Juno Rushdan is a new to me author. From the moment I started reading Until the End I was hooked. I loved the characters and the action. I'm looking forward to reading more from Juno.

Juno Rushdan is an amazing writer, I will read anything she writes. This book was action packed, intense, and ca wonderful romance.

First, if Lexi Blake likes it and gives a good review then you will, too!
Castle and Kit had awesome chemistry, by there was also action and suspense to make a great story.

I have read Ms. Rushdan's books in the past and she does not disappoint! On the edge seat filled with action and suspense, make for a great rise. I loved it! Castle and KIt make for explosive chemistry. A former SEAL and a computer hacker, you cannot ask for a more intense-filled story. Another great read by an awesome author. Loved it. 4.5 stars

I really loved this whole series. I liked how each book focused on a different developing love story but didnt make it the sole story being told. Juno has a way with words, I found there were no boring parts and that the story kept moving a a steady pace through the whole book. I highly recommend this series.

Castle, Castle, Castle. A man who couldn't be ruffled. An operative who followed the rules. You really did find your match in Kit didn't you?

I enjoyed this book so much. I loved watching Castle fighting his attraction to Kit and struggling with his sense of obligation when it came to the Gray Box and his mentor. He was loyal, but Kit meant more to him than anything else and he would do anything to keep her safe. *sigh* The author did an amazing job with this story. It was packed-full of action and intrigue, with every word keeping me engaged and guessing throughout. I also loved visiting with the other Gray Box operatives. I liked the fact that the author made an effort to not only include them as they related to this story, but also updating the reader about their on-going story.

All in all, an amazing read with plenty of twist and turns and a hot romance to spice it up.

Review: UNTIL THE END (Final Hour Book 3) by Juno Rushdan https://wp.me/p3d0RZ-buK
Publication Date: May 26, 2020
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Reviewed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated 4.5 Stars

This book is a wild ride of excitement from page one. I read it as a stand-alone, but it seemed too convoluted at times to keep all the players straight, and I realize I should have read the two before. I will now go back and read them.

Even though I could not relate to Kit and her life experiences, I soon connected with her and became quite invested in her future. Castle was a bit slower to get under my skin. From the outside he seemed closed off, but his personality began to show through as the story progressed. It almost seemed like a fated romance than one that would naturally progress. Of course, all the danger and action swirling around them didn’t leave time for wooing.

I am a sucker for group dynamics when it comes to special ops stories and this one was fairly good in showing how they get along and work together. I wish I had read the first two before tackling this one, but I love Juno Rushdan’s writing style and wild action, so I plan to read more. It is an adrenaline pumping, sexy romance from an author I plan to follow.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a new author for me and I have to say I really enjoyed the book, the chemistry between the characters were off the charts. I will be adding this author to my watch list.

Gray Box is a black ops government agency, proud to have among its members, ex-CIA, NSA and other intelligence agencies. Castle Kinkade is an operative with an assignment to protect Kit Westcott, the leader a a white-hat hacker group. Now, this is simply the setup, because the book opens with Kit's hair-raising race for life. All of the members of her small unit have been eliminated and she is next. With Gray Box already being aware of the critically dangerous situation, Castle is already on scene.

That is how this book starts and the action and danger never stops. Kit has valuable information and someone, or many someones, will do anything to get to her, and her demise is sure to come after they get what they want. It is Castle's job to get what Kit knows to safety, all while staying one step ahead of danger and keeping Kit alive.

Meanwhile, sparks fly fast and high between the couple, and the tension is thus multiplied beyond either of their expectations. This fast-paced book by Juno Rushdan had it all, including a mix of spies and terrorists and the brilliant minds of computer hackers. Along with the romance that developed between Kit and Castle, there was a strong family vibe among the team's members.

Until the End is the third book int the Final Hour series, but did well as a standalone. All throughout this book there were several team members who were no doubt in the previous two books, but enough of a back story and continued development made this one more than easy to follow. The story definitely caught my attention and I would love to read further books in the series.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I love Juno Rushdan and hope we continue to see more books from her, especially after everything that went down in this one. That being said, thank you for validating that I wasn't crazy to distrust the one character from book one. I just knew it. Romantic suspense isn't always my jam but there's enough intrigue and fun in this series that I am always wanting more. I also love that it is set in DC by someone who actually knows the area.

I need Doc's story now please and thank you.

4/5 stars

I really liked this addition to the series, even more so than the second book! This was definitely a fast paced, opposites attract romance with plenty of action and suspense. I loved the steamy scenes between Kit and Castle, but I wasn't completely sold on the attraction between the two characters. It almost seemed like they were too opposite, however the chemistry did get stronger towards the end. Overall, I really liked this forced proximity, enemies to lovers with plenty of steamy scenes, tension and twists!

That was fantastic!

Until the End was adrenaline packed, and it literally exploded my brain.

So basically, my review in short:

“Gush gush, squee squee, read this series!”

Hacker finds herself in way over her head and a black ops specialist sent to bring her in might be her only hope. This adrenaline rush of a series has been sizzling and intense – just popping off the pages for me.
Review

Until the End is the third in the Final Hour romantic suspense series that must be read in order.

Kit had a bad feeling about a certain job and the new guy she let on her team of super hackers, but seeing them all get executed and learning they might have been working for terrorists puts her on the run with the evidence in her hands. She feels the net grow tighter as someone is hunting up their loose end- her. She has to find out what these terrorists are up to and fast, but now she’s in the crosshairs of a uber secret government organization and one killer-sexy operative emphasis on the killer though, yeah, if he wasn’t working for the government which pings her trust issues, she’d go for that because he sure is forcing her to see that he is honorable and understands survivor’s guilt just like her.

Castle Kincade is Sanborn’s golden child and the future of Gray Box. He is a professional and knows better than to go soft over a Person of Interest, but he is convinced that Kit is not a terrorist and she’s telling the truth about not knowing who or what the team was working for and getting into. He also believes her that she wants to get justice and revenge. She’s lying about something, but not that and not about the connection he feels between them. He has to keep her alive until they can get the hard drives and stop a bio-terrorism act from happening. But, it is coming down to his job or Kit.

Until the End is as exciting and intense as the books that came before it. The situation this time is a bio-terrorist threat and the clock is ticking. Kit is an unknown who has her own moral compass that doesn’t involve blind trust- or much trust at all- in secret government agencies while the hero, Castle, is true blue and upholds his work as making America safe. It was an interesting clash of ideals until they get to know each other. Their chemistry and connection were strong. I appreciated that the romance came along steadily, but didn’t get intimate until late in the game. Running for their lives and working a huge mission while figuring out who is lying to who does make for the need to table that for a bit. Still, I did enjoy this pair together.

Meanwhile, the twist inside of twist of events and characters was clever and excitingly complicated.

But then, shazam! The very last third of the book sent a twister of all twisters that turns the whole series on its head. If there are more books, we are looking at a very different series landscape. In truth, I’m still processing what I think about this monster change up. Well, probably better not elaborate on that.

Anyway, Until the End was right up there in full throttle ops team excitement with all the regulars getting their moments and this new couple developed well, the plot jogging along at a fast though still steady pace, and a riveting grand finale. Those who enjoy thrilling romantic suspense with secret government agents finding love at the heart should definitely pick this one up and the rest of the series up.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hacker Kit Westcott's team took on a job that she didn't agree with or work on. Now they are all dead and she is on the run. Grey Box muscle Kit Westcott knows that Kit is the key in determining the threat against their country, but Kit doesn't trust secret government agents. Her fierceness draws him while his promise keeps her near. I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. This is an intense and sometimes steamy thriller. I don't want to spoil the story by describing it further. This book kept me on the edge of my seat.

Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an fair and honest review.

Sweet Young Thing (Not) and the Secret Agent Man. Usually, I love this trope, but not this Sweet Young Thing. She grates rather than inspiring sympathy. She is all blow and big talk without anything to back it all up. She has a pathological mistrust of the Government and, even when it is in her best interest, choses to lie to the people trying to help her.

A Trust Fund Baby, Katherine Westcott is all alone in the world. Her family have all died and she has surrounded herself with a group of White Hat Hackers called the Outliers. They are on a mission to thwart Big Government and protect civil liberties, but in order to pay the bills they have accepted a job from a group who have used them to steal deadly bioweapons. Then this group killed everyone except Kit. On the run and desperate, Kit is scooped up by Castle Kinkade from the Gray Box agency. For some unknown reason, Castle is drawn to her and feels the need to protect her, no matter that she abhors everything he stands for.

The action is fantastic, right from the beginning of the book, and the plot is full of twists and turns. I just didn't feel the love between Kit and Castle beyond two sets of hormones calling out to each other, but each of them came to love, respect, trust and is willing to die for the other even though they began as polar opposites. The why of the plot wasn't clear till near the end and kept you guessing as to who was pulling everyone's strings.

Katherine “Kit” Wescott is the leader of a hacker group called Outliers. Her life has been full of devastating loss. Castle Kinkade works for the Gray Box. He’s known for his lack of emotions. Their lives are about to collide changing them forever. Will she be able to break through to his heart and defenses? Can he keep her safe? What happens when they must trust each other Until the End?

Juno Rushdan takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of suspense and danger with a mixture of sexual tension Until the End. You can’t put this book down trying to figure out who’s behind the stolen viruses. An unexpected twist will have the reader surprised and hearts hurting for the characters. Ms. Rushdan takes you deep into a world that will keep you wondering where she is taking you and her characters and if you’ll survive Until the End.

Until the End is the third book to Juno Rushdan's Final Hour series, it was one of my 'Most Anticipated Books of 2020,' and I couldn't wait to dive into it.
Female Protagonist: Kit Westcott is a rich heiress and Founder of the Outliers, which is a hacker group. Kit is a White-Hat Hacker who is on the run after her other fellow hackers were murdered. She knows she's in danger. She plays the damsel in distress in the book, but she knows how to handle herself. She doesn't trust easily, which is understandable after what she witnessed. She's seen a villain in the book and knows her team was setup. I liked her character. She was determined to prove her team and herself were setup.
Male Protagonist: Castle Kinkade is the Gray Box operative who's a former Navy SEAL. He's intense, brutal, and persistent on getting his job done. He's the one you call to get it done. I enjoyed his character. He battled his feelings in this book when he has to protect Kit. He promised he would protect her, though, even if his boss told him not to catch feelings.
Storyline: The storyline in this book is about Kit's hacker group getting into something that got them killed. Now Kit is on the run to find out what happened and prove herself and her team were innocent. Unfortunately, she is being tracked by several groups. One that wants her dead and the other that wants to bring her in for questioning. She ends up being detained and questioned by the Gray Box team. Castle promises he will protect Kit, even though he needs to watch his feelings for her. Unfortunately, big secrets are happening in the Gray Box and the other groups that are after Kit that will leave every reader in shock. I know I was in shock. I had a feeling, though, who was behind it all. I couldn't believe it ended the way it did, but I'm glad there was closure.
Steaminess: Some Steam towards the end of the book with the characters.
Standalone or Series: Series. I recommend reading the books in order; otherwise, you will out on some issues that happen in the previous books.
Cliffhanger: No.
Trope: Forbidden Romance
HEA: Yes, but after so much trouble.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, definitely. Juno Rushdan was a new-to-me author when I started reading this series, and now she has become a favorite author. I love her writing style, and I look forward to reading more from her. The Final Hour series is full of action-packed scenes with some romance in them. I love reading books that involve a thrilling storyline that leaves your heart beating at a fast-pace because you want the good guys to get the bad guys in the story.

Juno Rushdan still delivers high octane action thrillers with the romance and Until the End is no exception. It will keep readers on their toes, trying to find out how everything ends both for the action and the romance.

A great romantic suspense series needs to be able to balance romantic tension and pulse-pounding action, sustaining the momentum throughout the whole book, while crafting a believable resolution to both the intrigue and the romance. Juno Rushdan’s Final Hour series, packed with spy-thriller staples, secret installations, high-stakes interventions, coupled with fascinating characters and intense plotting delivered a great adrenaline rush and romantic punch. It is rare to be as invested in both the romantic and action story-lines as I was when reading the Final Hour series, but neither the action and romantic tension ever flagged.

The series is not for the soft-hearted, as the MCs cross many bright moral lines, engaging in torture and violence without much in the way of oversight or regrets, as officers for the Gray Box, a secret black-ops off-the-books government-sponsored agency authorized to act nationally and internationally where other agencies can’t.

As romantic suspense can often feel like an overwhelmingly white genre, I was pleasantly surprised by the racially- and neuro-diverse cast, which substituted the typical band of brothers for a more inclusive found family set up, where emotionally scarred officers have found common purpose and companionship. Despite the assumed identities & deadly work, they share baked goods and meet for beers, at least until it becomes evident that a traitor or traitors has infiltrated the team and they must uncover the mole and their hidden agenda.



The first book in the series, Every Last Breath, star-crossed lovers, Cole, the white prodigal son of a Russian mobster and Maddox the biracial daughter of a CIA agent who always meant to bring her into the service are unexpectedly reunited. Each thought each other lost, one believing himself betrayed, the other convinced she was responsible for his death and in order to work together they must unearth painful memories (familial rejection, racial bigotry, traumatic miscarriage) while reexamining their life choices. Struggling to trust each other, they try to infiltrate a secret auction in order to stop a deadly pathogen from being sold into the wrong hands. They have to grapple with both what happened to them as a couple and the people they have become as a result of the trauma they both experienced.

I really loved that neither Cole or Maddox is quite sure just what they want from each other. They ruthlessly investigate each other and treat each other as dangerous assets while at the same time trying to grapple with their wounded feelings. I enjoyed the sexual tension and emotional confusion they experienced as they try to figure out what happened to them and whether there can be anything more than closure for them.

CW: torture, violence, bigotry, past trauma miscarriage, mental illness

As soon as I finished Every Last Breath, I sought out the next book in the series. I loved how seamlessly Rushdan had introduced the rest of the Gray Box cast, setting up rivalries and tensions in a way that made me eager to read more about these characters without stealing focus and momentum from search for the pathogen. I didn’t care who in the Gray Box I followed next, I knew they all would be super interesting.

In Nothing to Fear, Willow Harper is a brilliant neurodivergent hacker analyst who must go on the run with the emotionally scarred, widowed operative Gideon assigned to investigate her after he becomes convinced she is being set up and he won’t risk her being scapegoated and killed. I loved that Willow is shown to be an incredibly capable person including being her sick father’s primary carer, despite her autism. The pressures she feels to mask her autism in social and work settings are an added pressure, but she is consistently shown to have agency even when on the run. In the end it is Gideon who more clearly struggles communicating and acknowledging his feelings.

There is a very graphic torture sequence in this book as Gideon uses his black site training to try to break a henchman of the big bad. Willow’s acceptance of his choices and refusal to reject him as he is expected is a pivotal moment, but I wished I skimmed the scene more successfully as it is, I am not sure I am able to accept it as heroic.

I also didn’t love the depiction of his late estranged wife as resentful and shallow when he abruptly opts not to pursue a career as professional athlete and instead becomes a secretive CIA assassin, a move that would naturally shock and upset, if their communication and relationship had been strong, which it never was. I would have loved if that whole story thread had been eliminated.

CW: torture, violence, ableism, grief, past trauma: death of family member

In the final book of the series, Until the End, Castle, Maddox’s brother and former Navy Seal with more than a passing resemblance to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has longed been groomed to be one of the future leaders of the Grey Box, finds his loyalty and principles tested when their leader Bruce Sandborn makes him choose between protecting Kit, his mission target or surrendering her to the Gray Box.

Kit Westcott, is a caretaker and cultivator of talented hackers. Driven by the tragic loss of her brother she has dedicated herself to caring for her found family, until her group the Outliers are brutally killed. Kit is desperate to protect their work while finding out who set them up to be killed despite being handicapped by serious chronic heart condition.

Kit and Castle’s instalove relationship is a departure from the norm, as the previous couples had pre-existing relationships. Kit, with his lone-wolf whispering ways, gets through to Castle in a way no one outside the Grey box has ever been able to do, making her a target and threat to those who have long been able to depend on Castle to do as he is told.

At one point in the book I found myself very troubled by the tone and behavior of a secondary point of view character, but I was gratified to discover as the book unfolded that it was an authorial choice and foreshadowing, and not odd characterization. However, the ending was somewhat unsatisfying in that the heroes of the Gray Box, instead of fully renouncing and recoiling from the misguided choices that lead to the tragic twists in the series, instead seemingly continue the work, sure that they will not be corrupted as the villain was, which is probably true to life. I was curious that the book did seem to leave it set up for further books.

CW: Murder, PTSD, pathogens, medical procedures, drugging, abduction, stalking, past trauma: domestic abuse, suicide.


Juno Rushdan’s Final Hour series was an intense ride through the dark hearts and minds of the officers and agents ensuring global threats are eradicated in the shadows. Her characters are morally dark, but unflinchingly devoted to their companions and principles, as they face dilemmas that test their commitment to proper protocol. I would never want to be face off against the Grey Box’s operatives, but I would welcome their rescue and I cheered as each one stepped a little ways out of the darkness for the sake of love.

***

This post contains affiliate links. Ana received a digital copy of Until the End from the publisher for review.

Juno Rushdan is a former U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer, which clearly gives her great insight into the intrigue she’s now writing. UNTIL THE END is the third book in her Final Hour series, and it’s an exciting story of suspense and political intrigue. For one thing, it involves another cybercrime plot and secret government agency, which is my catnip. Rushdan may win this month’s sweepstakes for best names: Castle Kinkade is an operative with a group called Gray Box (clever, right … the description is in the organization’s name), and Kit Westcott is a ‘white-hat hacker.’ Castle and Kit are caught up in an overwhelming conspiracy wrought with danger and betrayal, terrorists and spies, and a dramatic (and satisfying) climax. The romance was more secondary in this one, for me, but enjoyable all the same.

*Originally published at Frolic: https://frolic.media/may-romantic-suspense-must-reads/