Dark Deceptions (An A-Tac Novel)

My thoughts: I started this book 3 times - I kept it as my purse book forever (which explains why I had to keep starting it). I got to page 12 each time and then...back in my bag to wait for another chance. So finally I took it out of my bag and brought it boating with me one day!
Amazing! When I took the time to sit down with this book - it was a fast, gripping read! I was so impressed. Now that I sat down with it - I read it in one day!!! So...
The characters are great, I want to meet each one of them! The story rolls right along, holding you in your chair the whole time. I found myself on an emotional roller coaster with Annie as we tried to save her son's life and keep her life from falling apart on so many levels! The relationship show more with Nash is heartbreaking and hopeful. As always, I am looking for "the ending" I have pictured in my mind for the whole story and in this book I was thrilled to see it come through! Lots of twists and turns, intrigue and betrayal from fronts you would never expect. If you like mystery/espionage you should check this one out! I plan to get Dangerous Desires and Desperate Deeds too! show less

Quick & Dirty: An intense tale with an equal mix of romance, suspense and rapid-fire action.

Opening Sentence: “So do you think we’re ever going to feel like a normal couple?”

The Review:

Nash Brennon leads an elite black-ops team known as American Tactical Intelligence Command (A-Tac). The team is comprised of the best covert agents in the business. They operate under cloak and dagger at an Ivy League university, waiting for the next high-level assignment to show up on their radar. The team is pulled in to stop an assassination attempt on the U. N. Ambassador and unfortunately for Nash, the assassin is someone he knows. Annie Gallagher is an ex-CIA operative with a long history with Nash. Former lovers and partners, their show more relationship ended on an explosive note when Anne left Nash twisting in the wind mid-op. Anne has surfaced eight years later, blackmailed into assassinating the U.N. Ambassador. Despite Annie’s betrayal, Nash is reluctant to believe that Annie would commit treason. When Annie’s son is kidnapped, she will stop at nothing to get her son back.

Dark Deceptions is a perfect blend of action, romance, suspense, and danger that will keep readers captivated. Ms. Davis does a wonderful job of keeping the danger intense and weaves an intricate web of betrayal, espionage, and political intrigue. I especially appreciate strong female characters. It was great reading about kick-butt female operatives that had no problem going toe-to-toe with men twice their size. Annie is no mere damsel in distress, proving herself just as capable as Nash. Annie had her flaws, but overall I found her to be a very believable character. Nash on the other hand was a bit disappointing at times. I expected him to be more Alpha, but he is surprisingly agreeable. Nash is more of the cool, calm and collected variety. After certain events unfold and new things are brought to light, Nash’s acceptance was immediate. This was a bit predictable, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the story. Annie and Nash have an undeniable chemistry, but they oftentimes couldn’t see past their disagreements. It’s an understatement to say that their relationship suffered from lack of communication and trust, which is odd given the business they’re in. Great secondary characters and complex villains make Dark Deceptions a thrilling read.

Overall, Dark Deceptions is worth reading. Ms. Davis delivers a fast-paced, action-packed thrill-ride that will leave your pulse-pounding and your heart skipping a beat. Full of suspense, twists and turns, Dark Deceptions is a strong addition to the genre.

A-Tac Series
1. Dark Deceptions
2. Dangerous Desires (07/2010)
3. Desperate Deeds (08/2010)

Notable Scene:

As if he’d heard her, Drake bent down, and Annie closed an eye as she gently squeezed the trigger, the motion at once intimate and deadly, everything coming back to her with one fluid motion. She was a trained killer and nothing-not her life in Creede, not her absence from the Company, not even her love for her son-could change that fact.

Using the scope, she ascertained that the man was indeed down. Nash and Drake had already pulled his body deeper into the shadows. She struggled for breath, the past and present coming together in nightmarish fashion. Angrily, she pushed away her rioting emotions. There was no time for introspection. Her son’s life and quite possibly Nash and Drake’s depended on her ability to keep a cool head.

FTC Advisory: Hachette Book Group provided me with a copy of Dark Deceptions . No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. In addition, I don’t receive affiliate fees for anything purchased via links from my site. show less

Dark Deceptions
Dee Davis’
Grand Central Publishing
384 pages

When you think of operatives working covertly for the CIA and what they do when they’re not out there saving the free world did you ever in a million years see them as college professors. Well neither did I that is until I read Dee’s exciting first book in her brand new series about just that. Picture our dangerous world, getting more dangerous by the minute and you have to know that somewhere out there are men and women who fight behind the scenes, take orders that may end their lives and take on the worst of the worst kind of villains and do it knowing that they are ghosts, will never be publicly acknowledged for their brave deeds and have to be content in that fact. See show more it now, well then you have just glimpsed Dee Davis’s new world order with Sunderland College and more precise the Aaron Thomas Academic Center think tank created by the CIA at the forefront. Here you will find the men and women of A-Tac a black ops group of patriots who’s sole reason for being is to see the world a safer place.
Eight years ago after a successful partnership in more than one way CIA agents Nash Brennon and Annie Gallagher part ways each one thinking the other was to blame and each one thinking the other one betrayed them. But all of that has to be put aside when it becomes known that Annie is operating again in a terrorist plot against the very government she used to work for. The arrows all point this way, but there’s doubt in the one mind that used to be able to finish her sentences as well as sleep in her bed, Nash Brennon.
Dee Davis gives us a unique look at what goes on behind enemy lines even if those lines are in your backyard. Her story line/plot is a roller coaster, edge of your seat, nail biting ride that will leave your heart beating faster and your pulse racing. She gives us exciting and descriptive dialogue that fits my perception of those individuals and scenes that pop off the pages and into your mind’s eye. Her characters are so interesting, so complicated and in some instances so tragic and in others so evil, characters that she knows elementally. Her hero Nash and heroine Annie are the couple voted most likely not to succeed, but you want them to with all your heart and as you learn their personal stories you want it even more. Her supporting characters are all equally important to the tale and you find yourself looking forward to the time when their story will be told. Her villains are cruel, vicious people who will make you cringe. Her love story is one that I particularly love, that of ex-lovers reuniting and either finding love again or realizing that love never left. Her love scenes are spicy, visceral and sizzle on the page but are never tawdry or crass.
If you look for excitement in a read, you’ll find it here. If you love the reuniting of old lovers, look no farther. If you love romance on the Sizzle Burner, here it is. If you love series where you re-connect with old friends while making new ones, start at the beginning with this new one. show less

This story is a good opening to this series. The beginning was especially good showing the two main characters and their successful partnership. The rest of the story is successful chronicling their distrust for one another even as they begin to realize they might have been mistaken in that mistrust. There is also a beginning of a story line that will carry on through several books. A quick and enjoyable read.

First book in a series about a CIA unit that masquerades as faculty at an Ivy League college which I thought was interesting. This is about a former CIA operative that has gotten out of the business and now lives in Colorado raising her son. Political terrorists kidnap her son which due to several demands of the kidnappers puts Annie back in contact with her former teammates who no longer trust her. Of course, she had a personal relationship with one of them and that brings conflict as they try to trust each other again. Good story.

Damn.. Sucked into another series.. No long review.. Good book