An undercover DEA agent has gone off the radar. Suspecting an internal mole, the government needs Luke Dubois and his elite team of operatives to recover their man, and the New Orleans native thinks he’s found his way inside the dark underbelly of Manhattan: Olivia Taylor, the girlfriend of a mob boss and the sexiest woman he’s ever laid eyes on. His new mission objective? Get past Olivia’s defenses and convince her to take a chance—on him.
All Olivia wanted was to finish law school and live a normal life, but that dream was shattered when one dangerous night put her deeply in a mobster’s debt. Now Luke and his team will help her escape—in exchange for intel on the missing agent. But Olivia doesn’t anticipate her intense attraction to the reckless Louisiana charmer or that she’ll be forced to risk everything—including her heart.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Midnight Alias has a different feel than Midnight Rescue, not quite as dark and Luke isn’t nearly as cool and collected as Kane. Was that planned from the beginning or did it come about because of the characters?
I knew from the start that Midnight Alias wouldn’t be as dark as the first book. Midnight Rescue is darker in tone because the heroine’s background is incredibly tortured, and the mission Kane and Abby take on deals with humanity at its worst. In book two, Olivia is definitely not as dark as Abby, so the relationship between her and Luke lacks a lot of the angst of book one. As for Luke, he was introduced as a fun-loving, reckless ladies man in Midnight Rescue, so I always knew he would be lighter in comparison to Kane, who is more serious and the second-in-command of the team.
Anytime I talk with someone about this series, the always deadly Noelle’s name is mentioned. Will she be getting her own book at some point?
Definitely. Noelle has a sub-plot in the third book, Midnight Games, which I think readers will enjoy because it gives a teeny bit of insight into her past. She’ll get her own story in book five, but I’m keeping mum about who her hero will be 🙂
With Isabel and Trevor, scary D, the new and intriguing Liam (who doesn’t like a man named Liam?) and many others, you have a lot of characters waiting on a story. Do you have a set amount of books planned for this series?
Right now I’m contracted for five books, but I absolutely have more stories in mind for a lot of the secondary characters, including sexy Liam, who also appears in Midnight Games.
Plotter or pantser?
A little bit of both. I usually work off a general outline for most books and toss in fun scenes as they come to me. With other books, particularly my romantic suspense ones, I have a more detailed outline in place before I start to write.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve researched for a book?
The jungle! For my new Harlequin Romantic Suspense series, The Hunted, I needed to know a lot about the jungle in order to make the first book, Soldier Under Siege, come to life. I flew to Costa Rica in the summer and did a lot of fun adventure tours, spoke to a ton of people, and took hundreds of pictures. It was definitely worth it, and I think all that research comes through in the book.
What books can we be looking for in the near future from you?
The third Killer Instincts book, Midnight Games, which is Trevor and Isabel’s story, releases in August—I’m super excited about it! In July is Hotter Than Ever, the ninth book of my erotic contemporary Out of Uniform series. The Hunted trilogy with Harlequin kicked off this month with book one, and the next two come out in the spring. So there are a lot of fun releases to look forward to!
A big thank-you to Elle for joining us today! To find out more about her backlist and upcoming books, visit ellekennedy.com. And for a chance to win MIDNIGHT ALIAS, just leave a comment below. Good luck! 😀
Honorary Mention of Book Sluts 'R' Us Blogger Awards by 
RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk 