Review: Ice and Monsters

Title: Ice and Monsters (The Lost Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NLB3HJ8

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 3.7/5

Comments: This is a bit like an Isekai for a Marine recon platoon crossed with an HP Lovecraft horror story.  Peter Nealen is known for writing realistic and gritty stories and this is is first foray (that I've read) into a fantastic setting.

It's dark and gritty.  For the bulk of the story it's unrelieved darkness and grit. I almost dropped it because I want some kind of hope for the protagonist. Hope shows up eventually, but I think it could have done it a little quicker.

I like Peter's stuff, but I am not sure about reading book 2.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Power Vacuum

Title: Power Vacuum (Maelstrom Rising Book 8)  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09DV1G3XL/

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 4/5

Comments: This series is a palate cleanser when I need a change of pace.  Peter is doing well keeping the story interesting and engaging.  This one seems to be a nice wrap-up of one storyline but as a preface to turning up the intensity of the other storyline.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Area Denial

Title: Area Denial (Maelstrom Rising Book 7)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08WPZXVYH

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 4/5

Comments:  We're up to book 7 on this series, and the story is fairly well established.  This series focuses on the Pacific and much like book 6, the Triarii are starting to be more effective vs their many foes and push back in significant ways.  Not great literature, but I don't mind reading it either.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Thunder Run

Title: Thunder Run (Maelstrom Rising Book 6)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08L87ZM86/ 

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 4/5

Comments:  This series has two parallel stories, each one focusing on a different team, and this book focuses on the team in Poland.  It's a good story and it's nice to see our heroes start to get some wins rather than just fighting the other side to a standstill without actually getting a win.  These are basically palate cleansers between my normal fare.

Bedroom Activities: None

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Review: Enemy of my Enemy

Title:  Enemy of my Enemy (Brannigan's Blackhearts book 8)

Author: Peter Nealen

Rating: 4/5

Comments:

This being book 8, you can safely assume that I read the previous 7, and enjoyed them.  Book 8 doesn't really break any new narrative ground, although there's some team shuffling.  The POV jumps around, but theses are not character driven stories, so it's not that important, or unexpected.  I read these when I need a change of pace from my usual fare.  If you like a story where the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad, and there is a lot of face wrecking, explosions, and guns, well you could do worse than a Peter Nealen book.

Bedroom Activities: None

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities