Jackson Kincaid is spending the rare night off from his dangerous and illegal occupation to spend the evening with Sister Kate at her charity function for a struggling school in Haiti. Jackson’s attendance is warranted because he is the mysterious American donor that everyone has been dying to meet. Suddenly, a terrorist group blazes in killing innocent bystanders and taking over a dozen attendees hostage. One of those hostages is Sister Kate. Jackson shares a secret past with Kate and will stop at nothing to rescue his dear friend from these horrible men. When Jackson is suddenly wounded, he’s forced to call for help to the last organization he would ever dream of asking.

This is where Alexia comes in. She is part of a secret organization known as the Sentinels and has a history with Jackson, but has to put it all aside in order to focus on the real issue - taking out the bad guys and rescuing the hostages. This mission brings up old memories and bad feelings for Alexia and Jackson. Both have to decide if they’ve changed too much to still have a chance together or if they must both go their own ways once the dust has settled.

Echo of Violence is a novel that shakes up the action right out of the gate. You are immediately thrown into this world of violence and terror and have little time for character introduction. Jackson remains the mysterious rouge, but as the book progresses, you see Jackson as a very emotional character. He’s a dark angel that is private, quiet and keeps to himself. Alexia is somewhat similar to Jackson’s personality. She seems very distant, emotionally shut off and cold. She is all business and rarely lets anyone see past her rough exterior.

Dane’s book uses a great amount of knowledge and description of the inner workings for this terrorist group. While the novel is surprising smart in describing its villain, it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. The violence isn’t heavily described, but you still know a great deal about the torture these hostages are facing. Their ordeal is always uncertain and makes for a more intriguing novel by the fact that you have no idea what these mad men will do next. If you don’t like any form of cruelty of violence described in any way shape or form in your books, I would strongly suggest you skip this novel.

The book is very suspenseful throughout along with a well built plot line. The only thing that is missing is romance. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but it is classified as a romantic suspense so my expectations going into this novel were a little different. The romance between Jackson and Alexia is non-existent. Really, they spend a large portion of the book apart. The novel mentions the fact that they share a history, but the details of that history are never fully exposed. And it’s hard to create any kind of attraction between two characters when one of them is near death. Jackson is gravely injured in the beginning and pushes himself to continue on until the end of the rescue mission. The scenario is somewhat unbelievable because the injury is very serious and infection is a high danger. You go through one chapter where he is near death and the next he is hiking his way through the jungle to rescue Sister Kate.

There is a charming secondary romance between two characters from earlier novels in this series. It’s terribly short, but charming all the same. That is about the extent of the romance department. You will find a great suspenseful and action packed story with Echo of Violence. But romance? Not so likely. Hopefully knowing what to expect when you go into this novel will make for a more enjoyable reading experience. ~ Lisa