Hidden Away

KGI #3

by Maya Banks

A man who shoots first and asks questions later…

Most people would take an all-expenses-paid trip to the beach in a heartbeat. Garrett Kelly only accepts to keep tabs on Sarah Daniels, who’s in hiding after witnessing a murder by Marcus Lattimer, her half-brother—and a personal enemy of KGI. This gig may be beneath a disciplined soldier like Garrett, but if he gets a shot at Lattimer, it will all be worth it…

…and the ultimate moving target.

But Garrett hadn’t counted on falling for Sarah. He’d considered seduction as a tactical maneuver, but when he glimpses Sarah’s dark past, he feels an urgent desire to keep her safe—even after she disappears on him. Garrett doesn’t know exactly who, or what, Sarah’s running from, but whatever it is, she’s running for her life…

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Military Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Suspense, Military Romance

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Maya Banks is the #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today and international bestselling author of over 50 novels. A wife and mother of three, she lives in Texas.

Reviews

[Auntee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! I was kind of prepared not to, because there have been mixed reviews, but I ended up liking it just fine. Bear in mind that's there's not a whole heck of a lot of suspense going on here--this book is more about the relationship between the hero (the gruff but lovable former loner not looking for love, Garrett Kelly) and lovely, damaged heroine Sarah Daniels, a former foster child with only a half-brother-with-a-bad-rep for family.

Garrett...


The plot's kind of simple and easy to follow. Sarah witnesses her half-brother (arms dealer Marcus Lattimer) killing the man who raped her. She goes into hiding because she doesn't want to be forced to testify against her brother, and there may be someone else who can connect her to the crime and would want to silence her. Her rich, powerful brother's into all kinds of shady things (most of which Sarah knows nothing about), and the CIA has been after him for a while. The CIA sees this crime as a chance to finally flush the elusive Lattimer out of hiding, and wants to use Sarah to accomplish this. They hire KGI (Kelly Group International, a family run business of former military men who specialize in hostage/kidnap victim recovery and intelligence gathering) to find her and keep an eye on her. They figure sooner or later big brother Marcus is bound to show up where Sarah is.

Former Marine Garrett Kelly has drawn what looks to be an easy, no-danger-involved assignment. The fact that this assignment can bring down the man who had done him (and his men) wrong in the past also makes it hard to resist. He wants in. Still recovering from a serious injury he suffered protecting his sister-in-law Sophie (No Place to Run)--what can happen to him while watching over a beautiful woman who is hiding out in a remote beach town? Well, a lot more than he was counting on. An unexpected romance, plenty of danger, and an unexplained desire to protect, possess and lay down his life for a woman for the first time in his life. But in order to protect Sarah he has to lie to her...and that's not going to go over too well with a woman who's used to having her trust violated by men. Sarah thinks she's fallen for Garrett and has found a man she can finally trust--but will that be destroyed when she finds out the truth Garrett's been keeping from her?

This was a really easy book to read. I loved revisiting the Kelly family and seeing Garrett interact with his brothers, sisters-in-law, and parents. Although I liked the little subplot about Sophie's pregnancy and 'adopted' sister Rusty's trouble with an aggressive 'boyfriend', it did sort of disrupt the flow of Garrett's and Sarah story. In Rusty's case, I figure it was used to lay the foundation for her own book and to eliminate any of the Kelly brothers as her future HEA; as for Sophie and her pregnancy, I figured that was used to show Garrett how happy his brother Sam was and to open his eyes about his own future. I don't think the whole plot of Sarah and Garrett and their relationship and any danger they were in could sustain 300 pages, so those little subplots were added in.

You'll have to wait for deep into the book for any bedroom love scenes between Sarah and Garrett. This makes sense because Sarah is trying to get over a horrible experience from her past and is unsure if she can trust a man again. And Garrett, although he's attracted to Sarah, is a little reluctant to look at Sarah as more than a job. But he holds out for as long as he can until he can't resist the allure of Sarah any longer. The scene where he leaves the wine, books, and chocolate on her deck just emphasized how sweet and sensitive a guy he really was, and made me fall for him (as it did for Sarah). You may have to wait until around page 240 for any bedroom action, but what you get will be sweet, hot, sensual, and believable. If you haven't fallen for Garrett by that point then you have a heart of stone.:)

If you like your RS heavy on the romance/less on the suspense, then this one's for you. I think you'll find both Garrett and Sarah extremely likable, you'll enjoy the interaction between Garrett and his family (and when is Donovan going to get his story?), and you'll be intrigued by some of the non-family members of KGI (I'm talking about Rio, specifically). This is the third book in what is turning out to be a pretty decent series, and while this book can (if you must) be read as a stand alone, I'd suggest you read them in order to get the full effect. This wasn't my favorite of the series (No Place to Run), but it was close. I think Garrett may be my favorite of the Kelly men (so far), but you can hardly lose chosing any one of them! 4 stars

[Shawna · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars – Contemporary Romance/Romantic Suspense

GAWD I love Garrett!

Favorite quotes:

**********Possible spoiler**********

"And just so you know, Sarah, I'm going to make love to you. I don't give a damn if it kills me in the process. I'm going to have you. You're going to sleep in my bed, in my arms, your skin against mine. I want the last thing you feel before you go to sleep is me inside you, and the first thing you know when you wake up."

"I want to savor you all night," he said in a rough, husky voice. "I'm going to take this slow. I want it to be perfect. So perfect. Now that you're finally mine, I'm going to kiss every inch of your body. I want to touch you and taste you and love you until you know in your heart that I'll never hurt you."

[Mojca · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of those books when you exclaim “What the hell happened?” when it ends. Because I didn’t get it. Well, I didn’t get where the blurb came from? Because the story and the blurb didn’t mesh.

But let’s start at the beginning. It was slow. Very slow. Very, very slow. Something happened in the first chapter, then we had chapter after chapter of nothing happening, then she disappeared, there was a birth (which had nothing to do with the main story, by the way), he found her again, something completely unrelated happened, they were rescued, someone was killed, she felt betrayed, he groveled, she forgave him. The end.

And it was slow. Even when it started moving toward the end, it was a little too late and a little too slow for comfort. Also the fact the main story (the hero and heroine story) was overshadowed by the hordes of secondary characters, continuations of past books, a possible glimpse into a future story, etc.
And when we actually got to spend time with Garrett and Sarah, the relationship was bland, emotionally-detached, and rather boring. Even Garrett, my favorite Kelly brother so far, didn’t inspire anything remotely similar to what he inspired when he was merely a secondary character himself.

And don’t get me started on the suspense, because there was very little of it, and rather boring as well. It didn’t deliver on the blurb, it didn’t deliver on the term “romantic suspense”, it didn’t deliver at all.

It seems to me Ms. Banks should definitely change genres, because I fear she just cannot do the romantic suspense genre any good. Even if you separate those two, she’s not particularly good at them, judging by this book.

Blah, boring, uneventful, and torturously slow, this was my last venture into the KGI world, because I’m slowly running out of stars.

[Katyana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is reaaaally tough for me to rate. See, I love Garrett. I have loved him since the first book. And I thought Sarah was a fantastic heroine, a real survivor, and absolutely not a doormat.

But here's the thing...

I can't get over the fact that he chose to seduce a rape victim, while lying to her about everything. I get he cared about her, I get the panting attraction, but... if he REALLY cared about her, he wouldn't have had sex with her when he was lying to her, when he was using her as bait for her brother. Yes, yes, Marcus was a bad man. But for whatever reason, he was good to Sarah, and she knew nothing about his other life. Marcus was her only rock, her only anchor, and he protected her fiercely, even killing a man who hurt her.

When someone has survived rape, trust is... a hard thing. To lie to Sarah, to use her and make her trust you, and then have sex with her because you think you love her... that's fucked up. Beyond fucked up. And from that point forward, I just really had a problem with the book. Because in my mind, nothing Garrett could ever, EVER, say or do would make up for such a flagrant betrayal of her trust. If he hadn't had sex with her, maybe. But to pretend to be someone he's not, and take advantage of her in that way... nothing could ever make that okay. If he was a decent human being AT ALL, he should have insisted on that step not being taken until the situation was over and he could be honest with her. If he cared about her, wanted to protect her, he wouldn't have done that.

The thing that makes it so particularly hard is... I really love Garrett. I think that as I was reading it, and becoming appalled, my brain kept trying to sweep away the details, rewrite the book in my head, to have him not be that guy. To have him be the *amazing* guy that he was in the first 2 books.

So I don't know. I can't, in good conscience, give this any kind of good rating, because that was seriously fucked up, and made any kind of HEA unbelievable to me.

But I love Garrett.

:(

Garrett and Sarah: A
Maya Banks: F

Best I can do.

[Izzah ꒰野望は夏眠 ಇ Duchess of Cabria꒱ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I was in the mood for this but maybe I wasn't?

There's really nothing I can specifically point to and say "this didn't work" or "this should've been done differently".

Maya Banks is not exactly formulaic, but she does have a sort base structure that can easily adapt to many plots.

Hero strong (warrior or ex-military or even ruthless billionaire) + sweet heroine that either gets hurts during the course of the story or has been hurt before meeting the hero + some sort of angst.

I like this combo. It's why I keep coming back to it.

This one was no different. We've met the hero in Book 1 and 2 and he didn't go through any major personality changes, but he did soften for the heroine and I liked that.

The heroine is a well-balanced combination of strong and scared. Her trauma hits her at different moments and it can paralyze her, but she's also doing her best to live her life.

But for some reason I was never invested in the story. I usually immerse myself in a story and I'm able to make a whole movie in my head, even with books I dislike. But this one was just the words on the page.

But because I really can't say why, I'm guessing is my mood and my current overwhelmed, overstimulated state... Maybe I should take a break from reading and do the lazy thing and have a story told to me via a visual medium?

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m very surprised by how highly rated this book is. I found the heroine to be a weepy, idiotic basket case, the hero to be a liar, and their romance to be both unbelievable and uninspiring.


The back of the book is kind of misleading. It indicates that the heroine, Sarah, witnessed a murder and therefore needs to be kept safe from the bad men pursuing her. It makes you think she’s willing to testify against the murderer, but that’s not the case. The murder she witnessed was committed by her own half-brother and he did it because the man had raped Sarah a few months earlier. She runs because she doesn’t want to be used against her brother in court.

So right from the start we have Sarah behaving in rather stupid ways. Her brother is fabulously wealthy and she has always strongly suspected that his wealth was gotten through unsavory means. Then she sees him walking away from the body, cool as a cucumber, and she reacts by freaking out, running away, getting spotted by the rapist’s brother and then racing to the airport to buy a ticket using her real name. She’s not the least bit upset that her brother just murdered someone, she just doesn’t want him to get caught. So with that in mind, why the hell did she run away from him to begin with? He’s got the money, means and expertise to spirit her away where she’ll never be found. But instead she, who has no experience whatsoever with evading detection or being on the wrong side of the law, or any money to speak of, decides she needs to make it on her own. And she thinks this is in some way helping him. What an idiot.

That’s one of the big issues with this book. Sarah is a total moron. She’s got no sense of self-preservation at all, can’t think logically and refuses the help of the one person she knows she can 100% trust. Then she stupidly allows herself to be conned into trusting the hero, Garrett, who is there for the expressed purpose of using her as bait to catch her brother. And she never, EVER suspects anything. She also can’t follow directions and is constantly wailing about how stupid she is, while everyone else in the story agrees.

She ends up on a tropical island. She makes contact with her brother, who of course begs her to tell him where she is so that he can come collect her but she stupidly refuses, insisting that she’s somehow protecting him by going it alone. (face-palm)

Meanwhile, Garrett has been informed of Sarah’s existence and recruited to cozy up to her in the hopes that her brother will come out of hiding so they can grab him. He moves into the cabin next to hers and sets to work earning her trust, which takes almost no time at all because she’s an idiot. He realizes early on that Sarah has been hurt by someone in the past and he guesses that she was probably raped.

Then, after only knowing Garrett for 2 days, she hears someone prowling into her cabin and runs straight to him for protection because she trusts him so much. She’s completely hysterical and he thinks again about how her reaction is so over-the-top that she MUST have been hurt in the past….and then he just kisses her. Um, what? You’re sure that she’s been raped and she’s having hysterics because the current situation is making her flashback to that abuse and you think it’s the right time to get sexual? But, weirdly, the author has Sarah getting totally turned on by this kiss, which also didn’t make sense to me. The whole book, Sarah’s rape just wasn’t handled in a way that I found believable. Her willingness to get physical with Garrett just doesn’t match her hysteria everywhere else.

While Garrett is off checking her cabin for the intruder, Sarah decides she has to leave, to protect him (lol) from the danger following her. So she takes off, using a quick escape route she’d set up upon her arrival that is the ONLY smart thing she did the whole book.

Garrett is pissed when he realizes she’s gone and the KGI team has trouble tracking her down. He goes home for a few days but insists on being the one to go to her when she’s found, even though that doesn’t jive with the cover story he gave her on the island. He’s growling at every one of his teammates to stay away from her because she belongs to him and I just didn’t see this as being warranted. They’d spent almost no time together and Garrett’s thoughts about Sarah up to that point hadn’t really been in the ultra-possessive, "this is my one true mate" kind of vein. He didn’t seem all that attracted to her. It was more like he felt sorry for her and was generally angry that someone had hurt a woman. But he’s the designated hero so of course they have to get back together. Once his team tracks her down in Mexico, Garrett goes and lies through his teeth by claiming that he works for her brother and is there to protect her. She accepts this immediately, without checking his story first.

While they’re alone together, Garrett kisses her again and then insists that she tell him how she was hurt in the past. She hesitates and he tells her over and over that she can trust him. That he’ll never, ever hurt her. He does this knowing full well that he has EVERY INTENTION of breaking her trust. That literally everything he’s said to her since they first met has been a lie. She buys it and finally confirms that the guy her brother murdered had raped her. And then like five seconds later, Garrett tells Sarah that he plans to have sex with her in the near future, even giving somewhat explicit details about how he’s going to bang her until she passes out so that the last thing she feels before falling asleep will be him inside her, and that’ll be the first thing she feels upon waking up. And I was just like, WHAT?! She tells you that she was brutally raped and you respond by telling her you’re hot for sex? Are you crazy? But Sarah's response is to get vaguely turned on at the suggestion. This doesn’t make sense!

Garrett then waits for Sarah to fall asleep and proceeds to ransack the house until he finds her laptop. Then he calls his tech-wizard brother, Donavan, and together they crack all the encryptions on it so that they can read the emails she’s been exchanging with her brother. Then Donavan sets it up so that all Sarah’s emails go to him, instead of her brother, and vice versa so that they can prevent her from checking up on Garrett’s story. Garrett does this without any shame or sense of regret that he’s completely abusing Sarah’s trust. Donovan also informs Garrett that the rapist guy’s brother has hired a private company to track Sarah down and they’re probably on their way. So the next morning Garrett hustles Sarah out the door.

He insists on driving on back roads to get out of Mexico and ends up running into a totally random trap that has no relation to their situation. They’re just random kidnappers who are hoping to get a ransom. It was definitely unexpected, but I didn’t like it. It just felt too contrived. Garrett is in a powerful truck with bulletproof glass and tons of weapons. But a half-dozen random guys on the road is enough for him to just give up without a fight? He activates an SOS signal to tell his team he needs help and then just gets out of the car and surrenders. He justifies this to the readers by saying that he didn’t want to risk Sarah getting hurt but that just doesn’t make sense. He’s worried she’ll catch a stray bullet or something so instead he willingly surrenders her to the tender ministrations of 6 criminals? 6 MEN, in a situation where rape is virtually guaranteed? Some bad@ss hero he is…

The kidnappers beat Garret up and then take them somewhere and lock them in a room. Sarah is hysterical, as usual and Garrett tells her that she’s not to do anything to draw attention to herself. That he can handle the beatings and all he has to do is buy time until his team comes to rescue them. That he’s deliberately trying to give them the idea that they can get what they want by beating him because if they think that’s not working, they’ll use her against him. He also tells her that if the men come for her, she’s not to fight them. Implying that if they try to rape her, she’s to just let it happen. He says this calmly, as if it’s no big deal, instead of something typically heroic, like assuring her he’d die before letting her be abused that way.

Garrett gets beaten again in the morning and this time when he doesn’t cooperate they grab Sarah. The head kidnapper says that his men are very eager to rape her and Garrett agrees to cooperate so they just take her back, untouched, which was super unbelievable. Later, they bring Garrett back to the room in pretty rough shape. A short time later Sarah hears boots at the door but Garrett doesn’t stir and she’s afraid that he’s badly hurt. So when the door opens, she goes crazy saying that they should leave him alone and take her instead. She even starts unbuttoning her shirt to offer herself up for rape. Garrett finally wakes up and says that the man in the doorway is part of his team. Then Sarah feels ridiculous and ashamed.

They end up in Belize and Garrett instructs his team to send Sarah’s brother their location so that they can flush him out. He’s still, 100% committed to using her to get her brother. Virtually his entire team tells him this’ll destroy his relationship with Sarah but he waves it away, unconcerned.

Then, despite Garrett having just deliberately implemented the plan to betray Sarah, and despite the recent ordeal that she has just been through that must necessarily have brought back the trauma of her rape, he still intends to have sex with her as soon as possible. He knows that he’s just hours away from destroying her, but has no qualms whatsoever about abusing her current trust in him to get her into bed. And he’s got no concerns about whether she’s mentally or emotionally in a state where she should even be having sex, considering what she’s been through. Nope, as soon as they’re alone he just blithely reminds her that he plans to screw her senseless. And she’s apparently totally fine with that. She’s got no fresh demons from her recent ordeal.

See, this is why I can’t really get behind this book or this romance. It doesn’t make sense for Sarah to be so gung-ho about sex at this point when she should be a total wreck. And Garrett is being a complete bastard here. It would be bad enough for him to have sex with ANY woman he was planning to betray, but for him to do this to someone as emotionally fragile as Sarah is just evil. This is a woman who has been sexually abused by someone she trusted. And now you’ve deliberately gained her trust with the full intent of breaking it, but before you do, you want to get a few rocks off in the bedroom? So that when she realizes what you’ve done it’ll leave her feeling like she was just a sexual plaything for you to manipulate and use for your own ends? That’s beyond cruel.

And I just didn’t see his desire for her being strong enough to justify an act like that. I’ve read books before where the military hero was using the heroine as bait to flush out her evil relative, but in those books the hero was instantly infatuated with the heroine. Desperate to have her at every step, unable to keep his hands off of her. Her scent, her body, her smile, everything drove him wild and he struggled to keep his mission on track because being with her was such a deep-seated, primitive drive that it overrode all his years of training and made him want to forget the lives at stake just so that he could keep her. And he was tortured with the knowledge that when it was over, he would lose her and spend the rest of his life with a gaping hole in his heart.

We don’t get any of that with Garrett. Nothing in his inner monolog shows him being desperate to have Sarah. He’s not struggling AT ALL with his plan to betray her trust. And he just sort of vaguely assumes that it’ll all work out in the end and “somehow” he’ll win her back when it’s over, though I can’t really understand why he wants her back since he doesn’t seem all that into her. Everything he thinks about her is a reflection of her trauma. He occasionally admires her for being strong (she isn't), or he feels sorry for her for the abuse she suffered, or angry that she was hurt, etc. but he never thinks lustful thoughts about her. There’s never anything to show us that he’s infatuated with her and can’t live without her. I don’t believe Garrett loves or even really desires Sarah because he doesn’t ACT like he does. I don’t believe Sarah really loves Garrett either because she’s just such an abused mess that I think she’d fancy herself in love with any man who showed her a little kindness. And I definitely don’t believe she’d be in an emotional place to want sex, but this is the story we’re given.

So they have sex twice over the course of the next 24 hrs. After the second time Sarah tells Garrett that she loves and trusts him completely. Immediately after this declaration, one of the team bursts in and says the jungle is on fire and they have to evacuate. They make a run for it but are waylaid by Sarah’s brother. He figured out right away that the email Donovan sent was a trap. Then we get the requisite scene where Sarah realizes that Garrett has been playing her all along and she’s devastated. But then a sniper turns up and shoots at her. Sarah’s brother shields her with his body and is killed instead. He and Sarah share a tearful goodbye and she’s inconsolable. The sniper is caught and says he works for the rapist’s brother and his mission was to kill Sarah. Sarah is carted off by the CIA for questioning. Garrett insists that the CIA tell her that he’s going to be coming back for her, but he’s just got a few other more pressing matters to attend to first.

Then he goes and beats the crap out of the rapist’s brother to tell him he’d better never bother Sarah again. And stops off back home to join all his brothers in making some high school boy wet his pants because he dared to mess with their new foster sister. And only THEN does he bother to go after Sarah. Oh be still my heart. Clearly you’re head over heels in love with this woman...He finds her back on the same island they started on. She’s just been sitting there, staring at the water and thinking about how she’s broke and doesn’t have a job and she doesn’t know how she’ll survive. Garrett wanders up, says he’s sorry but her brother was a real bad man so he had to do it, and she totally forgives him in the blink of an eye. It was one of the worst “grovels” I’ve ever seen in a romance novel. He didn’t act the least bit sorry, and I got the impression that she just forgave him because she was too terrified of living on her own with no resources. And that’s supposed to be our HEA. Totally lame.


I was very disappointed with this book. Garrett didn’t seem to care about Sarah at all and never did anything even remotely heroic the whole book. And Sarah was just a sobbing mess of trauma and emotional issues.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can say it, Sarah. You were raped. You were violated. You were attacked by someone you trusted.



You have to leave your reality-glasses in the other room while reading this book! Lol! After six Maya Banks books it is clear that she has a soft spot for broken and traumatized heroine. And so do I. But this was the third rape-recovery book I've read in a short time span, and I need a break from them.

I loved Garrett. I loved the part on the paradise island. Big swoon when he brought her a basket with books (!), chocolate and whine. After that, it was action packed and I couldn't put it down. The ending was beautiful although a bit naive. I didn't feel a lifelong love at that point.

I have mainly two complaints:

1. I think Maya Banks takes to lightly on the trauma after that kind of rape. I was scared for her when Garrett advanced. Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Courtney Milan handle this issue much better.

2. The fact that Garrett lied to Sarah for almost the whole book. We have a heroine with serious trust issues, and then he lies to her? Fine, I get that he can't say "Oh, I've been sent from the CIA to arrest your brother, who you love very much." But still, I think he could have handled it a lot better. And I would have liked some more grovelling, now she basically forgives him in a second..

The best thing about this book was the Rusty subplot. Big yay for everyone standing up for her! And finally the brothers acknowledged her. I also have a soft spot for Rio <3 and we got to see a lot of him. This wasn't the best in this series, but it wasn't bad enough to put me off it either.

[Syndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do enjoy listening to this series. The romance is just typical insta lust/ insta love. A damsel in distress needs to be saved. And the savior is happened to be the sworn enemy of her brother. Typical forbidden romance.

It is refreshing to finally found a book by Maya Banks that works for me. The romance is mixed with action. I like the action more than the romance. Garret certainly the typical alpha male hero with all of his man over protective bodyguard. I wish i have more of his groveling though.

Overall I do enjoy this book during rainy night.

4 stars

[CC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-Read via audible - I have to mark down to 3.5 stars. (was 4 stars)

I still love Garrett! But what he did to Sara? Whew. I was not ok with how easy he got off. He gives her a pretty speech and she folds. I thought he needed to have to work harder. But I guess I am ok because I believe he would have done the work.

Garrett is a sweet guy behind all the muscles. Sara is living with a horrible secret. Unfortunately, when you start a relationship on a lie, someone is going to get hurt.

I like this series and look forward to the next!

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was way not to KGI standards at all. It started well enough. With the line "Would you prefer to die sitting or standing?" thrown in, I was prepared for bad ass action from page one.

But sad to say that any resemblance of action-adventure-suspense promised, was withheld to give way for:- beach frolicking, car crash, child birth, then some more beach frolicking. The only part that held my interest was the hilarious banter between Garrett and Van.

I also have some very serious issues with Garret over-protectiveness towards his sisters-in-law. It just bugged me that he had this constant worries about Rachel and Sophie back home every five minutes. I get that he was a compassionate and watchful man, but geez lewis Garrett, enough all ready. Let Ethan and Sam do their spousal duty. Garrett was way on towards the creepy mark.

I hope book #4 will improve and looking forward to PJ's story.

[Ⓐlleskelle - That ranting lady ッ · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite Quote: “He made her stupid. Completely and utterly stupid.”

Hidden Away is the third book in Maya Banks’ KGI series. This is Garrett’s book. In the first book, I loved Garrett. He was a total badass with a soft and sweet side. He was tender and loving towards his sister-in-law who had been kidnapped and left for dead. In the second book, Garrett was a bit of an arse. Okay, he was a total arse. I’ve been looking forward to his book so I could finally know who the real Garrett was. Well, it turns out he’s a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

Garrett is an ex-Marine who now works with his brothers at KGI, a family run military-type organization that handles hostage/kidnap victim recovery, intelligence gathering and other jobs the U.S. government can’t. He is the second oldest of six brothers, all military men. Garrett is the sour puss in the family. Six years ago, something happened to him while still a Marine and a man named Marcus Lattimer was responsible. As every story needs a very bad man, Lattimer takes on the role in Hidden Away. Garrett hates this guy and wants to take him down. So does the CIA. When the CIA gets a lead that could help capture said very bad man, they enlist Garrett to help since they know he wants this guy as badly as the government does. What’s the lead? Sarah Daniels – Lattimer’s half sister. *insert dramatic music*

Sarah witnessed a murder committed by her brother and is now on the run. The CIA has tracked her down and wants to use her to fish out Lattimer. Garrett is asked to watch her until that happens. Sounds like a pretty simple job right? But even though Sarah is completely green when it comes to running for her life and has been hurt greatly not that long ago, she ends up being more of a handful than anyone expected.

I quite enjoyed Sarah’s character. She’s pretty much your typical regular nice girl whose world has suddenly been turned upside down, only to accidentally get involved in her brother’s affairs turning her world inside out. She is doing her best to cope with what has been handed to her. She’s not Wonder Woman or MacGyver and I liked that. She’s very clever and smart, but now without her mistakes. She seemed real to me. I can’t say that I could relate to her because I’ve never been through what she’s been through, but I could definitely feel for her and I wanted her to find her happy ending. And thank goodness Garrett was there to help her there.

Garrett was wonderful with Sarah. He needed to be tough sometimes and he needed to be tender sometimes. He wasn’t all macho “look at my big guns…and my weapons are pretty impressive too”. That’s not what Sarah needed and he knew that. I’m telling you, that Ma Kelly sure did raise some pretty impressive sons!

I preferred how the plot was laid out this time around to how it was done in the second book. This time not all of the questions were answered at the very beginning. In fact, some answers only came on the second to last page in this book. It made for a much better flow and a more poignant climax. And speaking of climax *wink wink*

Even though Maya made us wait and wait and wait for Garrett and Sarah to hook up, it worked well with the story. Once you read it you’ll understand, but doing it any differently would have made Sarah’s struggles unimportant. But once they did get it on…very nice.

Now, have you ever read a book where you meet a character and thought “Huh, I’d like to know more about that guy”. Then you read them in the next book and you thought “OMG I want need to know everything about them now! I need his book like yesterday!!!” I had a few moments like that while reading Hidden Away with Donovan and PJ. I need his book and I need her book. The geeky Kelly brother with brains and muscles and the sniper chick who is a total mystery to almost everyone. Need. Their. Books.

(Just a quick little side note here…None of the chicks in this series have family. None. What’s with that?)

Hidden Away was a good continuation to the series. Garrett and Sarah worked well together. I was not disappointed. Up next is Nathan’s book. It will be called Whispers in the Dark and is scheduled to hit stores in February 2012. *sob* That is an awfully long time to wait for the next book. But I’ll wait because I love the family unit in this series and I love how the friendships are written too.

I’ll leave you with one more quote. This one had me giggling out loud and paints a perfect picture of Garrett:

“’I was trying not to be an asshole’ he grumbled.

"You break into my house. You take my gun away from me. Informed me you lied about pretty much everything when we were on the island. Then tell me I'm an idiot who's trying to get herself killed. And you're worried about being an asshole?"

[Pamela(AllHoney) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in Maya Banks' KGI series. Garrett Kelly accepts an assignment to watch Sarah Daniels, the half sister of his nemesis, Marcus Lattimer. He doesn't expect to fall for her. What is it about those Kelly brothers? There should be a law against so many hunky men in one family. I mean, come one, throw a little skinny nerd in there or something! LOL! JK! Great addition to the series.

[Tilly Slaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

To say that I am extremely disappointed in this book would be an overstatement. The other books in this series have not had better impressions so I suppose I was expecting to be bummed.

I do not much care for this series. I do not like the books so far. The only thing the KGI series has going for it is the characters...And the characters rock!

Hidden away is the KGI series story about Garrett and Sarah.

Garrett is sent on a mission that brings his agonizing nightmare of a past to life. He is forced to protect a woman...the half sister of the traitorous man who changed Garrett's life. Sent on the "bullshit" mission, he's forced to lounge on a beach, fish and drink beer all day.

Doesn't sound too bad, right? Well then you throw in the babbling and terrified woman he is to protect and I suppose things get a little interesting.

If she'd witnessed a murder, it wasn't all that had happened. Someone had hurt her or scared the hell out of her, and it enraged him. Yeah, she was a job and he took each and every job seriously. But the surge of protectiveness he felt whenever he looked at this scared, fragile woman went beyond that of a job. And he was at a loss to explain it.

Sarah witnessed her brother murder a man she shared a past with. Although she felt no remorse from the man's death, she fears what will happen to her brother if the authorities realizes his involvement. She's on the run and of course bumps into Garrett on their little island of not so paradise.

She laughed. She couldn't help it. Her shoulders shook and she looked down and laughed all over again.

"What the hell is so funny?" he demanded. "Definitely not good for a man's ego when a woman looks at his dick and laughs."

I had to read 60% of this book for something interesting to happen. 60%. Things became exciting for a few pages. Enough said. Total bummer.

I am only recommending this book to mature adults who are stuck reading this series because of the characters :( I adore Maya Banks but this series is just not for me. Moderate violence and sexual content.


~Happy reading!

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't buy it. Not the book (I bought the book), the story.

It was a ridiculous concept and premise, but that's ok because this was suppose to be a romantic suspense. But it wasn't especially suspenseful. Garrett was suppose to be protecting Sarah, but there wasn't all that much protecting, just a lot of running away. So the whole thing ended up just being a big sort of let down. Was the threat as big as they were saying? It didn't seem to be, there wasn't enough drama. See? I don't by it!

Now that the story is done, I'm sitting here thinking "what just happened?". I mean, there wasn't enough suspense in the romance either, not even as the final romantic conflict was solved.

I'll tell you what I did like was the glimpses of other characters and their possible romances. Is it just me or does Rusty seem to be Pairing off with Cam? Now I don't know how likely that would be (how old is Cam?) because you really do have to read this book in sequence. A lot of information about who's who is left out of this story. But I would say we're gonna get a Rusty story and I'm gonna love it. Also, P.J. and Cole. I'm also intrigued by Donovan the geekier brother. Oooo, I like me a sexy geek, I do.

And really, I liked Garrett and Sarah as a couple. But that didn't seem enough to elevate this book above 3 stars.

If nothing else, this book was a good into into the series. I haven't read book 1 or 2 (and I might not) but I'll be keeping my eye open for book 4 and any other books.

[Marianchu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Precioso!
una historia increíblemente apasionante, con la dosis justa de misterio, suspense, amor, acción. Me ha encantado!!
Sarah es una protagonista impresionante, fuerte y decidida y Garret adorablemente perfecto.
Mira que me gustaron los dos primeros libros, pues este creo que todavía más. Me he quedado con una sensación maravillosa tras su lectura.
Mi puntuación un 9,5

[MBR · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Star Romantic Suspense

I couldn't go to sleep without posting the review, and its 1:45 am in the morning and I have work tomorrow *groans*

It feels like it has been forever since I picked up my first KGI novel, The Darkest Hour which shot Maya Banks right into the top of my favorite romantic suspense authors list. The second novel that came out entitled No Place to Run was equally intense as it was emotional and since then I have been on tenterhooks waiting for the release day of Hidden Away which features the story of the broody and hot as sin Garrett Kelly.

My fascination for anything to do with Garrett started with the 1st book itself where he and his brother Ethan’s wife Rachel share a very close bond with each other. Though Garrett tends to growl and snarl at the rest of them coming off as the grouchiest and most anti-social brother in the family, it is the complete transformation that he undergoes whenever Rachel is around and needing him that made his character such an intriguing one. And Sam’s story just made Garrett seem more appealing because Garrett at first dislikes Sophie so much but nevertheless ends up taking a bullet for the woman his brother loves.

Garrett is the second eldest of the 5 Kelly brothers though his worrisome nature and overprotective tendencies makes him seem older than the rest of the brothers. Garrett too had served as his country as a soldier until six years back a mission which he led his group on had gone horribly wrong killing two of his team mates requiring his brothers to pick up the pieces. What Garrett would like more than anything else is to take his own sweet revenge on the man who double-crossed his team on that fateful mission, the chance to do so which comes unexpectedly through their CIA contact requiring Garrett to fly all the way to the small island of Isle de Bijoux where his mission awaits him.

Sarah Daniels is a woman who is on the run to protect the only man who has ever given a damn about her and tried to serve as her protector and savior in the only way he had deemed as fit. A year back, Sarah’s life had taken a horrible turn which had rendered her helpless and fearful of every man she encounters afterwards and it is with this fear still lurking in the depths of her soul that she runs to seek refuge in the serenity of the white sandy beaches and the deep blue sea that surrounds Isle de Bijoux.

When Garrett gets up close and personal with his mission, it takes only a couple of seconds for him to realize that there is so much more than that meets the eye where Sarah is concerned. The helpless fear that he sees in Sarah’s eyes makes Garrett’s blood boil and invokes the urge to do harm to whoever had inflicted such wounds on Sarah. Whilst the growing feelings of possessiveness and protectiveness about Sarah befuddle him, that doesn’t stop Garrett from doing what he does best; engulf the woman he loves in his protective warmth which is just damn near enough to make any woman sigh and flutter over the whole thing.

With unknown enemies on Sarah’s trail, Garrett’s job is a double hard one and it certainly doesn’t make things easier for him when he has to lie to the one woman who he wants unwavering trust and faith from. Once again, the whole of Kelly family makes an appearance together with the other team members who make this series so very appealing. Though the incidents of the heart thumping variety did not happen as much as it did in the 2nd book, Hidden Away too serves up on all the aspects which makes the book 3 of the KGI series a decent addition to an already 5-star rated series.

Couple of things I loved that I want to mention in my review. First of all, yes you ladies guessed it right, who wouldn’t love that drool-inducing cover featuring the hot as sin Garrett Kelly? I love the covers of each and every KGI novel that has come out and this one’s no exception to that rule.

Revisiting the characters from the Kelly bunch as well the rest of the characters that makes this series a kick-ass one is always a plus point in my opinion. It is heartwarming to see Ethan and Rachel making their way and their marriage growing stronger day by day whilst Sophie and Sam have a cute new addition to their family making things just perfect for this story. And let me not forget Rusty who I think is going to end up being my favorite character, if Maya Banks ever gets round to telling her story.

And needless to say, I loved both Sarah and Garrett and found Sarah’s courage and loyalty humbling which earned her my admiration in spades. Though the author does not go into details of her gruesome encounter, the fear and total humiliation that she must have gone through is totally understood which made my heart just bleed for her.

But with all those things that I did love, I did find myself a bit disappointed with how Garrett’s character turned out in the end. I was expecting a bit more brooding and tortured hotness from him which ALWAYS has me predictably swooning into a puddle right next to my Kindle. And based on how Garrett is perceived by the rest of his family, I wanted some of that to come out in his own book which failed to appear and instead his soft and overprotective side which I love nevertheless took the center stage. Though for someone else that might not be a peeve, I found myself feeling just a teeny weeny bit letdown because of that.

All in all, an enjoyable addition to the KGI series, and I can’t wait to find out who gets their story told next from the delectable group of characters that Maya has created in this wonderful series. If you haven’t already read the KGI series, do start from book 1 because you need to experience the Kelly bunch right from the very beginning to fully appreciate each and every character as they unfold and grow with every story.

For the review with quotes: http://bit.ly/idnkdo

Reviewer's note: After pondering much about the story and why this just didn't come down as a highly satisfying read for me, I have brought down its rating from 4 to 3.5 stars because Garrett and Sarah just didn't get enough time of their own in the story to make this one a magical reading experience. There were times I wished that the book would pick up pace because that's what I have been accustomed to throughout the series. And Garrett's character ended up being the total opposite of what he started out being from the start of the series which has made me re-think and then re-rate the book. I think I must have been too sleep deprived when I first rated and reviewed the book.

[Chanelmya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 in realtà ⭐⭐⭐🌠. Libro piacevole ma mi aspettavo piu introspezione emotiva in un personaggio come Garrett che nel primo libro avevamo visto molto vicino a Rachel, specialmente visto il fardello che si portava dietro Sarah. Un po' sbrigativo l'epilogo tra Garrett e Marcus....

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Daniels is trying to take her life back, along with her sanity after being raped by her former boss (Alan Cross) while his brother (Stanley Cross) restrained her and watched the attack.* Broken and afraid, Sarah confesses the incident to her beloved half brother, Marcus Lattimer, who is hell bent on exacting revenge against both of the Cross brothers. Before Marcus whisks Sarah away to a quite location to heal, he tracks down and murders Alan in cold blood. Sarah witnesses the aftermath of Marcus’ killing and flees the scene, running into Stanley on her way out. Knowing Stanley will soon learn of Alan’s murder, and wanting to protect her brother and herself, Sarah flees the country with no plan of action except escape. Long connected with various illegal organizations, Marcus’ killing does not escape notice. CIA contact Resnick calls a meeting with the KGI Team to inform them of Marcus’s latest murder and to enlist their help in tracking his whereabouts. Garrett Kelly, former military soldier and now member of the KGI Team is determined to take the job. It’s a personal mission for Garrett as Marcus double-crossed Garrett years ago and as a result two of Garrett’s teammates were killed. Garrett takes off to the remote Isle de Bijoux where Sarah is hiding out so he can watch and wait for Marcus to join her. What Garrett doesn’t count on is falling for the fragile and vulnerable Sarah in the process.

There were elements of the story which I continue to love in the KGI series, but I feel that Hidden Away fell a bit short. In the previous installments, we had strong and capable heroes and heroines. They were not without faults or tragedies, but they persevered. While Sarah had a traumatic event in her life, her neurotic paranoia and broken spirit exhausted me through much of the book. Garrett’s patience and sensitivity with Sarah was heartwarming, but their overall chemistry lacked the spark I expected. In The Darkest Hour and No Place to Run, Garrett was a broody, stoic and introverted man who, never-the-less was a hard core badass. A woman who brought out his primal passion and intensity, as opposed to appealing to his caregiver instincts would have made for a more satisfying pairing. I also think this would have aided the pace of the book. I understand the relationship had to develop slowly due to Sarah’s past, but I did not expect to wait over 200 pages for their relationship to progress to the next level and for Garrett and Sarah to become intimate. Also, for a romantic suspense novel, the slow build-up hampered the tension and was uncharacteristic of the series. My relative disinterest in the main couple made me more interested in the developments of the other Kelly brothers (I want Donovan’s book now!) and KGI team members.

What I always enjoy about this series is the family unity Ms. Banks portrays in each book. If I ever wanted to be adopted into a fictional family, it would be the Kelly’s. They protect their own and have a solid devotion to each family member. In Hidden Away, we reconnect with Ethan and Rachel as well as Sam and Sophie from the prior two books. There is also a great scene with the brothers and Rusty (Mama Kelly’s stray foster child) that will melt your heart and solidify how devoted each brother is to family. Blood or not.

While I didn’t particularly connect with Sarah and Garrett did not fully met my expectations, I am devoted to the Kelly brothers and am happy to report that Ms. Banks will be continuing the KGI series and releasing information about the next two books soon!

Favorite Quote:

“When she looked up there was a predatory gleam in Garrett’s eyes. A look that told her she was his and he planed to lay claim. Oh but she loved that look. No one had ever looked at her with such intensity. Like he dared anyone to take what was his anyway. Like he wanted to devour her in a single bite and savor the taste.”

* For those concerned readers out there, the rape scene is not spoken about in detail.

[Willow Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable installment in the KGI series about the formidable Kelly brothers, though this one had enough things that bugged me to make it my least favorite book so far. My biggest issue was the heroine, Sarah. From the get-go, when she is described as having acquaintances but no close friends, I was shaking my head. Maybe because I just spent the past month not being able to spend time with my closest friends and it was driving me a little batty. I get that she was a foster child and has issues, but she's a grown woman now and you'd think she would have figured out how to make a friend or two. She was too much the fragile victim for my taste, though obviously it worked well for the hero, Garrett, LOL. I did enjoy him, a grumpy tough guy who is a marshmallow inside when it comes to women, going into instant rescue mode. He was very sweet and considerate with Sarah who had some rough stuff to get over.

The story involves Sarah on the run because she witnesses her brother Marcus, her only family/support person committing a crime and does not want to be used against him. Turns out her bro is one nasty piece of work and she is the only person he has ever truly cared about (must be genetic). Many people want to take out Marcus, including Garrett for very personal reasons. His desire for revenge coincides with a request from the CIA that he keep an eye on Sarah to see if Marcus shows up where she is staying. So he hangs out at the same tropical island where Sarah is hiding and they find themselves drawn to each other. Garrett immediately wants to rescue, care for and protect fragile, haunted Sarah and she likes that just fine. The tricky part is he also wants to kill the one person she is close to and he must lie to her while trying to draw Marcus out and keep her safe from others who want to use and even kill her. So that was certainly a hurdle for our young lovers to overcome on their way to a HEA.

Interspersed through the story are scenes with the large Kelly family and it was nice to see them all again. Despite my carping about Sarah (and I could go on, I'm just short on time ), I enjoyed the story, found Garret very tender and sweet and had fun catching up with the various Kellys. A fun series. I look forward to the next installment, hopefully with a heroine who has a little more backbone and smaller tear ducts.

[Saly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so I loved the first book in the series and the 2nd one was meh but this one blew my mind. Garret was such a great hero and so huggable ;)
Sarah..I liked here even though maybe I didn't want to because she was such a victim but what really made me like her was that she was real, her fear, her emotions everything. She was just trying to make the best of what life had dealt her. And I liked Marcus..I know he was the villain and all but no matter what he loved his sister and risked everything for her. Sarah loved her brother, faults and all and I am glad she didn't flip on him and that her love was real.

And I fell in love with Kelly family all over again. Van is Van and he deserves a book, and Rio and Cole and PJ?and ok what the heck everyone!!Rusty is someone I still don't gush over but she is okay I guess. What is up with Sean and her I wonder, or is it something that only I felt?Maybe a friendship of sorts?

And Sam is still my least favorite. Maya please do write FAST!!!!;)

[Lover of Romance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

It’s been my experience that fear doesn’t have a set of parameters. We can’t turn it off just by realizing we shouldn’t be afraid.

First Impressions
Hidden Away is the third book in the KGI series and I am slowly working my way through this series and learning to love this family more and more. Their fun bantering and the way that they fight and stand by each other, is just delicious. I really love how they all interact with each other and seeing their close bond to each other. We get plenty of fun times with the family, the parents, and the two previous couples from the first two books in the series. Hidden Away is a story that starts off with a wild kick, as we see a man get murdered and the heroine is now on the run as her life is in danger and then we have the hero, who is Garrett, who has been sent to go undercover, protect her and draw her brother out in the open. So I just love a snappy mistaken identity romance and this is the perfect BEACH read, as it’s set on a island with beach and surf and plenty of warm weather. There is a cozy feeling to this book and I really enjoyed seeing the romance blossom and the way they have to work to overcome the conflicts and Maya Banks did a brilliant job with this installment,.

Summary
Sarah Daniels is a witness to her brother murdering a high profile man who also raped and abused her. She knows why her brother took the action he took but also knows she is not safe. She goes on the run and settles on an island in the middle of nowhere and has a cozy beach house, just wanting to feel safe for the first time in a while. Then Garrett is pulled aside for a mission, to go undercover and sweet talk Sara and draw her brother out in the open. Her brother is Marcus Lattimer, and the nemesis to Garrett and his family, and he is determined to bring him down. What he doesn’t expect though is to be so drawn to Sarah and be connected to a woman that lives a life in fear and working to overcome what is obviously abuse and PTSD from a sexual assault. Garrett is determined not to just complete his mission, but protect Sarah at all costs. But when the truth is revealed, will Garrett be able to win Sarah’s heart and prove to her of his genuine care for her?

You don’t look like you’ve ever been scared of anything.” “Crying women scare me,” he admitted. She laughed. “Lucky for you I used up all my tears months ago.” “Plenty of things scare me. Pregnant women scare me.” She turned to face him again, her lips twitching. Some of the wildness had faded from her eyes. “I’m getting the impression that women, in any form, scare you.” He shrugged. “They’re the more violent species. And unpredictable. I’d rather take on a wild boar. You can’t shoot women.

What I Loved
This was such a kick-ass romance and I had such a blast with this one here. I just couldn’t get enough of this one and even though it wasn’t quite a five-star read, it was still a wonderful installment that I had so much fun with. I have always loved Garrett since the first book, he is the “brooding” brother and yeah I love the broody males. We see a different side to his personality when he is around Sarah and in a more tropical setting, he allows himself to relax and let all the stress go that has been pressing hard on him. Then we have Sarah, who has been through hell and back. Not only is she working through a rape and trying to work through that emotionally, but she is on the run as well. She knows that there is a connection between herself and Garrett, and instinctively she knows he is a man she can trust, but she is also a fighter. I really loved how she handles Garrett and stands on her own when she needs to. The way that the conflict works out while I would have preferred Garrett to be honest with her earlier in the story, I knew that it probably wouldn’t happen that way, haha but I did like seeing how Garrett has to grovel a bit for Sarah. I enjoyed seeing them interact and the way they overcome their challenges as a couple. And we get to see some fun players be more involved. We also get to witness the first birth in the family which was fun and how Garrett plays such a distinctive role in that.

And what she knew was that she had fallen and was still falling for the badass with the big heart and gentle soul.

What I Struggled With
So the real big issue that kept this from a five-star read is the ending, I so wasn’t a fan. It ended so abruptly like I wish that there had been at least a couple more chapters and it just felt so rushed and I was expecting more and it was the ending and I was like huh?? haha

Overall View
I found Hidden Away to be a powerful installment in the KGI series and this book has me eager to continue on. Hidden Away is a fiery hot edgy novel, that portrays emotional dilemmas, a sexy relationship being built, and some swoony moments that will bring a level of heart and poignancy to the surface!

Love was a gift, but it was up to the recipient to accept and cherish or to reject the offering. All she could do was give unreservedly. And for the first time since her assault, she realized that she could give something she’d never thought to give again. Her trust and her love.

Trigger Warnings:
Sexual Assault, Abuse, Psychological Stress, Murder

[crashqueen73 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just wrote a page review and then lost it. I cannot be bothered wasting my time rewriting my thoughts about this book.

In summary this was boring.... really, really boring. About a woman who was weak and insipid and couldn't make any kind of conversation and a man that fell in love with her because she was weak and insipid which is pathetic (and maybe probable) and I couldn't read past 24% because I wanted to put her out of her misery and not in the way the hero wanted to.

1, I didn't like it, I hated it, stars.

PS If you read my reviews you may notice I am in a very bad, old lady kind of mood. Seriously there are so many shitty, crappy books out there about stupid, weak women. Why do I keep coming across them atm??? Ughhhh!

[Jacqueline J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out fairly strong and then fizzled into boredom. Which is too bad because I really liked the first one. I think the plot was too formulaic. After awhile you just knew what was going to happen so it didn't seem worth it to keep on. The whole business with him having lied to her about working for her brother was an example. You didn't even have to wonder 'hmm how's that going to turn out?' No suprises in the plot really. Darn you just never can tell with Maya Banks. She's very hit or miss for me. Sadly this was if not a total miss, at the very least a line drive straight to the first baseman.

[willaful · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Garrett of this book wasn't quite the same as the Garrett of the previous books (the man who nursed his sister-in-law after she miscarried is suddenly a big macho doof who doesn't understand women? Oh please.) And there were far more typos and grammatical errors than I'd expect to find in a book by a major publisher. Still, enjoyed it a lot.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that as KGI books go, this one was a little bit disappointing. I haven’t had this many issues with the first two books combined… But I’ll explain more as I go.
I absolutely loved seeing all the Kelly family again. They were wonderful as always. Garrett and Sophie in the hospital were so damn funny too.
I cannot wait to read about PJ or Donovan.

I had such high hopes for Garrett Kelly. I expected him to find a woman who wouldn’t take any of his crap. She would be just as strong-minded as he is and they would butt heads and clash like crazy. But the crazy make-up sex would totally be worth it. I didn’t get that at all.
To be honest, nothing in this book went as I had expected or hoped and I think that’s why I struggled with it.

Garrett actually seemed like a totally different character in this book. He just wasn’t like he has been in the previous two books. I don’t know what happened! He was too sweet. It was weird.

Sarah is a sweet heroine but she isn’t very memorable.I was proud of the way she overcame her past, but bar that there isn’t much else to her character.
Is she right for Garrett? I honestly don’t know. I didn’t feel any real chemistry between them and their connection just lacked depth. They didn’t feel right to me.

The storyline involving the Cross brothers and Sarah’s Brother Marcus was really great. I loved that Marcus cared about her so much that he put himself out there and took revenge; he dealt out justice on her behalf. It was such a gripping story.
But the balance wasn’t there! By the end of the book we were supposed to understand that even though Marcus loved his sister, he was still a very bad man. However, Banks didn’t do a good enough job of making us see Marcus for what he is supposed to be. We didn’t get told anything about what he really does, other than the fact that he double crossed Garrett’s team. Which okay, is pretty bad but not the end of the freaking world.

Don’t read the spoiler tag unless you have read the book!

When Marcus died in Sarah’s arms all I felt was sorrow. He loved her so much, and tried desperately to make up for their fathers mistakes. He wanted to look after her, to keep her safe and to love her like her father should have. I wasn’t angry at him at all. I was more pissed off that he had died.
The author needed to give us more information about Marcus’ real life. Why is he so bad? Why should we hate him?

The ending felt really rushed and forced. I didn’t like it at all it made me realise that I just don’t believe in their relationship. Which kinda sucks :(
After everything that happened, Garrett lying to her so much and keeping everything from her... she just forgives him? After what happened with Marcus too? She loves him more than anyone in the world, he is the only family she has left and yet she forgives Garrett just like that? I don’t know it just didn’t sit right with me.

I absolutely love the KGI world and I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, even though this one wasn’t up to the usual awesome standard!

[Jac K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read last year…cleaning shit up.

I was a smidge disappointed by Garrett’s book for a couple reasons. I feel like MB sort of melded together the first two books into one and it just didn’t come out right. (Like how 2 very attractive people have an unattractive offspring… it defies logic but is what it is) Basically, I enjoyed the first 2 books, but melded together... not as much.

Hidden Away is Garett and Sarah’s story. Much like Sophie in No Place to Run, Sarah is also a family member (sister) of an arms dealer/crime lord that Resnick desperately wants to use to take down. BUT instead of being strong like Sophie, she’s portrayed fragile and broken like Rachel from The Darkest Hour. The issue is that much of the story was running from the bad guy and dodging Resnick with tons of time hiding out, and marshmallow Sarah was too squishy/boring on her own without the other Kelly brothers/action to spice shit up, so the story dragged.

Bottom Line- Ok, some parts were exciting but other were 💤💤. I had to skim through some of the repetitive G & S “hiding out" time, that were broken up with completely random Kelly family crap. (Rachel’s still a fragile mess, Rusty’s still a bratty bitch, Sam/Sophia have a daughter -Charlotte) Then the ending felt rushed and skipped over any potential angst from him pretty much lying to her the entire book by having her forgive him within 2 CHEESY pages…which was a total bummer. IMO, MB writes these male characters a little feminine. They can kick-ass when they need to, but they all sit around talking about feelings which I’m not a fan of…and I feel like it’s getting worse. And what is up with the unreciprocated BJ’s??!!

This is another super long series with tons of characters and I need to leave notes or I'll forget the details. I like to keep the actual "notes" section for a reminder of the plot so I'm adding my character notes here. (updating as I go along)
Sam Kelly- Army, w/ Sophie (daughter of dead crime lord)
Garett Kelly- Marine w/ Sarah (sister of dead crime lord)
Donovan Kelly- Marine (but also called fly boy- 🤷‍♀‍), medic trained, computer nerd. easy going brother
Ethan Kelly- Navy Seal, married to Rachel (former stray)
Nathan Kelly- Army (youngest-twin)
Joe Kelly- Army (youngest- twin)
Frank & Marleen Kelly-Parents
Rusty- homeless teen “stray”
Sean- cop and another “stray” very close to family
Rio- Team leader (dead sis Magdalena/ called Rosalina later)
Steele-Team leader
PJ- SWAT female sharp shooter
Cole- Navy Seal, sharp shooter
Resnick- CIA dude
Kyle Phillips- Marine leader
Other teammates- Baker, Renshaw
PJ, Cole, Dolphin- Steele
Terrence, Diego, Mitch, Browning, Alton & Decker - (Rios’s Team)

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read December 2015

Original review June 2011>

*** 4.5 Stars***

I am definately in love:) .....I had a feeling that I would love Garrett when we got glimpses of him in the other 2 books and I wasn't wrong.

He is one hell of a sexy man who realises that Sarah has been hurt before and although he wants her he takes it slow and easy and waits until he feels she is ready. This means there isn't an awful lot of steam in this book but I think that is understandable considering Sarah's past and had Ms Banks written any sex scenes earlier in the story it wouldn't have been/felt right.

Whilst Garrett is watching and keeping tracks on her he realises that she is scared and skittish and looks after her including doing a really lovely thing such as going to collect the books that she dropped (As some guy tried to mug her!), get her a bottle of wine (she previously admitted that is all she drinks) and a bar of chocolate as he thinks that all women love chocolate (not wrong there then ha ha). He leaves these items on her doorstep for her to find when she wakes up - it was at this point that I knew that I did love Garrett and I am sure that most everyone who reads this story will say the same.

As in all HEA's Garrett gets his woman after a bit of a rocky fallout when she finds out that he has been lying to her. I did feel that the last few scenes were rushed and that she gave in and forgave him far too quickly considering the outcome with her brother!

I have rated this as 4.5 stars and would have happily given a 5 star if the suspense side had been stronger but having said that I still really loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Hurry up Ms Banks....I cannot wait until the next installment!

[Jonel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banks returns readers to the world of the KGI with just the right mix of sweet and spice. Suspense runs high as the characters travel throughout Central and North America. Banks’ descriptions bring each new locale to life so that I could easily picture them. The story seemed so real to me throughout. The action packed sequences were interspersed with heartfelt moments and family drama keeping me on my toes.

Garrett’s personality had me from the get-go. He was so strong and appeared fearless, yet his world was completely rocked by Sarah. Sarah’s need to protect those she cared about, regardless of her own fear tugged at my heart. Together, these two were a fantastic pair who easily carried the story forward. I also appreciated the fact that the Kellys made a strong appearance in the tale. This family is so tight knit, and yet they each have their own lives to deal with. The Rio/Steele dynamic brought the entire KGI crew into the story in a bigger way for me. I enjoyed seeing the interaction and tension between the two teams, yet their ability to also work together.

This novel is formulaic in as much as boy meets girl, boy (eventually) gets girl, but from their Banks makes it all her own. It was a fun addition to the series and also a fantastic read in and of itself.

[Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another great addition to the series!!! I enjoyed the storyline, it was setup nicely, and Garrett was such a sweety!!!

He's always been one of my favorites, and in his book, again, he's sweet as pie, and sexy as hell! I loved him during the beach time, when he left the bag of books and wine at her door.... Awww, the way to my heart! Sarah was ok heroine for me, she doesn't have the spark that Sophie had, but given the circumstances she did ok. My only complaint... not enough sex! LOL I do love how he talked to her. ;)

The side stories as usual were great, I love the whole Kelly family! They're great. Sophie had her baby, and one of my favorite moments was Garrett freaking out about having to take her to the hospital, and then he was the only one there when they were preparing her... I was LMAO!

Rusty... Very sad, but I liked that finally the family is coming around and giving her a place in their hearts, and they're sticking up for her. I really want her to get a book... PLEASE!!!!

I had hopes for PJ and Donovan to get together, but now, after this book, I'm thinking it might be PJ and Cole... :(

Can't wait for the next book!!!