Midnight Action (Killer Instincts, #5)

by Elle Kennedy

She’s got a broken heart...
and a fully loaded arsenal....
 
Ex–army ranger Jim Morgan leads a team of elite mercenaries, but eighteen years ago in Paris, he was part of a black ops unit whose mission was to hunt down a rogue operative. In order to trap the criminal, Jim seduced Noelle, the man’s daughter—a ruthless act that cost him the love of his life and turned her into a mortal enemy. Now he can’t trust her, but he still desires her. He also needs her help....
 
Older, wiser, and unwilling to play the fool again, Noelle runs a group of highly skilled assassins. And she’s just been offered the hit of the century: Eliminate Jim Morgan. History gives them no reason to trust each other, but with their lives in jeopardy at the hands of a common enemy, the lines between love and hate are soon blurred. Now Noelle and Jim must face the past if they want to have a future—let alone a future together.

• ISBN10: 0451465709
• ISBN13: 9780451465702
• Publish Date: 4 November 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Imprint: Signet
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451465702

Reviews

[Linda]

Finally! We got to know what Noelle and Jim's deal was. And oh my, what a tangled mess it was!

[Rowena]

I wasn’t sure what to expect when jumping into this book because I’m going to be honest and say that I found it hard to like Noelle in the other books. She’s tough, she’s strong but she’s also annoying as shit. Then there’s Jim. It frustrated me when he would take off without a word to anyone on his team. So they’re being blown up and having to defend themselves and their family against enemies that they think are Jim’s and he’s off having clandestine meetings with who knows who, doing who knows what. But even with all of that, I wanted their story. I wanted their backgrounds and their history. I wanted to know what happened between these two that led them to where they were today.

And boy did Elle Kennedy write them one helluva story.

So this story starts off with Noelle being offered the job of killing James Morgan. She should be elated to take on the job, considering she hates his guts but she doesn’t take the job. She joins Jim in trying to find out who is trying to kill him, putting herself in danger in the process. It’s nothing that Noelle hasn’t been through before but she’s surprised that she’s going through all of this for Jim Morgan. The same Jim Morgan that broke her heart eighteen years ago.

Dude, this book was filled to the brim with action and drama and surprisingly, romance. I wasn’t prepared for how much I was going to enjoy this book. I’ve been mighty interested in Jim and Noelle ever since she showed up at the compound in Book 1 and Jim was pissed to high heaven. I’ve been wanting more Jim since I met him, too. I wanted to know who he really was under all of that seriousness. Where did he go when he was off without a word to his team? Why did he screw Noelle over? How did he screw Noelle over? I came into this book with so many questions where this guy was concerned and when I closed the book, Elle Kennedy had answered all of those questions and so much more.

I was prepared to like Jim because hello? He’s sexy as hell and has that mysterious edge to him but as the story was unraveling and we got the history I was searching for, added to the present drama of Jim’s life, I fell hard for him. He really gets put through the wringer in this book and I loved him a little more with each passing page. I thought I blurted, “PLOT TWIST” a lot in the other books but there were so many twists and turns in this book alone that I should have had whiplash but holy cow did I love this book.

Noelle really came around in this book for me. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of how cold she was and how hard she was to like. I thought the way she threw her weight around and the way she was with everyone around her turned me off but as we dug into her past and found out her story, it explained why she was the way that she was. It made me understand where she was coming from. With all of the shit that she was dealt, she came out on top. You have to admire someone with that kind of grit. She picked up the pieces of her shitty life and went out and got the life she wanted. She worked hard to become strong…and she was hella strong. But what really surprised me was how she stepped up and was there for Jim when he needed her most.

Seeing these two circle each other for multiple books made their coming together in this book that much more enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing them get over their hatred of the other and truly forgive each other. I enjoyed pretty much everything in this book, even Noelle’s know it all, I’m tough woman, hear me roar act in the beginning. This book is highly entertaining, action packed and the cast is one that will stay with you long after you finished the book.

Elle Kennedy is really knocking it out of the park with this series for me. I have enjoyed each and every single book in this series and I’m looking forward to Sean and Bailey’s book next. I definitely recommend this book.

[EBookObsessed]

This series has taken over the Maya Banks KGI series as my favorite Action Romance. I was looking forward to this book in particular since Morgan and Noelle have such a volatile relationship that I had to know the history behind it. Great action, sad background.

James Morgan met the most beautiful girl he ever laid eyes on on his first solo mission. Getting information about the whereabouts of Douglas Phillips from his 17 year old daughter, Noelle, was Jim’s mission. Her father was selling secrets and it was Jim’s job to bring him in. He was only supposed to earn her trust and get information about her father. The feelings that were growing between them were not part of the plan. That’s why when Jim’s team caught Douglas Phillips and Jim walked away from Noelle, and he never expected to see her again.

His betrayal set Noelle on her current path. The French Government recruited her and trained Noelle to become an assassin.

Two years later, Noelle stumbled across James Morgan once again seducing a young woman for information about her father. Noelle wouldn’t allow Jim to tear another father from his daughter and she tipped off the girl. Noelle’s interference did more than just ruin Jim’s mission. Agents went in too early and several died. It also began a war between two very strong and deadly opponents which is still going on 19 years later.

So you would think that Noelle would be delighted to receive a call offering her $5 million to kill the man who has been the bane of her existence. But being Noelle, she doesn’t appreciate being told what to do by some unknown source, or at least that’s what she tells herself.

If actions speak louder than words, Noelle’s action indicate quite loudly that there is more emotions than just hate between her and Jim Morgan. Noelle heads off to Jim’s new headquarters to warn him of the contract rather than picking up the phone. Her message once delivered she could walk away, but somehow she allows Jim to come with her on her private plane to Paris to track down the client. She tells him to get out of her house, but when he simply won’t, she doesn’t do anything for force him out. For someone who hates Jim so much, not only hasn’t she killed him to collect a hell of a lot of money, something which she has told everyone was her lifelong goal and what she wanted most in the world, but she is, somewhat passively/aggressively, helping Jim to find the man will to pay $5 million for his death.

Noelle and Jim set off sparks whenever they are in the same 100 yard area and in Midnight Action, they have the hottest hate-sex imaginable. The saying is that there is a thin line between love and hate, but in this case, these two have smeared that line until you can’t tell one emotion from the other.

The emotions and sex between them are complicated enough, but becomes even more so when the parties from that fateful case seventeen years ago cross into this one, ripping open the already festering wounds between Noelle and Jim.

The action in this story blends with flashbacks of the past, and mix with an already volatile roller coaster of emotions to make for an exciting and intriguing story.

Even though several characters reappear from prior novels, you can read this as a stand alone, but I have no doubt once you’ve had a taste, you will be going back to read the prior four stories in the series.

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

[Cocktails and Books]

In MIDNIGHT ACTION we finally find out Jim Morgan and Noelle’s story. In the other books in this series they are constantly taunting each other, but you can also feel the chemistry flowing between them. We become acquainted with Jim and Noelle when they were young, naive and vulnerable, before they put up all the walls they have today. The reader is taken back in time and the story alternates from present day to eighteen years ago when Jim and Noelle first meet. Not all authors can make this type of story flow well, but Elle Kennedy does a wonderful job.

Jim is an ex Army Ranger who now runs a successful mercenary company. His group of mercenaries is the most successful and sought after team in the world. I admire Jim, he’s a rugged guy, but is also vulnerable and not afraid to show his feelings.

Noelle is a paid assassin and has a group of women working for her. Sometimes Jim and Noelle work on the same cases together, which isn’t easy because they’re both stubborn and don’t trust each other. Noelle is tough and acts like she doesn’t need anyone, but she has scars from her past that she’s never recovered from.

Elle Kennedy writes a well written, action packed story full suspense, with some humor thrown in, to relieve the tension. The characters are believable, interesting, and down to earth. We catch up with many of the characters from past books in this series and I love the camaraderie shared between the guys on the team. Midnight Action is another installment in the Killer Instincts series and each book is a stand-alone. I have read and enjoyed all the books in this series, but this is my new favorite.

Reviewed by Karen for Cocktails and Books