In the Shadows, Hailey Turner

4.5! Really awesome book! The men were straight bad ass and the overall story was exciting, intriguing, and kept my interest from start to finish. It was longer than I was expecting but that turned out to be a good thing because, having not read the first two books in the series, there was so much to explain so the readers wouldn't be lost. The way the author did this, though, was just about perfect. There were a ton of details but were given in context of this story. Because it's set in a world with all the same elements as the previous two books it's kind of repeated information but because it's in context of Sean and Alexei, it's new to me and flows with the events I'm reading about. I suppose if I had read the first two books I would think this tedious and superfluous, but if we're jumping in mid-stream we don't feel lost. It's also not like an info-dump either so it's not walls of text that I want to skip over.

The dynamic between the two men is complex and also very simple. They've known one another and have been building a camaraderie, if not a relationship, in previous books but since they weren't the focus, we get Alexei reminiscing about the contact they've had. That contact allowed them to grow fond feelings for one another, how fond, however, wasn't apparent as more than general friendship and getting-to-know-you stuff until they were together on this current mission. Sean's quick thinking invited Alexei and his team to become part of a much larger mission that no one truly expected. With so many twists and turns and new revelations Sean and Alexei forge something much deeper. The question then becomes will this become something that will last after the intensity fades?

Sean is a liar by trade. Is he more than that? The way he was written was really well done. He knew what he needed to do for the mission, for his country, and for others and he remained calm, collected, and able to think ahead to what could come at them to make good decisions. I admired him as a man. What he desired and believed he deserved was something far less than what Alexei could see for him. Alexei was a good match for him because of the trust, passion, concern, and regard he held for Sean. Alexei is strong, strong willed and absolutely capable of believing in something beyond himself. That strength also led him to a bit of arrogance. I wasn't bothered by his arrogance, though, because it actually became endearing.  Honestly, I really love both of these men.  Sean did go from quietly awesome to a bit more emotional, understandable with the circumstances, but he did a bit of changing that I'm not sure I love.  He didn't decrease in my estimation, I just don't know if I'm keen on how he comes across at the end versus who we come to know in the beginning.

In the beginning there was quit a bit of reference to Sean's ability to pick up on languages and dialects in others' accents. He also has a knack for imitating many accents which aided him in both the CIA and MDF. That ability apparently didn't extend to him repeating Russian words requested him by Alexei. Claiming that Sean was butchering the words didn't fit with what we were introduced as a special talent so that inconsistency didn't really work well. It's either one or the other. To make Sean less than perfect and a bit cute by not being able to accurately say the Russian words is one thing, but to say that he is adept at accent imitation and then have him fail so spectacularly with this doesn't really make sense. Could we blame the passion? Sure, but I don't buy that. Similarly, when there are moments of Russian language education we get zero explanation or definition beyond kotyonok meaning kitten. A bit disappointing, that.

Overall this was an awesome book that I was happy to read and wish I had started at the beginning. I'll be hoping my library starts carrying this series so I can get to know all these awesome men and women from the start. I would have liked more from the ending revolving around these two men but since this isn't the end of the series we'll get to see them in the periphery of later books.

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