Fast-paced, sexy, adventurous, thrilling.....these are some words to describe this new novel by Brynn Kelly.

This is the first book I've read by Ms. Kelly and it will definitely not be the last! I was absolutely fascinated by the French Foreign Legionnaires and I ended up searching for more info on the FFL. Very cool. I definitely will be continuing this series.

Brynn Kelly is able to create a action packed story with a feisty female reporter who won't stop from getting her story out and a Alpha Male who wants nothing to do with her but survive. someone between being imprisoned together and saving each others lives they fall madly in love. Your traditional Harlequin romance story.

Yet this story standout in so many different way. The author is able to take an action pack story that many times feels like readers are on a roller coaster and blend a background story of Flynn that will hook readers in wanting to know more about the mystery man and his desire to keep his secret and his past silent and boy I didn't see that one coming.

Brynn Kelly creates a vivid Africa nation where men and woman are sold for food and the trill of war. The story is over the top but the author is able to create such amazing characters anything silly is pushed aside.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Harlequin Books for the copy of Edge of Truth.

What’s it About? Journalist Tess Newell didn’t expect to escape the African dungeon she was being held in until her captors toss in another prisoner with her, a French Foreign Legionnaire known only as Flynn. Together they manage to escape but that’s only the first obstacle they face as they have to navigate enemy territory to recover incriminating evidence Tess hid away before she was captured. And that’s with almost an entire terrorist cell hunting them. Tess and Flynn share a rather quick attraction to one another but Flynn is hiding one heck of a secret that could stop their attraction from going anywhere, if the enemy doesn’t kill them first.




Overall reaction to the story? I had a hard time believing the romance in this one, as in, I didn’t buy it. The book feels like it takes place over a lengthy time when it actually doesn’t. The timeline is something like three days. Since Edge of Truth is classified as a romance that’s what caught my attention. I will say that this author excels in creating tense, dangerous situations with tons of action that feels like a big budget movie. I loved those scenes to bits which is why I didn’t DNF the book. Had the romance been at the same level as the action, Edge of Truth would have been a big winner with me.




Describe the hero in five words: Secretive. Intense. Charming. Brooding. Protective.

Did you like him? Yes.

Why? I love a hero who can be a total badass but can also crack a joke or two just to lighten up the mood. That was Flynn. At the oddest moments he’d say something that would break the tension of the situation he was in and bring a bit of humor into it. At the same time he kept people at arm’s length because he had a doozy of a secret he was understandably reluctant to share. As terrible as his secret is, I enjoyed how different it was compared to the usual “secrets” characters have. He was good at what he did but at the same time he still had to learn that there was more to life than living in the shadows.



Describe the heroine in five words: Naïve. Self-Righteous. Annoying. Bland. Stubborn.

Did you like her? No. Can’t you tell by the five words?

Why? Tess just did not win me over at all. She was stupidly naïve about how the world worked even as she sat in a dark prison after being tortured. She had this idea that stopping the bad guys would be as simple as handing over her evidence and getting it on air. She repeatedly argued with Flynn IN THE MIDDLE OF RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES people! She didn’t have the training that he had but yes, by all means tell him how to avoid being shot dead I’m sure you know better. *rolls eyes* I can at least say this about her: She didn’t trust easily which along with a whole lot of luck was why she didn’t die in the first two chapters. Which honestly would have been okay if she had been replaced by someone more worldly.



Let’s talk about the romance: No romance to be had to be honest. I wasn’t convinced that Tess wasn’t suffering from some form of Stockholm Syndrome because her “relationship” with Flynn went from “Hey other prisoner” to “Oh emm gee I totally love you” in like two days. That’s too quick for me. I can believe insta-lust but not insta-love, especially when it happens in a constant life or death situation like it did here. There were no moments of normal for them, just a lot of fighting or running for their lives, plus let’s not forget that Tess had been in an isolated state for awhile and Flynn was the first person she had contact with who didn’t torture her. The romance wasn’t built up the same way the action scenes were and that made it fall flat for me. Very flat. The book had a very unfinished feel to it when it came to their relationship. Kind of like it was just beginning rather than finishing on solid ground.



How about that supporting cast? Flynn’s team of Legionnaires were pretty interesting. They’re all carrying around some big secrets which gets my curiosity going but the fact that these guys are so loyal to one another really had me wanting to know more about them.


Click It or Skip It? If you’re looking for romance Skip It. If you’re up for an action packed suspense story then ignore the lack of romance and Click It.

Thank you for a believable, smart, plucky, and stubborn female lead character!!! Thank you THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Thoughts and Plot

Tess Newall is a top foreign coverage journalist kidnapped by terrorist and thrown into a cement hole in the ground. She's tortured for information because she uncovered a major plot that involved high level American government officials.

Errol Flynn is a French Legionnaire, looking to make up for events he believes he is partially responsible for as a boy. He is captured on a routine mission with his unit, possibly drugged and thrown into the cement hole in the floor with Tess Newall several days after her capture. Why? Because they needed a pretty male face to compliment Tess at her execution.

Together they bust out and readers are taken on a tense, action filled escape through the Ethiopian landscape, complete with mine fields. Each has a slightly different agenda. Flynn plans to get Tess to safety at all cost. Tess plans to get her back up dossier and expose every major player within a giant corporate scheme to start a war, even if it costs her her life.

It was refreshing to read a book where the main gal doesn't turn into a total idiot at some point within the book to further the plot. Tess remains a very smart, stubborn woman set on righting a major injustice, no matter the cost to herself. She does continually try to get Flynn out of harms way, but Flynn is something of a modern by knight in slightly tarnished armour. He repeatedly refuses to let her go it alone and even brings in the back up to help them succeed in her mission to expose the true villains.


In Conclusion

I don't want to ruin it for anyone, so I'll wrap it up by just saying that this is a real diamond in the rough. The girl is competent, the boy is competent. Pretty much everyone in this book is competent at what they are doing. THANK YOU FOR THAT!!!

This book was ok. Tess is a big time reporter who was captured while trying to do a story. She was thrown into a pit and tortured. They keep making her think she is going to be executed but then they throw someone else down there with her. Flynn is a soldier. He was captured and doesn't know what happened to his group. I really liked Flynn. Neither he or Tess have any reason to trust the other but they must to escape.

Once they are out, Tess becomes a bit much to deal with. I never would have had the patience that Flynn had with her. The only thing important to her, was getting her story out. I will grant you that it was a big time story but Tess really just grated on me. Flynn and his buddies on the other hand, I really liked. His friends are there for him regardless of what is going on and the cost to them.

It was a 2/5 for me. I think I just expected more action with the description.



Thank you to the publisher for the review copy of this book. I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.

Very intense action packed story line. Too much happened too fast and it made it hard to understand the story. I did not like Tess, she was too opinionated

Incredible story telling. Characters that seem real, who are strong without falling into superhero stereotypes, and capable of great bravery and emotion.

A setting and story setup that could take place in today’s news, with a plot that seems very possible.

I have only good to say about this book. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought the first one so I could read Angelito’s story.

***ARC Provided by the Author/Publisher via NetGalley***

Tess and Flynn worked as a couple in the suspense portion of the book, the kidnapping, escaping, running and then trying to get the information to stop the terrorists...all of this was compelling and interesting.

But, I felt that there was not enough of them as a couple when no one was shooting at them. Their first encounter is in the midst of fighting, and running, from their kidnappers and you expect this from a romantic suspense...but there also need to be interludes where the couple is together in a way that makes you think they will be able to stay together when the bullets stop flying. This was, I thought, a little light.

Not enough to make me not able to enjoy the book, but light enough that I was left wanting a little more than I got from their relationship. Now, what I got was hot and interesting. I believed their romantic and personal attraction to one another and I thought his backstory was interesting.

Overall, the book was constructed well and was paced well. The light in the "real world without bullets" romance did make this more of a "happily for now" ending for me, but as this is the 2nd book in the series, I am guessing there will be others and you will get the chance to see Tess and Flynn as a couple, at least mentioned in passing.

This was my first title by this author and I enjoyed it enough to be looking forward to her next title!

It took me a while to read this book, not because it was bad or boring, but because I liked it so much and was enjoying the characters and all the research so much, I wanted to make the most of it.

Edge of Truth is *everything* I’ve been asking for in romantic suspense for years, all there in one book. I think some of the mixed reaction to it has been because it IS about the suspense, and the setting is everything; no random “terrorist-riddled non-American country” cliché here. The research is fantastic, the author’s obvious local knowledge of Africa makes all the difference, and it’s not all about some hot-guy-romance.

However, the romance IS very strong. Hero and heroine are thrown together right from the outset, and are together more or less without a break for the entire book. Both are captured by a terror group, and both have good reasons for their involvement in the unfolding drama.

Television journalist Tess has been digging into US political connections to the terror group and the war they are trying to provoke. She has world-changing information to get out to the public, but she is trapped, imprisoned.

French Foreign Legion soldier Flynn is hiding some major secrets of his own, but he can’t bring himself to walk away from Tess when he helps her escape her captors.

I’ve been saying I wanted real-world issues in my books, and I always, always appreciate an author who knows her setting inside out. This book created a sense of place more than almost anything I’ve ever read, and that is one of the reasons I’m going to remember it long after more generic suspense books.

Everything about Edge of Truth comes across as relevant to right now, to the corruption and double-sided dealings of many powerful people in world (and especially US) politics.

However, this would all be nothing without the great characters. The Kiwi author manages to create a totally realistic Australian hero and an American heroine. Their relationship is built on desperate situations and a lot of clever conversation. The dialogue is natural and believable.

The story unfolds over only a few days, and yet I bought into the relationship. Perhaps there was a time or two where the focus on the growing attraction between the two might have seemed slightly out of place, but as the book unfolded I realised I was fine with it.

Africa isn’t the most popular setting for Western stories, romances or otherwise, but I strongly encourage readers to bury their fears of the foreign and give this one a go.

I just knew from the first time I read the blurb that this was going to be a book I’d love, and I was correct.

Review of the bonus novella:

I discovered Brynn Kelly with the second book in her brilliant Legionnaires series, and the rerelease of that book includes this novella, featuring a different set of main characters.
Kelly has the writing style that I love in suspense stories. The dialogue feels real, the situations - though larger than life - are written in a “real” way, the characters feel real and feel like they really do exist in the present. It’s hard to explain the difference between an author like Kelly (or Cindy Gerard or Kaylea Cross) and others in the genre, but it’s huge.
This is as much a suspense story as a romance. It’s tough, and the characters go through tough things. There’s violence and action, and don’t go in expecting something else just because there’s a good-looking guy in the cover. It also packs in a lot of story for a shorter read. Somehow I was convinced of the relationship succeeding even though it happens over a short space of time.
Kelly always writes settings like she knows the inside-out and back-to-front, no matter where in the world her characters go. This is the first time she has set a story in her native New Zealand, so she had an advantage there, but her local knowledge really transforms the book.
I also enjoy her use of characters of different nationalities. The American guy feels American. The Australian guy (in book two) feels Australian etc.
I have nothing negative to say about Forbidden River. I am just glad to find another author to add to my “favourites”.