Zero Hour

I really enjoyed this fun, sexy, exciting romantic suspense story! The author is a favorite of mine, but this is a new genre for her. I loved her take on this ensemble cast of hackers.

Roarke Brennan is a great hacker. It's how he makes most of his money, unbeknownst to the government, of course. He's been doing it since he was a teenager, and he taught his younger brother, Flynn, how to do it as well. But, Flynn decided to "go straight", and got a job with a defense contractor. He found something he wasn't supposed to see, and it got him killed. Now, Roarke has become obsessed with getting revenge for Flynn's death. He's put together a team of hackers to help him take down the owner/CEO of the company Flynn worked for, who Roarke is sure is responsible. Roarke and Flynn's best friend, Erick, is a major part of the team, since he's been close to both brothers since they were kids. But, what Roarke wasn't expecting was for Erick's baby sister, Wren, to be back in D.C., and to insist on helping too. Roarke has never been able to think straight where she's concerned, and that hasn't changed, though he hasn't laid eyes on her in 10 years.

Wren Lee used to be the perfect Korean daughter to make her parents happy. But, after high school, she started to go her own way. Then, in college, she had a traumatic experience, and it sent her down the road she's taken for the last 10 years. She's traveled all around the world, and learned all she could from one of the best hackers in the world, and now she wants to put those skills to work to help Roarke avenge his brother's death. Of course, she's also on her own private revenge mission which intersects with the team's plans, but she's keeping that to herself for now. Wren has grown up a lot, but through it all, Roarke has been the one she's always wanted. She hopes that now they can have a chance to see what they could be together.

Roarke and Wren had blazing hot chemistry, but it was left at a slow burn for much of the story, as the suspense plot took center stage. It made for a great period of them getting to know each other again and finding out truths about each other they never knew. I loved this aspect of their pairing, and I enjoyed watching them feeling out their connection. There were a lot of circumstances that had to fall into place for them to be able to be together, and I enjoyed watching everything happen.

The ensemble cast here was FANTASTIC, and I loved watching their group dynamic. They each had very strong and interesting personalities, and I can't wait to find out more about each of them in future books. Jock will be the hero of book 2, and I'm so excited to see deeper under his surface! The group banter was funny and realistic, and I loved how they all gave each other grief, like a family. They all worked well together too, and it was interesting seeing what they each brought to the table. The suspense plot was dynamic and exciting, and it kept you guessing how things were going to turn out.

I loved Roarke and Wren's dynamic, and their coming to terms with how they are now as adults, rather than how they each used to be as kids. They really had to get to know each other again, though the strong feelings for each other were already there. It made for a different relationship arc than many I've read, which was refreshing. I really loved this story, and I am truly eager to find out more about the other team members. I highly recommend this to any romantic suspense lovers out there!

Megan Erickson kicks off her new Wired & Dangerous series with ZERO HOUR, a fast-paced take on badass hackers. I’m a child of the ’80s and fell in love with Matthew Broderick in WarGames, so my typical ilk of hackers is quiet, mild-mannered and invisible. Erickson’s version are brainy and broody, but are also packing heat and an ability to fight their way out of any physical altercation in which they might find themselves.

Since this is a series, I know we’ll catch further glimpses into the motivation and back stories for each of the players, but in this first installation we meet Roarke Brennan and Wren Lee. Not only is Roarke best friend to her older brother, Erick, but he’s the boy she crushed on as a teenager. But when the boys moved on to serious hacking gigs after high school, Wren was left behind. She returns with gusto when Roarke’s brother, Flynn, is murdered after discovering complicit motives with the owner of the computer security software company where he worked, Saltner Defense.

Flynn was handsome, charismatic and well-regarded by all, which made his death all the more devastating to the people in his life. It also made Roarke’s thirst for vengeance easier to pursue, because when he assembled a team to take down Arden Saltner, everyone was in. Including Wren (though he doesn’t realize it yet).

Roarke always refers to this retribution as “the mission,” which sort of makes me think in a manga mind frame, where defeating the Dual Monster Card Game is the only thing that’ll save the universe. Zero Hour is much more Hackers than WarGames, but it’s certainly a timely story, particularly with so many stories of hackers pilfering credit cards, passwords and politics making headlines in the real world. Cybersecurity is a big deal, and Roarke’s crew operates in the gray, seemingly neither black hat nor white hat all the time.

The element that drew me more in this story was the simmering romance between Roarke and Wren. As it turns out, Roarke’s harbored feelings for Wren for years, too, and has been keeping an electric eye on her life. “To him, Wren would always be fresh-faced, eighteen, happy … and unattainable.” In the 10 years since he’s last seen her, it was the young ideal he held close to his heart rather than the coding dynamo she’s become.

Though Wren has developed her own coding and hacking skills over the last decade, what actually gets her an in with Saltner’s son, Darren, is his physical attraction to her. And what cements her spot on Roarke’s mission is that attraction. No amount of binary will get the team as far as fast as exploiting Wren’s people skills. It’s a double-edged sword, for sure, because while he yearns for vengeance for Flynn, Roarke’s helpless attraction to Wren means he wants her safe and far away.

When it’s all said and done, the team scrambles for its own safety — safety in numbers doesn’t apply when being on the lam. And it certainly doesn’t apply when the biggest fish in the cybersea is an entity known as Maximus, who is always one ominous step ahead of Roarke and his crew …

Next in the series is Darkest Night, about one of the secondary characters I found to be most interesting. I can’t wait for Jock’s story!

*Originally published with USA Today's Happy Ever After: http://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2018/02/08/dolly-r-sickles-recommended-romantic-suspense-zero-hour-megan-erickson/

Sometimes romances set in the modern day can seem like a giant bubble of happiness. Sure, there are big moments when the bad guy appears, or the hero giantly sticks his foot in his mouth. Quite frequently I don’t connect with heroines, and there is pretty much always an ex-military good guy looking to stop the world from blowing up in one way or another. Basically, though, I read a lot of romances that look at the world through rose-colored glasses. And I like that rose-colored world for the most part. I can appreciate feeling good at the end of the day and, in general, like looking at things optimistically.

Enter Megan Erickson’s Zero Hour. Geez, I love Erickson’s work. For lack of a better word, her romances are always “gritty”. Her books bring me back to earth and show the love stories that almost no one else is writing. Erickson’s books are just a little bit darker than the average romance; the shine on the world isn’t quite so bright. And although I couldn't imagine only reading books on the darker spectrum of romance, I love venturing into Erickson’s worlds once in awhile (side note: please, please read Daring Fate if you haven’t already). Zero Hour is no exception. This first-in-a-series romance introduces us to a ragtag group of hackers avenging the death of one of their own.

The hero and heroine of this book are Roarke and Wren. They knew each other growing up and although not quite a second-chance romance, these two definitely harbored feelings for one another in the past. Hacker trained via different methods, Roarke doesn’t even know Wren is a hacker at the beginning of this book. He still imagines her as the pretty, off-limits little sister of his best friend. But because this is Erickson’s world, both Roarke and Wren are dumped into some seriously mess-up, scary situations right off the bat. They can’t help but cling to one another as the story progresses when they could very well never see each other again.

'“I cared, Wren. Every day, all the time. I still fucking care. I told myself I wouldn’t…” He blew out a harsh breath, pupils dilating. “Fuck it. This is why it kills me to see you involved in this, because all I wanna do is see you safe. I cared back then when you were young, and I still care now that you’re back, all woman and hot as fuck and still so goddamn untouchable.”
Her entire body awoke from a ten-year slumber at his worlds, arousal pooling in her gut, heat spreading to every limb. How long had he kept this to himself?'

The group of hackers that Roarke brings together to not only brought some much-needed levity to this book, they kept me invested even when the darkness threatened to overtake every page. It was hard to not fall in love with the entire group right away.

'“Everyone just shut up, for fuck’s sake,” Roarke growled. “Swear to God, this is like herding cats.”
“Well,” Erick pointed out, “we’re your cats. That you handpicked from the shelter. So that’s on you. I prefer wet food by the way.”
“My catnip is for medicinal purposes,” Marisol piped up.'

So, if you think you can handle a bit of darkness and grit in your nightly reading I highly recommend Zero Hour. 4 stars for this witty, menacing, and slightly unnerving romantic suspense.