Bea Reviews The Darkest Corner by Liliana Hart

Series: Gravediggers #1
Publisher: Pocket Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 23rd, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Liliana Hart’s first book in her suspenseful Gravediggers series, featuring an elite group of mysterious men who might be dead to the world, but are also tasked with saving it—and no one can ever know.

The Gravediggers aren’t exactly what they seem. They’re the most elite of the world’s fighting forces—and all they have in common is that they’ve been betrayed by the countries they’ve died for. Because they are dead. To their country, their military, and their families.

Sometimes the dead do rise...

Deacon Tucker is a dead man walking. A former black ops agent, he was disavowed and stripped of all honor before being recruited as a Gravedigger. But his honor and good name no longer matter, because no one knows he’s alive, and he’ll never get the recognition he deserves. His mission is simple: save the world or die trying. And for God’s sake, don’t ever fall in love. That’s a rule punishable by death. The kind of death a man can’t be brought back from.

Tess Sherman is the only mortician in Last Stop, Texas. She has no idea how Deacon Tucker ended up in her funeral home, but she’ll eat her hat if he’s only a funeral home assistant. Deacon is dangerous, deadly, and gorgeous. And she knows her attraction to him can only end in heartache.

Deacon is on a mission to stop the most fatal terror attack the world has ever known—what’s known as The Day of Destiny—a terrorist’s dream. But when he discovers Tess has skills he can use to stop them, he has to decide if he can trust her with secrets worth dying for. And, most important, he has to decide if he can trust her with his heart.

My Thoughts:

I love the premise of this series and put this book on my wish list as soon as I heard about it so I was excited to be offered the book for review.

Deacon is part of an elite group of men who were military, generally some sort of special services, who screwed up somehow and were offered a second chance by a mysterious woman named Eve Winter to deal with global threats. They 'die' via a special serum, are dead to the world and their families, and are then brought back to life to work for Eve as part of a team called The Gravediggers. This is an appropriate name not only due to their deaths but because in their new life, their cover is that they work at a funeral home in Last Stop Texas. The funeral home doesn't do enough business to employ them but since it's a just a cover, that's okay.

The woman who manages the funeral home, Tess, would love to own the business but it was sold out from under her and is now owned by the mysterious Eve. Tess has no clue who these men are or why they work there or how Eve can afford to pay their salaries, but that doesn't stop her from enjoying the eye candy, particularly Deacon. They've been attracted to each other since he began working for her but they've stayed away from each other for reasons of their own.

There's a lot of heat between Deacon and Tess, and Hart creates a colorful cast of characters. In fact, at times it was like I was reading a small town contemporary romance. It's set in a small town with quirky characters, and the focus of the book for about 3/4 is the romance. The action and suspense was mostly confined to the end of the book and was rushed when it happened while at the same time, it was full of excruciating detail which slowed the pace. The pace of the book is uneven, with events alternately happening quickly and slowly and there's a great deal of exposition. At 40.0% I made this note: "Finally! We get some background on the Gravediggers and forward motion in the story. Lots of groundwork and laying the foundation. I thought the pace would never pick up."

Despite all that, I liked the story. I liked Deacon and Tess, I liked the premise, I liked the secondary characters (though Tess's mom felt over the top at times), and I want to know more about the rest of the Gravediggers. I'll likely pick up the next book. 

ETA June 9th: I have the next book! Stop back on the 29th for a review and giveaway.