Review: Echoes of Darkness – Echoes Trilogy #2 (Cheryl Campbell)

This is the second book in a series, but never fear – it works fine as a standalone and enough details are dropped in to understand where things stand.

The Big Bad Dude, Rowan apparently is very invested in capturing Dani, the main character. So invested, in fact, that he sends some Echoes to attack the caravan she’s in, heading back to the main base. Dani survives, as does Mary and a couple of others, and eventually they make their way back to base.

Echoes – of which Dani is one – are self-healers. They can die, but they will regenerate unless you do something drastic: kill them again as they’re regenerating, or give them a death that blows apart their bodies in some way, like decapitating them.

We get a lot of days in camp in this one – training, scenarios, that sort of thing. After one of their own – Oliver, a young man – is kidnapped, Dani and co go after him to get him back, heading to Boston after being forbidden to do so by the base commander. But the commander, knowing they were going to do so anyway, puts pressure on her teams to finalize their new secret weapon.

The battles are excellently done, although I had to question Rowan’s “leadership” of his teams in his quest to get to Dani. Perhaps more motivations for the drama between them is covered in the first book.

Overall, well-written. it could be a tad tauter in a couple of places, but none of those were show-stoppers. At the beginning, Dani is obviously attracted to Mary, but after getting regenerated, suddenly has the hots for Miles, another member of Team Good Guy. I get it – the B in LGBTQ stands for bi, after all, but I’m a little disappointed with this, given that it seems Mary and Oliver are Dani’s foundation of a sort.

The book sets itself up nicely for another book in the series. If nothing else, I’m going to read the next one to see if Rowan gets what’s coming to him.

Three stars out of five.

Thanks to Sonar Press and NetGalley for the review copy.