Review of the whole series ( )

Initially, I gave this three stars, but I had to change it. This is a romance, nested in a near-future US military unit of metahumans, yet Turner didn't deliver any emotional evolution in the last chapter.

I like super-human stories that don't rely entirely on comic book tropes. I've written one. This one's pretty good, except for the glaring omission I detail below. (Spoiler alert, but I'm not hiding it. You're old enough to stop reading this if you want to.) I like that it isn't a big deal that the captain likes guys. Cool, yay slightly less terrible future.

The prose is mostly fine, after the muddled first part. I mostly ignored all the (short) data-dumps meant, I guess, for anyone who's totally ignorant of US military and in case a reader can't pick up the metahuman version. That lack of reader trust is likely why Turner over-explains a lot of things. By the end I was rolling my eyes at the telling, the data dumps, and overstatement gems like 'his heart pounded in his chest' as if it's going to be elsewhere, and the wildly overused 'more than ready.'

She needed to hire an editor, or a better one, and listen to them.

It's readable, and interesting enough, but there is a glaring plot omission I'd be remiss in not revealing.

If you don't want to read about it, STOP.

Right. Turner ignores what the whole world should be hunting for, the source of the magic explosive that for some reason terrorists use instead of bombs to kill many but turns a few into supers. Sorry, metahumans. Who then sometimes come after them. I... There's reference to metahumans being desirable (military, spies), but by killing most victims? I'm afraid if I keep reading it'll turn out a government's supplying terrorists with it (we do it with weapons, so). I'm not sure this author can do that the kind of justice I'd require. That, and then the last five percent of this book is a sex scene I skimmed because it was so like the others in tone, and had no emotional evolution despite what they'd gone through. Oh, fail. I'm out. ( )

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I enjoyed this one. It was fast-paced and action-packed, like some kind of Avengers/X-Men combo. There was no way to predict some of the plot twists! Nice! ( )

I recommend this book to those who like

- amazing world-building. It's a futuristic world in military setting, with people who have enhanced powers thanks to a chemical weapon. So you can expect some heavy wording.

- action scenes. And lots of it. With women who are equally as badass as the men on the team. Guns blazing and hair flying. :D I liked that they acted like a very close family.



- lots of sex. If you're not bothered by hour-long, multi-orgasm sex scenes, then go for it. To me it was too much, I skimmed through them. It felt like the author thought she wouldn't get another chance at publishing a book, so she stuffed everything in this book: window-sex, bathtub-sex, butt-plugs, dildos and bit of leather. And who knows what else I missed while skimming.



- when them MCs connect fast. Fast like... moving in after a week. I was surprised by their first night together. They were both looking for a hookup, to me that means a fast fuck, not a night-long session. I would only care about my pleasure not the flavor-of-the-night, and just get out of there. Between the action and the sex there wasn't much space left for relationship development. But plus point for not declaring their love for one another just yet. (or maybe I missed that too.)

- perfect characters. Someone pointed this out in their review and they're totally right. However, I'm not seeing that as a problem in this particular book. These metahumans are honorable, rule-following military men (and women), which is just as well. I don't think this book needed any more complication.

Will I continue with the series? I don't know. Probably, but I'm not gonna rush to buy the rest just yet.
3.5 stars rounded down for now ( )

DNF @ 61%
While the blurb sounded promising, I feel the execution fell short

- The writing style is too descriptive and not really engaging
- Insta-lust; 60% in and romance not in sight (though we were told they talked about everything, the fact that we didn't see any of those talks left me indifferent toward the couple)
- As Elena noticed, the fact that Alexei's English was broken to such an extent despite the fact he's been living in the USA and hanging out with native kids since he was a child doesn't seem logical and it really bothered me
- The sex scenes were way too long and I couldn't really feel the heat. The first one put me to sleep twice. The others I skimmed.

I decided to DNF when I caught myself skimming the second mission. It seemed like I wanted to skim everything, and reading lost its purpose.