but demands she be his girlfriend. He is sleazy and gross and Olivia is smart to be very scared of him. She plays along, hoping one day she can save enough money to get herself and her mom to safety.

Luke Dubois and his team of operatives have been hired by the DEA to find a missing agent. This agent was undercover at the strip club where Olivia works and this is how Luke meets Olivia. He meets her to try to get information on the missing agent but immediately becomes enthralled by her. He knows something dark and sinister is going down at this club, but Olivia is too terrified and thinks she is being tricked by Vince to admit anything to Luke. But soon things get too intense with Vince, and she realizes the only person she can trust is Luke

This book has a nice start. I think the author does a nice job with setting up  Olivia in a really bad spot. She gets owned by Vince, and really has no way to get out of it. Vince is a well done villain, who is a secret mob guy. He has no morals or ethics and is just a slimy guy. But he is smart can manipulate Olivia with his money and “helping” her mother. She knows she needs to get out but she doesn’t have the money to uproot her sick mother.

But with the strong set-up I started to lose interest in this book about halfway through. I started to get a little tired of Vince and his antics. I wanted Luke and his team to move faster and do something about the situation. Everything felt a bit predictable. I think in her other series (the Out of Uniform series) she takes more risks with her characters. She gives them an edge, and you never quite know what they are going to do or say. This book felt too safe. I could guess what would happen next. Olivia and Luke’s relationship was just mediocre. There was nothing there to keep me guessing or intrigued. It all just felt flat by the end.

Rating: C

Recent Reviews:
The Book Pushers – B
Wit and Sin – 4.5/5
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