Aya M. Productions

Note: I received an ARC copy of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions and thoughts are my own. I was not paid to write this.

To be honest, I’ve never read a Maya Banks’s KGI novel. I’ve wanted to. I love romantic suspense, after all, but I just never got around to it. After reading Darkest Before Dawn, I can’t believe I’ve waited so long before reading one! Darkest Before Dawn was quite possibly the best Maya Banks novel I’ve read thus far. It was gut-wrenching and suspenseful with a slow burning romance between a very resilient woman and a man that doesn’t see black and white.

One thing to note about this novel is that it does deal with something that may be a difficult topic for some. Honor, our heroine in the story, is a relief worker in the Middle East. Their shelter is attacked by a terrorist group known as A New Era (ANE), and she barely escapes. ANE, however, is hot on her tail, determined to save their reputation for letting an American woman escape. Hancock and his team intercepts Honor before she is caught by ANE, but he doesn’t capture her to rescue her. She’s just a pawn in his overall goal of taking down the terrorist group and a man in charge of funding groups like ANE.

From Chapter 1, the suspense in Darkest Before Dawn was high, all starting with the bombing and continuing throughout the book. My heart was desperate for Honor to survive and for Hancock to choose her. My emotions were high throughout the read, and it was so SO GOOD!

Both of the main characters stood out to me. Honor is a survivor. She may not be physically the strongest, but she has a strong will, which helped her evade capture and endure everything she went through. On the other hand, Hancock was a bit of a broken soul. He was trained to defend the “greater good” no matter what the cost, which included siding with the enemy to infiltrate their ranks and even sacrificing select few. He exhibited no emotions and didn’t let emotions enter his work… Well with a few exceptions. It was quite the ride watching the slow development of their relationship.

Hancock’s team was a great cast of secondary characters as well. My favorite being Mojo. They brought a bit of humor into the story and often voiced opinions that Hancock refused to admit aloud but often thought, especially when about Honor.

I think there was only one thing I didn’t understand in the book between Hancock and Honor. I’d say what, but I’d consider it a major spoiler. Therefore, I’ll refrain. If you read Darkest Before Dawn, however, please do leave a comment. I’d love to know what you think!

Overall, Darkest Before Dawn by Maya Banks was a top-notch romantic suspense in my book. Darkest Before Dawn was a gut-wrenching, suspenseful story that centers around a very current issue in society today. (I don’t even want to imagine what it’d be like to be in Honor’s shoes…) The romance was slow developing and got hindered multiple times along the way, but of course, Honor and Hancock finished off with a happy ending. I definitely recommend Darkest Before Dawn to any romantic suspense fan or Maya Banks fan.