Backlash

Author: Rachel Dylan

Series: Capital Intrigue #2

Publisher: Bethany House

Release Date: October 6, 2020

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

The second installment in the Capital Intrigue series gives readers all the thrills, chills, and heart stopping moments I’ve come to expect from Rachel Dylan.

Layla Karam joined the CIA as an analyst, she never wanted anything more, especially after she was thrust into a dangerous operation with the DEA against a major drug cartel that puts a target on her back. When one of her team members ends up murdered, she and the rest of the team scramble to stay safe. Along with staying alive there is now an internal investigation against her causing Layla to turn to the one person she never wanted to see again for help, her ex-boyfriend Hunter McCoy. Hunter is a private investigator and uses his skills to try and find out who is trying to sabotage Layla’s career. Together they discover a mole inside the DEA that has given information to the cartel on the team. Layla must do the hardest thing imaginable, put her trust in the man she used to love to keep her alive and keep her heart safe from him.

This is the second book in the Capital Intrigue series and is just as enjoyable as the first. With all the characters in high risk positions, the story starts with a bang and doesn’t stop until the very end. I liked Layla, she wasn’t looking for danger and high stakes missions, she preferred to stay back and do the job she was brought on for, an analyst. However, others higher up had different plans for her though. She could have played the pity card, but she never did, she got mad and fought back. The relationship aspect of the novel was well played, there were several different directions it could have gone but I was pleased with the way Dylan wrote it. Even though this book is mainly about Layla and Hunter I couldn’t help but be pulled in by the scenes with Izzy, (I’m hoping the next book in the series focuses more on her.) There was just something about her story line that pulled me in faster than the others. There are a lot of tense scenes and violence, but it is never written in a way that would turn squeamish readers away. With that being said, the whole story was an enjoyable read, I read it in just over a day. It had been a good while since I read the first one and it didn’t keep me from enjoying any of the story which leads me to say that even though this is the second in the series it could be read as a standalone without any problem. Fans of the romantic suspense will not want to miss this one.