Echoes at Dawn – Book 5 (KGI Series)

Echoes at Dawn is the new release (July 3, 2012) in Maya Banks’ popular KGI series.

Echoes at Dawn is Rio and Grace’s story. Rio leads one of the teams for KGI. We were introduced to Grace Peterson in Whispers in the Dark. She is the sister of Shea Peterson, Nathan Kelly’s fiancé.

At the end of Whispers in the Dark, KGI was working on trying to locate Grace, Shea’s sister. Once the surveillance footage of Grace appeared on the screen, Rio leapt to his feet and declared that he and his team would locate Grace and bring her home.

Grace was being held prisoner and experimented on. She had to power to heal. The drawback to her ability was that she actually took their sickness, whether it be an injury or disease, mental illness or sickness, into her body. Under normal circumstances, she could heal herself as well from whatever she had taken inside her. Unfortunately, she had not been able to heal each time her captors has forced her into saving someone. She was weak and ready to die when there was sudden chaos in the compound where she was being held. Explosions and gunshots were everywhere. In the mayhem that ensued, she was able to make her escape, even in her weakened state.

She was aware that there were people following her and had been managing to hide, but she also knew how weak she was and that she wouldn’t be able to continue. She was resigned to her fate and willing to die when Rio and his team reached her. By the time his team got to her, she was gravely injured. She had internal injuries, broken bones and mentally, she was toast. Rio and his team knew something wasn’t right with what happened at the compound where she was being held and knew that maybe more than one group was after Grace. Rio was determined that she would live and he and his team set out to get her out of there and give her time to heal. On their trek out, someone from Rio ’s past appears to give him a warning about who was after Grace. And a one time pass.

Once they are out of harm’s way, Grace starts her healing process at his home in Belize . At first, she is torn over whether to trust Rio or not. Once she finds out that he promised Shea he would bring her home, she started to trust him. She had trouble reconciling the warrior that she knew him to be and the gentle caring man who was helping her to heal. Once Rio reveals to her that she is his and that he had known it from the moment he saw her on the surveillance footage, she begins to feel hope for the first time. She and her sister had been alone for so long and she hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t wake up tomorrow and find it all a dream. Luckily for her, and for Rio , it wasn’t.

I loved this book. This story has a little bit of everything. There is betrayal, which shocked me. There is, of course, a sweet love story. And there were a couple of times toward the end that had me tearing up. Okay, to be honest, I cried. But the biggie?? There is a twist at the end that shocked me. I can’t even tell you what it is or what it pertains to, because, if you haven’t read it yet, it’ll blow it for you. I don’t know if I’m getting slow in my old age and just missing the signs of these twists or not, but for a minute, I was like “WHAT??!!”. LOL!!! The very end had the entire group together for a celebration. And, Grace was welcomed into the Kelly fold. Can’t wait for the next installment in this great series. *whispering* I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I love Maya Banks!! 😉 And, I’ll say it again. If you haven’t read Maya’s KGI series, you are missing out on some serious hotness!!

Reviewed by Vickie M.