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lisajo85's review
3.0
Jackson Kincaid is spending the rare night off from his dangerous and illegal occupation to spend the evening with Sister Kate at her charity function for a struggling school in Haiti. Jackson’s attendance is warranted because he is the mysterious American donor that everyone has been dying to meet. Suddenly, a terrorist group blazes in killing innocent bystanders and taking over a dozen attendees hostage. One of those hostages is Sister Kate. Jackson share a secret past with Kate and will stop at nothing to rescue his dear friend from these horrible men. When Jackson is suddenly wounded, he’s forced to call for help to the last organization he would ever dream of asking.
This is where Alexia comes in. She is part of a secret organization known as the Sentinels and has a history with Jackson, but has to put it all aside in order to focus on the real issue - taking out the bad guys and rescuing the hostages. This mission brings up old memories and bad feelings for Alexia and Jackson. Both of them have to decide if they’ve changed too much to still have a chance together or if they must both go their own ways once the dust has settled.
Echo of Violence is a novel that shakes up the action right out of the gate. You are immediately thrown into this world of violence and terror and have little time for character introduction. Jackson remains the mysterious rouge, but as the book progresses, you see Jackson as a very emotional character. He’s a dark angel that is private, quiet and keeps to himself. Alexia is somewhat similar to Jackson’s personality. She seems very distant, emotionally shut off and cold. She is all business and rarely lets anyone see past her rough exterior.
Dane’s book uses a great amount of knowledge and description of the inner workings for this terrorist group. While the novel is surprising smart in describing it’s villain, it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. The violence isn’t heavily described, but you still know a great deal about the torture these hostages are facing. Their ordeal is always uncertain and makes for a more intriguing novel by the fact that you have no idea what these mad men will do next. If you don’t like any form of cruelty of violence described in any way shape or form in your books, I would strongly suggest you skip this novel.
The book is very suspenseful throughout along with a well built plot line. The only thing that was missing was the romance. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but it is classified as a romantic suspense so my expectation going into this novel were a little different. The potential romance between Jackson and Alexia was non-existent. Really, they spend a large portion of the book apart. The novel mentions the couple share a history, but the details of that history are never fully exposed. And it’s hard to create any kind of attraction between two characters when one of them is near death. Jackson is gravely injured in the beginning and pushes himself to continue on until the end of the rescue mission. The scenario is somewhat unbelievable because the injury is very serious and infection is a high danger. You go through one chapter where he is near death and the next he is hiking his way through the jungle to rescue Sister Kate.
There is a charming secondary romance between two characters from earlier novels in this series. It’s terribly short, but charming all the same. That is about the extent of the romance department. You will find a great suspenseful and action packed story with Echo of Violence. But romance? Not so likely. Hopefully knowing what to expect when you go into this novel will make for a more enjoyable reading experience.
Overall Rating: 3/5
Heat Level: n/a
Lisa @ Once Upon A Chapter
This is where Alexia comes in. She is part of a secret organization known as the Sentinels and has a history with Jackson, but has to put it all aside in order to focus on the real issue - taking out the bad guys and rescuing the hostages. This mission brings up old memories and bad feelings for Alexia and Jackson. Both of them have to decide if they’ve changed too much to still have a chance together or if they must both go their own ways once the dust has settled.
Echo of Violence is a novel that shakes up the action right out of the gate. You are immediately thrown into this world of violence and terror and have little time for character introduction. Jackson remains the mysterious rouge, but as the book progresses, you see Jackson as a very emotional character. He’s a dark angel that is private, quiet and keeps to himself. Alexia is somewhat similar to Jackson’s personality. She seems very distant, emotionally shut off and cold. She is all business and rarely lets anyone see past her rough exterior.
Dane’s book uses a great amount of knowledge and description of the inner workings for this terrorist group. While the novel is surprising smart in describing it’s villain, it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. The violence isn’t heavily described, but you still know a great deal about the torture these hostages are facing. Their ordeal is always uncertain and makes for a more intriguing novel by the fact that you have no idea what these mad men will do next. If you don’t like any form of cruelty of violence described in any way shape or form in your books, I would strongly suggest you skip this novel.
The book is very suspenseful throughout along with a well built plot line. The only thing that was missing was the romance. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but it is classified as a romantic suspense so my expectation going into this novel were a little different. The potential romance between Jackson and Alexia was non-existent. Really, they spend a large portion of the book apart. The novel mentions the couple share a history, but the details of that history are never fully exposed. And it’s hard to create any kind of attraction between two characters when one of them is near death. Jackson is gravely injured in the beginning and pushes himself to continue on until the end of the rescue mission. The scenario is somewhat unbelievable because the injury is very serious and infection is a high danger. You go through one chapter where he is near death and the next he is hiking his way through the jungle to rescue Sister Kate.
There is a charming secondary romance between two characters from earlier novels in this series. It’s terribly short, but charming all the same. That is about the extent of the romance department. You will find a great suspenseful and action packed story with Echo of Violence. But romance? Not so likely. Hopefully knowing what to expect when you go into this novel will make for a more enjoyable reading experience.
Overall Rating: 3/5
Heat Level: n/a
Lisa @ Once Upon A Chapter
sarah1984's review
2.0
8/1 - I haven't read much yet, but I few things have caught my eye. First I noticed a few awkward phrases, like "If you want to be held harmless,", which made me think that maybe Jordan Dane (I think that might be a pen name) does not have English as her first language. It's clear, from the context, what she's trying to say in the phrase, but the way she wrote it isn't what might be called 'correct English'. The second thing that I noticed, but this time it was amusing, was the use of Tortuga Island as Kincaid's pirate hideout, the name of which I immediately recognised (before I read it in the book) as the name of Captain Jack's place to find a pirate crew in Pirate's of the Caribbean, which I have now learned was also actually a filming location for one of the sequels (I assume the location scouts did that on purpose). To be continued...
9/1 - This isn't impressing me much. The strange phrasing continues and is irritating and the plot is a bit weak. I feel like Dane is trying to shock readers with the amount of violence the terrorists are enacting on the hostages, but to my, possibly cynical, mind it reads like "Ho hum, read it all before, when's something unexpected going to happen?" It also feels a bit disjointed, I don't know if that's the writing or if it's because I'm reading the third book in a series before reading the first or second books. Will continue but I think The Echo of Violence is heading for a 2 star.
12/1 - On the back of the book there's a quote from 'New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan', that says "Hot romance and cold suspense. Intense and satisfying." After finishing The Echo of Violence last night I'd have to disagree with that praise. There was NO ROMANCE to speak of and the suspense wasn't cold or even suspenseful. Not intense or satisfying in the least. I feel compelled to read the first book in the series simply because that might make it more fair on the plot. I thought maybe, since I hadn't read the first book first, I hadn't given the story a fair shot to engage me, so I will give the first one a go before I completely condemn the series.
9/1 - This isn't impressing me much. The strange phrasing continues and is irritating and the plot is a bit weak. I feel like Dane is trying to shock readers with the amount of violence the terrorists are enacting on the hostages, but to my, possibly cynical, mind it reads like "Ho hum, read it all before, when's something unexpected going to happen?" It also feels a bit disjointed, I don't know if that's the writing or if it's because I'm reading the third book in a series before reading the first or second books. Will continue but I think The Echo of Violence is heading for a 2 star.
12/1 - On the back of the book there's a quote from 'New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan', that says "Hot romance and cold suspense. Intense and satisfying." After finishing The Echo of Violence last night I'd have to disagree with that praise. There was NO ROMANCE to speak of and the suspense wasn't cold or even suspenseful. Not intense or satisfying in the least. I feel compelled to read the first book in the series simply because that might make it more fair on the plot. I thought maybe, since I hadn't read the first book first, I hadn't given the story a fair shot to engage me, so I will give the first one a go before I completely condemn the series.
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