ECHOES AT DAWN - Maya Banks
A KGI Novel , Book 5
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-25086-0
July 2012
Romantic Suspense

The Rocky Mountains and Belize - Present Day

From the moment Rio saw the footage of Grace Pederson being abducted, he knew he would be the one to find her.  He's promised her sister Shea that he would bring Grace back to the Kelley compound safe, but when he finally finds Grace, she's literally at the end of her rope.  She's escaped her captors and is running through the mountains, but Rio and his team aren't the only ones hunting for Grace, and they aren't the first to find her.  Rio and his team manage to come away from the skirmish with Grace, and with all of their team members intact, but Grace is near death. 

Grace's ability to heal people comes at a high cost—she takes their ailments into herself—and the people holding her haven't allowed her enough time to heal herself.  She's cut off the telepathic link between Shea and herself, and has basically resigned herself to death after the torture she's been through.  When Rio tells her she's safe, Grace can't quite bring herself to trust him, but he promises that he'll bring her to Shea, so she goes along with it.  As she begins to heal, she starts to trust Rio and his men and is drawn to the man that is so fiercely protective of her.  There are still people after her, but this time she'll have somebody fighting on her side.

In her latest thrilling KGI novel, Maya Banks brings together a woman who has survived hell and the man willing to go there to save her.  Rio has never been interested in relationships, but the minute he sees Grace on camera, he knows that she is his.  He's willing to do whatever it takes to bring her home and keep her safe.  When he starts getting to know her, he's awed by the courage and determination she possesses, and even more determined to make her his.  Grace and Shea learned after their parents' deaths that the Pedersons weren't actually their parents—they had worked at the lab where Grace and Shea were born.  The girls had been experiments, and before the testing could begin on their abilities, the Pedersons abducted them and had been on the run since then.  After their deaths, Grace and Shea split up and kept running.  All Grace has ever wanted was a normal life and a family, and for the first time she sees that as a possible future…if she can free herself from whoever is chasing her now.

The follow up to WHISPERS IN THE DARK, which features Shea and Nathan Kelly, ECHOES AT DAWN can be read as a stand-alone story, but the series on the whole is a compelling one.  KGI, or Kelly Group International, is comprised of the Kelly family and two other teams of former military personnel, and they take on missions that the government can't or won't.  While this is an intense tale full of action, it's also a sweet, hot romance with moments of humor.  I highly recommend ECHOES AT DAWN, and can't wait for the next book.

Jennifer Bishop