Midnight Pursuits (Killer Instincts, #4)

by Elle Kennedy

Her job is to stay hidden.
Too bad he can’t take his eyes off her.
 
Soldier-for-hire Ethan Hayes is the youngest member of an elite mercenary team. While he may be affectionately nicknamed the rookie, the skills Ethan honed as a Marine make him seriously dangerous. But when a sudden distress call puts him in close quarters with a rival, he finds more than his field skills being put to the test.
 
Juliet Mason stands out as the master thief in a covert group of assassins and spies. Her latest mission is personal—and it’s gone horribly wrong. Juliet may prefer to work alone, but when the rookie comes to her aid in snowy Eastern Europe, she can’t deny they make a good team. But even up against a powerful enemy, their most challenging task yet may be fighting the passion between them....

• ISBN10: 0451465695
• ISBN13: 9780451465696
• Publish Date: 1 April 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 18 August 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Imprint: Signet
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451465696

Reviews

[Linda]

This series is just so good! Every time I think I have something figured out, there is a new loop, another perspective, and I am just at the edge of my seat. I love it! The romance is hot, and the action is at least as hot ;)

[Rowena]

Juliet Mason is a one man assassin team that works for Jim Morgan’s hated enemy, Noelle. Ethan Hayes is a mercenary that works for Jim Morgan. When Juliet’s brother is murdered, she swears to avenge his death but when she finds herself in a pickle, there’s only Ethan Hayes available to come to her aid. Ethan is the last person that Juliet wants to see but he’s all she’s got and he won’t go away. Trying to climb their way up the information ladder to take down the person that killed her brother, unravels a kill list that Ethan can’t walk away from. And he won’t let Juliet walk away from it either so they band together to get to the bottom of the kill list and protect the innocents that are involved.

No one is more surprised than Juliet that the guy she can’t stand, is the guy she won’t leave behind.

I went into this story not very enthused about it because I wasn’t all that hung up on either character in the previous books but I shouldn’t have doubted Elle Kennedy’s ability to suck me right into their story because she did just that. I wanted to read this book to hurry up and get to the other books in this series, mainly Jim and Noelle’s book.

I liked Ethan in the previous books but I can’t say that I was very interested in getting more from him. I was more dazzled by the likes of Kane and Trevor and D and well, all of the other guys. Maybe because Ethan is only 25 and I’m older than him but holy cow did I enjoy his character in this book. I loved his sense of duty, his sense of honor and I loved the forthright way he was with Juliet. He didn’t bullshit around and he didn’t waste time with small talk. If he had something to say to her, he said it…and I loved that he saw right through her bullshit, because there was a lot.

Juliet was one of those strong heroines who knows she’s the shit and doesn’t need any help. So in other words, she drove me kind of crazy. Her wanting to do the mission solo, not caring about anything or anyone else made sense to me because she was crazy grieving her brother so she wasn’t thinking straight but it still annoyed me. She was so stubborn that at times I wanted to throttle the hell out of her even though she could kill the snot out of me. But I did like the bond that formed between her and the young charge that her and Ethan take in to protect from the killers.

This was another strong story in the series and it fueled my desire to move on to the next book. Jim and Noelle kind of drove me crazy in this book with their constant bickering but I was still anxious to get to their book. I was super anxious to finally find out what happened between them and see how in the world they would come together in love since in each and every single book so far, they hate each other’s guts and swear to kill each other.

The suspense in this book was great and the story itself was fantastic and though it’s not my favorite book of the bunch, it was still a great one. I loved meeting the other members of Noelle’s team and I’m looking forward to more from this series. I’m looking forward to more from Sully and Liam too. I can’t believe there is still so much to look forward to. Love this series!

[EBookObsessed]

Ethan was just starting his mandatory down time, when he intercepted a phone call on Isabel’s phone. Isabel had left it behind as she left for her honeymoon, and even though he saw from the caller I.D. that it was Juliet Mason, he knew he needed to answer. Ethan met Juliet (one of Noelle’s thief/assassins) last year when she helped out Ethan’s team, but he isn’t sure what makes him more angry, her sarcastic tongue and merciless teasing or the fact that he can’t get thoughts of her dark eyes and perfect body out of his head. It is one thing to be teased about his age by his teammates, as they call him the rookie, but having the beautiful and dangerous Juliet mocking him was frustrating.

Ethan can tell when he answers that Juliet is hurt, badly. With Isabel on her honeymoon and the rest of his team on assignment, Ethan knows that even half a world away, he is the only hope that Juliet has and he has to act fast or he may be too late.

After patching up a bullet hole in Juliet’s side and sitting on her until she begins to recover, Ethan finally forces out of her what happened. Juliet’s brother is shot when he returned home early to take care of his sick girlfriend. What Henry manages to tell Juliet confirms that Zoya was killed by a very expensive contract killer, the Siberian Wolf. Henry works for the Red Cross and Zoya is a school teacher. Who would hire a high priced assassin to kill off a school teacher?

Juliet manages to get–or torture–the information out of the Wolf before she kills him and she won’t stop until she kills the man who hired the hit. She also learned that Zoya wasn’t the only target on his list and there are still three living targets. Ethan won’t leave Juliet to face such a dangerous man by herself, especially wounded, but he wants to bring in some of his team to protect the other targets.

Juliet likes to work alone, but if she is going to be followed around by Morgan’s rookie and give in to his boy scout good deeds, she will only agree to protect the others as long as Ethan doesn’t get in her way of extracting her revenge.

THOUGHTS:
If you like Maya Bank’s KGI series like I do, you will really enjoy this story. This is my first of the series (I didn’t realize it was the 4th book) and when I mentioned how much I was enjoying Ethan and Juliet, I was gifted with copies of the first three books in the series. (Thank you, Penguin!)

I don’t know about the other books yet, but if you were going to start a book in the middle of the series, you can’t help but love Juliet and Ethan. You do meet some others in the series, but I didn’t feel lost for not knowing everyone’s deep background. They worked together when it was needed even though this series includes the two separate teams belonging to Morgan and Noelle, who both have different purposes and styles.

Juliet is a tough-as-nails heroine. Juliet is dangerous and she knows it. Her one weakness is her feeling for Henry. She was a orphan who went from one bad foster family to another and her “brother” Henry was another foster kid and they took care of each other. When she loses Henry, she loses the only person who truly loves her and who would cared if she died. Herein we see the soft heart of the dangerous assassin that she tries to keep hidden from the others.

Although Juliet considers herself a bad person since she does kill people for a living, you see her giving in to not only her attraction to the younger Ethan, but also softening up to his Captain America view of the world. He wants to protect the other people because that’s how he is wired, and you see how the jaded Juliet wants to be better and worthy in his eyes.

This was a thrilling action story and a moving love story as well. I am going to see what I can do to squeeze in the first three. There is some deep history between Morgan and Noelle (the leaders of the two separate teams) and you get a tiny glimpse through their arguing that once they were deeply in love but they both appear to feel betrayed by the other. So there is going to be one explosive book when those two get thrown back together.

This will definitely make my ‘I’m gonna follow the series’ list. But if you just want to give this a try, it can work as a stand alone as well.

Bonus – Elle Kennedy has a breakdown of the characters of the Killer Instinct Series on her website

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

See more at http://ebookobsessed.com

[Cocktails and Books]

MIDNIGHT PURSUITS is exhilarating ride filled with romance, intrigue, adventure and drama. Juliet Mason and Ethan Hayes decide to work together on a dangerous mission in Russia. Juliet Mason is an invisible assassin and she is trying to find the person who killed her brother. Juliet’s job is to kill people without anyone ever finding out who killed them. Ethan works as a mercenary on a team which specializes in extraction not killing. They are adrenaline junkies who get a high from their dangerous jobs. Because of their occupations, they never get too close to anyone because it’s impossible to have a relationship with someone and lie about what they do for a living. Juliet is used to working on her own and not relying or trusting anyone but herself. She reluctantly agrees to work with Ethan, only because he insists on helping her and won’t take no for an answer. Juliet is strong and gutsy with a tough exterior. There is a sizzling chemistry between Ethan and Juliet, but Juliet tries her best to ignore it. I loved all the verbal foreplay between Ethan and Juliet. Although Juliet is attracted to Ethan, she doesn’t think he is her type, because he seems too young, fresh faced, sweet and caring. Juliet is a daredevil, full of life and exciting. Ethan likes everything about Juliet and has never been with another woman like her. While they search for the killer they are together all the time and its get harder and harder for them to ignore the simmering attraction. Ethan is an alpha warrior, he is sexy, intelligent, tough and a great lover, which surprises Juliet. Juliet keeps telling herself she is going to stay away from Ethan, but every time he touches her, she can’t seem to resist him. Ethan wants a relationship, but Juliet doesn’t do relationships.

Elle Kennedy is a talented writer who makes the characters come to life. Her writing style made me feel as though I was right there in the middle of all the action. I know I can always count on Elle Kennedy for an entertaining story and she didn’t disappoint me. This is the fourth book in the Killer Instincts series and each one is a standalone. What a fast paced, thrilling story.

Reviewed by Karen for Cocktails and Books