review || CHRONIC { blitz } by Alana Albertson

Bolero Books | July 7, 2015 | Romantic Suspense Serial
Se7en Deadly Seals, part 2
★★★★

SOURCE: INDIESAGE

Se7en Deadly Navy SEALs—our loyalty to each other knows no bounds
6ix months since I slammed the door on my ex Mia
5ive years I’ve known my best friend, Joaquín, now wasting away in jail
4our days since this stripper named Ksenya entered my life
Thre3 ways Ksenya reminds me of Mia: her lips, her scent, her smile
Two years since Mia left me during my darkest hour
One naked bombshell asleep in my bed trying to trick me
Zer0 doubt in my mind that I’m wrong

She wants to get wild? I will fulfill her every fantasy. I control the game now, not her. It will end when I say it ends. I’m a Navy SEAL, and I will be the last one standing.

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{ about alana albertson } .

Alana Albertson is the President of RWA Contemporary Romance Writers, former President of RWA's Young Adult and Chick Lit chapters, and the founder of Academe Advantage, a college admissions & test preparation company. Alana Albertson holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. A recovering professional ballroom dancer, Alana currently writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense and paranormal romance. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two young sons, and four dogs. When she’s not spending her time needlepointing, dancing, or saving dogs from high kill shelters through Pugs N Roses, the rescue she founded, she can be found watching episodes of House Hunters, Homeland, or Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.

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{ review } .

I'm going to say something that maybe shouldn't be said.

I forgot that I'd read book 1.

Yep. Totally forgot. Received CONCEIT with CHRONIC for the tour and was all set to read it, but read the prologue to CHRONIC first and had an ah-ha, moment. I knew what was going on.

But then I couldn't find any proof anywhere that I had read the first book (I eventually found said proof).

That said -- I'm not going to say that the books are unmemorable... But for me, they are a prime example of serials I dislike (and honestly, before Cristin Harber's ONLY, I didn't think I'd ever truly love a serial romance).

My review of CONCEIT was:

this is a prime example of why I dislike serial romance novels. When you have to read each chunk in separate episodes or however they are being pushed, you're often left at a cliffhanger that either steers you one way or another. However what serials sometimes do right, as did Alana in this case, is build up the storyline enough to make you want to read more. Granted I don't very much like the way Mia changes herself, I think there are better ways to go about it, but it is still interesting nonetheless. I'm interested to see what happens between Mia and Grant, as well as the outcome with Joaquin.

I still do not care for the changes Mia has made, but I've been able to put that aside. However, my biggest issue in this part 2 was both Mia and Grant's "does he or doesn't he"/"is she or isn't she".

We get a little bit more into why Mia is on the mission that she's on -- above and beyond the trying to get her brother out of jail. But Mia will learn things about Grant along the way that make her question the choices she's made.

When we left Grant in book 1, he was suspicious that Ksenya was his ex, Mia, and he starts the book trying to prove that she is -- he puts the Ukranian stripper into situations that Mia would detest, or that Mia's emotions would get the better of her. He goes back and forth with being 100% positive she is indeed Mia, but then other times, he's not quite sure.

As much as I've been annoyed with Mia since word one, book one, I found myself becoming annoyed with Grant. I just want him to confront her already. He has moments where he wants to shun this new Mia, but then others where you think that his feelings for her are simply buried deep and he's hiding the pain of losing her with anger.

We end this book with Mia getting one of her answers, but now the question is, what is she going to do with it? And then there's the whole Grant/Mia thing... What is he going to do about everything? Is he really going to just let her walk away again after he gets her to confess? I don't know...

In a moment of curiosity after meeting Pat and Annie, I looked through Alana's other works and discovered that THE TRIDENT CODE'S INVINCIBLE is Pat and Annie's, and that Alana has another series beginning soon, that is dubbed THE WARRIOR CODE. As much as Alana's serials bother me, I like her writing style -- I just want more in one sitting. I will definitely be looking into the other books for the SEALs Grant calls brothers.