Review: Loved It!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2012
I was so excited to get this short novella for Rachel & Ethan.  They have been my favorite couple of this series and, now that we are 5 books in, I was glad to get an update.  With a series that involves as many characters as the KGI, one of the few drawbacks to reading, is that I fall in love with each couple and then lose sight of them in subsequent books.  I know that it's hard to write every single person into each book and stay true to the story, however giving us novellas in between, more than makes up for it.In The Darkest Hour, Ethan and Rachel Kelly literally went through hell to find their way back to each other.  Finding out that Rachel was still alive, after believing her dead for a year, Ethan & family rescue her from her kidnappers.  What follows is a heartfelt love story and truly enraptured me.  It's the story that completely hooked me on the KGI series!What made this story, for me, was finally getting a chance to see a strong Rachel.  After what she suffered, she was broken,  both emotionally & physically.  Her road to recovery was a long one and she is still treated with kid gloves by everyone around her.  She just wants to feel normal again.  To have a fresh start and live the life with Ethan that she always wanted.  We get that and the transformation for her is magical!  The joy that she felt in finding out she was pregnant - breathtaking and I cried right along with her.Ethan will always be my favorite Kelly and in Softly At Sunrise, he proved it even more.  He is a man who loves his wife with everything he is, a man who constantly worries that he will lose her again & finally a man who realizes the mistakes that he's made in the past and vows to never repeat them.  Loved, loved, loved the strength he showed in this book.This book is set in the middle of Cole & PJ's book but don't worry - reading it won't give anything away.  It makes me look forward to their book even more, now that Rachel's pregnancy has been revealed.  We are also given a dramatic side story that involves Rachel's return to work - it just wouldn't be a KGI story without some suspense thrown in ;)Overall, this was a great addition to the series and a fantastic short read.  Ms. Banks continues to deliver with the KGI.  Now if we could just get Donovan's story....