The Darkest Hour

Kelly Group International, Book 1

By: Maya Banks

Narrated by: Harry Berkeley

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

It's been a year since ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly saw his wife Rachel alive. Now he's received an anonymous phone call claiming Rachel is alive. To find her, Ethan will have to doge bullets, cross a jungle, and risk falling captive to a deadly drug cartel that threatens his own demise.

©2010 Maya Banks (P)2012 Recorded Books

Great start to an amazing series

This is the 3rd time hearing this series not to mention that I’ve read the series 2 times before that. This entire series is very captivating and keeps you engaged the entire time. I can hardly put these books down and usually read or listen to the entire book in one sitting.

Excruciatingly tough to endure.

Of course we all have our own individual preferences and the only way one knows if you like a book is to listen to it yourself. I am a fan of MB books and I found myself, forcing myself to listen to this book until the end.
I was disappointed to find this story boring, sickeningly filled with overdone "lovey doviness", and a ridiculous amount of mundane descriptions. At points, I found myself speaking out loud in frustration. Don't get me wrong there are some good points in the story, but overall it leaves a lot to be desired. The narration unfortunately left even more to be desired. When I listened to the preview snippet I thought the sexy accent would surely heighten the enjoyment, but OMG he was so very boring. I am a fan of Kresley Cole, J D Tyler, Jeanine Frost, and Gena Showalter to name a few, and was hoping the KGI series would be of their caliber, like MB's other books. As a MB fan, I'm hoping the KGI stories get better and am going to try Book 2. But, If 2 is as bad as Book 1, then I will not be able to recommend them at all.

Great Story

Love this story and cant wait to listen to the rest of the KGI Series. Harry Berkeley did a amazing job with narration.

painfully predictable

What did you like best about The Darkest Hour? What did you like least?

the most enjoyable part of this book is the narrator, the least enjoyable was the predictable story line.

Audio book isn't the best format for this book

This has been on my TBR forever! And I do mean forever!  I have read one other series my Banks, and it was a while ago and very different from this one.  But I went in not knowing what to expect.  But I did have some issues.

First, this is a massive series, so far 12 books.  I am not sure what Banks planned when she started KGI, but it is evident from the number of characters she introduced, that this was going to be a large series.  Here is where listening vs. reading can be an issue, at least for me.  When I am reading a book, it is more immersive and takes 100% of my focus.  Whereas when I am listening to audiobooks, I am usually doing other things, like driving, getting ready for work, cooking, etc.  So when I feel like I need to remember a lot of info, like names and basic bio info of 10+ characters, it gets overwhelming in audiobook format, and I just can’t do it.  And that was was one of the main issues I had with this story.  It's not that I didn’t like it, It was just audiobook was the wrong format for me. 

The other issue I had was with Rachel, she comes back broken which I get, but her behavior is all over the place.  And her relationship with Garrett was weird; I understand why Ethan got jealous.   There isn’t a man alive that wouldn’t.  At least not a macho Alpha Navy Seal.  I also, really don’t care for damsels in distress much.  I will take a kick-ass chick any day.  

I am not giving up on this series because the next story is about Sam, and hopefully won't have so many other characters, or at least I will have a better understanding of them.  But overall the story was fast-paced, loaded with action, a loving family and loads of hunky men that I can’t wait to read more about.  I am rating The Darkest Hour: Kelly Group International, Book 1  Three Boundless Stars, it was good.  

Awesome military romance!

This audiobook about an ex-SEAL whose wife is missing. When he hears rumors about her whereabouts, he's on his way (come hell or high water) to rescue her. The story takes us through jungles, bad guys and loads of danger before he saves her. Great narration also! One of the book of the KGI series by the great Maya Banks!

Pretty Good book!

I really enjoyed this story of the tortured Ethan who found his wife who he thought was dead. She lost her memory but was haunted by Ethan in her dreams. Story is filled with action and unexpected surprises.

Looking forward to reading more of this series.

A lot of loose ends.

At first, I was not a fan of the Sean Connery sounding reader, but he ended up being good. The story kept me entertained, but there was a lot of build up for a pretty anti - climatic ending. Lots of things left unsaid and unsolved. There were a few side stories that really contributed nothing to the overall plot. Overall, an okay book.

When you realize your body is just as responsive as your emotions in a great book.

This was a great audiobook for a long road trip. It kept me on the edge of my seat, my body was as reactive as my emotions to the twists and turns. I had to remind myself to take a deep breath at times.
It made any stops very brief with anticipation to return to the book. I am already downloading the next book in the series. I can wait to grow deeper into the different avenues of their story lines continue. The narrator did a fantastic job with each character, a brilliant and enjoyable narrator.

Very good start to the series :D

4 stars

This was a very good story. I really liked both Ethan and Rachel and enjoyed seeing them come back together and work things out. I really like Maya Banks work and will be continuing with this series.

Ethan is an ex-SEAL and, when the story begins, is trying to get through the year anniversary of the death of his wife, Rachel. He's torn up and can't get past loosing her and just wishes there was some way he could go back in time or get her back. Impossible right? Well Ethan thought so too until he gets a package with pictures of someone that looks like Rachel. The information indicates that Rachel is being held in drug cartel camp down in South America. He's afraid to hope and goes to his brothers, who run a "Special Ops" company, for help.

3 of Ethan's brother's run KGI (Kelly Group International), which is a company that performs Ops like hostage/kidnap victim recovery & intelligence gathering among other things. When Ethan brings them the info he received, they are all in for planning a mission and going in to save her. Since the area she's supposed to be in is near where she was supposedly killed while on a aid mission for a charity a year before, they're hopeful it's really her. Because of her imprisonment and drugs that her captors used on her, Rachel doesn't remember much of anything except her name and Ethan's face. She almost wondered if his face was a figment of her imagination but thinking of him made her feel safe. When her rescue comes, she's so messed up that Ethan is the only one she'll trust, not remembering any of his brothers at first. There is a little bit of an issue getting out but they manage and everyone gets out whole, if slightly banged up.

Rachel has some recovering to do and Ethan stays by her side while it happens. She starts remembering some of his brothers but things are still iffy on her memory and recovering from the drugs takes a lot out of her. Ethan, being thrilled to have Rachel back in his arms, does everything he can to help her recover. They bond back together as she heals and they start getting back in to their relationship. Rachel's memory is still fractured and she doesn't remember much. Ethan is glad of this because before he thought she died, their marriage had been in a bad spot. Ethan was to blame and is hoping he can convince her of his love before she remembers so he can convince her to give him another chance. He takes care of her and she starts to settle in to being back home and meet people she doesn't remember that she used to know. Things go pretty well in this regard but there are difficulties. One of these is unintentionally caused by a homeless girl, Rusty, that Ethan's parents took in. I liked Rusty and hope she sticks around in the series...she seems like she'd make things interesting.

Most of the issues Rachel has settling in are to be expected but she does get run off the road at one point but they don't think anything of it at the time. Things are going pretty well when Rachel finally remembers about their marriage issues. Ethan tries to explain and does but they still have more talking to do when things go wrong and Rachel is taken by some bad guys who try to kill her. She gets past this danger just to have another attempt on her life. It becomes obvious that her faulty memory is hiding something that someone doesn't want to come out. In the end, the truth comes out and the bad guy is arrested. Rachel and Ethan talk things through and confirm that they love each other and want to make things work and then they start working their way to a HEA.

I thought this story was very good. Ethan and Rachel are flawed people but realistic and I really enjoyed seeing them get another chance at love. The characters (secondary characters included) are great and the story is interesting. I'm looking forward to trying the next book in the series. I'd recommend this book. Thumbs up. :)