Kill Without Mercy by Alexandra Ivy (ARES Security #1)
Releases: December 29, 2015
Romantic Suspense
Zebra

Reviewed by Mandi

A new romantic suspense series from Alexandra Ivy focusing on five military men, who were captured by the Taliban for five months while serving in Afghanistan. They made it out, and now have an unbreakable bond. Some time later, they are all out of the military but decided to work together on a new venture, to help each other get back into civilian life. They are starting a security firm in Houston, Texas and his is where our book starts.  Rafe is our hero – he is the covert ops specialist, which will come in handy once he meets the heroine.

Rafe’s grandfather has passed away (they were not close) and he travels back home to Iowa to clear out his house and sell it before his security firm opens. It’s here he meets Annie. Annie currently lives in Denver, but she travels home to Iowa when her haunting visions return. Annie’s father was convicted of being a notorious serial murderer. He killed seven women in her hometown when she was about ten years old. As the murders were happening, Annie would see them play out in her head. Of course, no one believed her – so when these visions come back as an adult, she is worried another murderer has surfaced. The towns people recognize her and of course gossip starts, which is how Rafe comes into the picture, as he comes to the beautiful stranger’s defense. She soon tells him her history with her father, and she tells him about her visions – and he believes her. He has a knack with intuition or hunches – so someone having visions isn’t that far off for him.

Together, they start to investigate Annie’s father, and the current women that are missing.

This was an okay suspense story. Actually, there were a few twists and turns that I liked with the mystery. The bad guy is bad, and I like how Rafe and Annie work together (and all of Rafe’s buddies) to figure things out. They take things seriously – Rafe’s four military friends are super-protective of Rafe, and that was kind of cute.

Buttttttt – I think it could have been better. The romance fell pretty flat for me. There was no huge flare of attraction or any sexual tension. Rafe and Annie meet – and after a certain amount of time has passed – they kiss. Then more time and they sleep together. It felt very predictable. I wanted more passion between them.

Annie sees visions and I personally don’t like this supernatural “woo woo” in my suspense books. The blurb doesn’t mention it, otherwise, I probably would have passed on this. Although I will say, the visions don’t play a huge part in this story – besides getting Annie back to her hometown. No more woo woo in my suspense books darn it!!

Grade: C

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