The Darkest Hour

Kelly Group International, Book 1

By: Maya Banks

Narrated by: Harry Berkeley

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

The Darkest Hour

Great listen, even better romance and characters that you'll get to love. A story of corruption, second chances, and family bonds. This story was so relatable minus the covert ops and secret missions.

Maya Banks is an author that pulls you in!!

Would you listen to The Darkest Hour again? Why?

yes, great writing. Fabulous Narrating!!

What other book might you compare The Darkest Hour to and why?

I'd say they are close to the Catherine Coulter FBI series!

What does Harry Berkeley bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He ads an extra personal touch. The way he brings the characters to life and allows the characters to be more real and feeling!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I've read this book before, however, when I listened to the part when Rachael was rescued, I literally cried. Harry Berkeley is fantastic at brining the emotions to the surface.

Any additional comments?

Keep the great writing and the character development coming!!

Amazing story

Really great story and writing and the narrator really brings it to life! It really pulled me into the story. Intense suspense

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.