A fine closing out of the Echoes trilogy.

After returning home from three years of a diplomatic mission, Dani is ready for some downtime. She finds that Catherine Houston, in command in Maine, has allowed her desire for more power lead her to murky and dangerous waters. Aunt Hattie, along with Mary and Dani, sabotage a lab where normal humans are being injected with Echo DNA, to try and create hybrid humans who can regen after being killed, as Dani does, and how the Wardens (the bad guys) do.

Speaking of the Wardens, the CNA is looking to finish them off and drive them the areas of Canada they’ve taken. Houston got lucky when Dani showed up in Boston and the fight went the CNA’s way, with Houston getting the credit for the win, but since then, her record has been rather mediocre, which is slowing her down from further rising in the ranks.

When they’re looking over the best place to attack the Wardens, Dani is not in agreement with Houston’s plan, and suggests an alternate target and strategy. However,they have no current information on enemy strength in that area. General Ramos agrees with the plan, and decides to lead a recon team himself – an exceptionally bad idea.

It’s also Oliver’s birthday, and although he is not yet of age, Houston decides there has been an error in his records, and that he’s a year older than he is. She orders Oliver and three other teens to be taken to boot camp, and from there, to be thrown into battle.

Meanwhile, there’s been no word from Ramos, and he is presumed missing. Dani is sent to go after him, along with Mary, Miles (who she’s been sleeping with for the past three years, after her last regen), and two others.

That sets up the remainder of the book quite well, and I’ll stop there to avoid spoilers. I’ll say this: there were a few things that happened that I never thought would happen, and that takes some guts for an author to do, so kudos to Ms Campbell for that.

The only ding I’m giving is for some extended passages of introspection that slow down the action a bit. Even with that, I’m still giving it five out of five stars. It’s a terrific series.

Thanks to Sonar Press and NetGalley for the reading copy.