Book ~ "The Darkest Hour" (2010) Maya Banks

From MayaBanks.com ~ It’s been one year since ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly last saw his wife Rachel alive. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt over his failures as a husband, Ethan shuts himself off from everything and everyone. His brothers have tried to bring Ethan into the KGI fold, tried to break through the barriers he's built around himself, but Ethan refuses to respond … until he receives anonymous information claiming Rachel is alive. To save her, Ethan will have to dodge bullets, cross a jungle, and risk falling captive to a deadly drug cartel that threatens his own demise. And even if he succeeds, he’ll have to force Rachel to recover memories she can’t and doesn’t want to relive—the minute by minute terror of her darkest hour—for their love, and their lives, may depend on it.

I found this book to be a weird combination of an action thriller and a Harlequin Romance. It's like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be so it went with both. And the cover tends to think it's a Harlequin Romance.

The beginning of the book deals with Ethan discovering his wife is not actually dead but held captive in South America. He and his brothers (who coincidentally do missions like this for a living) go in and rescue her with guns blasting. There's blood and some tense moments but they make it home with Rachel safely. Sounds like an action thriller, right?

Rachel has lost most of her memories so the middle of the book deals with Rachel falling back in love with Ethan and his family helping Rachel heal. During this, Ethan is concerned that Rachel will learn his secret and leave him ... he dwells on this a lot (seriously, a lot!!). Sounds like a Harlequin Romance, right?

Then it's back to the action thriller again as the book winds up and we find out why Rachel was held captive, "whodunnit", etc. It's gory in parts which, to me, contrasts with the lovey-dovey middle.

I've never read any of Banks' books before (never heard of her) and I enjoyed it. This is apparently the first in a series featuring the Kelly brothers. I liked the writing style and found that it was fairly fast-paced and I was buying the story. The characters were likeable, though I don't see the point in having Rusty (a teenager Ethan's mom takes in) in the story as her character isn't very well developed. Her actions set off the chain of events that lead to the ending but this could have been accomplished otherwise.

I'll check out other books by this author.