Book Review: Nightshade

Nightshade by Ronnie Kendig



Nightshade is book 1 in the Discarded Heroes Series.

Max Jacobs has been discharged from the Navy - discarded.  His marriage is crumbling and his life is spiraling out of control.  Then he meets Nightshade, a group of elite soldiers - discarded heroes like him - who join to form a secret elite team.  They go in where others don't dare to tread. 

Nightshade is called upon to go into the jungles of the Philippine islands to rescue a missionary family held captive by local radicals.  At the same time Max's estranged wife, Sydney, a reporter, is coming dangerously close to uncovering the identity of the Nightshade team.  Can Max rescue his objectives and lead his team out safely?  Will he heal his marriage with his wife, or alienate her even more?

My Thoughts

When I first read the description of this book, I was a little hesitant to read it.  I don't usually go for the military dramas.  If I had gone with my instincts, I would have really missed out!  This was a wonderful book!  Kendig incorporated just the right amount of military drama to balance the relationship issues facing this team.  I never felt overwhelmed by military jargon; yet at the same time, the military moves the characters made and the terms they used all seemed very authentic and believable to me.

The characters were wonderfully flawed.  The team, the wife, the missionaries - they were all real.  No perfect heroes in this book. There were a few predictable spots in the book where you knew exactly what the characters would say and do, but those spots were few and far between.  The storyline took enough twists and turns to keep me up reading at night.  I am currently reading the second book in the series, Digitalis (review to come soon) and eagerly await the third book coming out in July of this year.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me the Kindle version of this book for review.