The Darkest Corner
Liliana Hart     
December 2021 Releases

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Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Gravediggers
Book: 1
Heat Level: Hot

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.

Tess has dreams of owning her family’s funeral home. Her plans go bye-bye when she learns that she has no money and her funeral home is sold to Eve (head of gravediggers). She accepts her new role at the funeral home but she questions why Eve brought on all of these men to work there.

The last thing that Deacon wants is to be shuffled off to Last Stop, Texas where he has to pretend to be involved in mortuary. He knows it is a cover-up for other missions but he still want to go back to his normal life. The only perk to small town living is being close to Tess but can he truly have her if he is suppose to be dead?

My opinions really wavered with this book. The prologue starts the book off with a bang. Immediately, you want to know what is going to happen. The first half of the book is interesting. All of the members of the elite gravediggers are introduced.  Readers get a brief glimpse into them and how they are handling their new situation. 

Once again, I’m not the biggest fan of insta-love and I struggle with the immediate connection with Deacon and Tess. It went from him working for her to her wanting him too quickly. I know she is curious about the men but she just wants to jump into whatever they are doing too fast. It left me scratching my head.

The cover of the book looks more like a thriller but it is more of a romantic suspense. While I tend to enjoy my books with a lot of romance, I wanted more of the suspense and action to be ramped up. I got lost in the insta-love instead of the suspense. I think it will be fine some readers but my expectations were mildly different from the cover and little bit of the blurb.

Despite the minor issues, I did enjoy the story. The first in a series sometimes has its issues but hopefully the author can hit her stride. I look forward to the next book which I believe comes out fairly soon.

~ Samantha