Review: Hell Squad: Finn by Anna Hackett

Review: Hell Squad: Finn by Anna HackettHell Squad: Finn Formats available: ebook
Series: Hell Squad #10
Pages: 150
on August 9th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazon
Goodreads

In the aftermath of a deadly alien invasion, a band of survivors fights on…

For Hawk pilot Finn Erickson, flying is in the blood. Since the aliens decimated the planet, he spends most of his time flying Hell Squad into combat. With communication to other survivor bases cut off, he has no idea if his family is still alive and feels their loss keenly. But helping to fight back sustains him, and his quadcopter is the only woman he needs. She doesn’t argue with him…unlike a certain redhead who is one hell of a kisser.

Lia Murphy lost her mother and sister in the invasion. She vows never to get emotionally involved with anyone again, and as head of the drone team, she’s always busy with work. But one cocky, arrogant pilot pushes all her buttons. When Finn issues a challenge--a fly-off in the flight simulator--she can’t resist. But she’s not sure if she can accept what he demands as his prize if he wins…her. In his bed for one night.

But as Finn and Lia’s fiery attraction heats up, so does the battle with the aliens. The pair must work together to reestablish communications with other humans and discover what the aliens are hiding in a mysterious area to the north. In the process, they will face the most dangerous alien creature yet, and be tested to their very limits…

My Review:

marcus by anna hackettIn this tenth book in the Hell Squad series, we finally start seeing the human survivors take the fight to the alien Gizzida, and it is awesome. Meanwhile, just as in all of the previous entries in the Hell Squad series (start with Marcus and ENJOY!) the story tells its tale of kicking alien ass and not bothering to take alien names through a hot and steamy romance between two of the survivors of the alien invasion.

Finn and Lia are both pilots, not that anyone can get Finn to admit that Lia is a pilot. It’s part of the tension between them. Finn is out in the thick of the fight with his aircraft, flying the squads, especially Hell Squad, to where they need to go, and pulling their collective asses out of the fight when things get too hot.

Think of Finn as a one-pilot equivalent of SOAR in M.L. Buchman’s Night Stalkers series. He takes the best where they need to be, and gets them home when they’ve done their job. The Squads often “bug out” under fire, and Finn and his Hawk quadcopter shoot through their enemies to bring them home.

Lia is a drone pilot. Her little spies go where humans fear to tread, and bring back precious bits of enemy intel. But as much as she loves her drones, she doesn’t risk her life with them – she does her piloting from the relative safety of the base. But her piloting is every bit as vital as Finn’s. The humans desperately need the intel her drones provide to pinpoint any enemy weaknesses. So when the aliens start jamming communication over a particular area, it doesn’t take spidey-senses to figure out that whatever is being protected is even more dangerous to the human survivors than the bad news they already know.

And the humans at the Enclave are all too aware that time is not on their side. If they are going to kick the Gizzida off Earth, they are going to need help from any and all survivor bases that have managed to hang on during the last two chaotic years. And for that, they need long-range communication.

That’s where both Finn’s and Lia’s piloting skills come in. The mission is to drop a communications booster out in the Pacific Ocean, far from shore, and far outside the operational range of the Hawks. They need an airplane. And Lia knows just where to find one – and just how to fly one.

All they need to do is steal it, fix it and fly it out from under the enemy’s noses. Or snouts. Or whatever. And play oceanic keep-away with a giant sea monster.

It’s all in a day’s work for Hell Squad.

Escape Rating A-: This one ends on a marvelous high note, which I won’t reveal. And this reader is overjoyed that the survivors are starting to seriously work towards the Gizzida’s exit from Earth – with extreme prejudice. Because up until now, all of the marvelous love stories have been forced to finish with a Happy For Now. Not because the various couples (including Finn and Lia) are in any way uncertain about their love for each other, but because the future is so uncertain. It is impossible to plan for a Happy Ever After when you are completely unsure that you, your friends or the human race itself have any kind of an “ever after” at all.

Both Lia and Finn have a lot of emotional baggage, and in this romance it’s the same brand of luggage. They both lost their families in the invasion, and have both chosen to wall themselves off emotionally rather than feel the pain of those losses. But their friendly rivalry breaks down the barrier, and they both discover that even this crazy life is sweeter when you have something and someone to live for.

Their rivalry is also a lot of fun, and reminds me of the romantic relationship in one of M.L. Buchman’s Firehawks books. His military romance and romantic suspense series are marvelous (and best sellers) so he is good company for Finn and Lia to be in.

As with all of the books in this series, the action is non-stop and the romance is meltingly hot. But a big part of my reason for reading this series is the science fiction set up – the alien invasion and its perilous aftermath. I am a very happy reader to see that overall arc take the first steps towards a righteous alien ass-kicking conclusion.

Review: Hell Squad: Niko by Anna Hackett

Review: Hell Squad: Niko by Anna HackettHell Squad: Niko by Anna Hackett
Formats available: ebook
Series: Hell Squad #9
Pages: 132
on June 26th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazon
Goodreads

In the aftermath of a deadly alien invasion, a band of survivors fights on…

Mackenna Carides is tough, strong, and excellent at her job as second-in-command of Squad Nine. She often works side by side with Hell Squad on some of the toughest missions to fight back against the alien raptors. Now she’s helping the survivors of Blue Mountain Base settle into their new home at the Enclave. And that means working with the Enclave’s sexy civilian leader, Nikolai Ivanov, an artist who watches her with an intensity that is hard to ignore. A man she’s seen in the field and who she knows is hiding a mysterious past.

Niko is dedicated to the people of the Enclave and to his art. Once, his life was all about death and destruction, now it’s about life and creation—even in the middle of an alien apocalypse. As he welcomes the Enclave’s new members, there is one newcomer he wants to get closer to…but Mackenna is fighting their attraction. As something starts attacking their drones—vital technology for keeping them all safe—Niko realizes that in order to battle this new danger, he’ll have to return to the darkness of his past…and risk Mackenna never looking at him the same way again.

On a dangerous mission to save their drones from the aliens, Niko will need all of his lethal skills and will wade into the fight with Mac by his side. They will be tested to the brink, where nothing is black or white, and they will have to expose themselves and trust each other to fight, live, and love.

My Review:

I love this series. But as much as I love it, I think it may be time for it to wind to a close. I’m saying that partly because I want these plucky survivors to finally kick the Gizzida off our planet, and partly because it feels like the two romantic patterns used in the series have played out their variations.

Of course, if the author manages to surprise me with something new and different in the next book in the series, I will be pleasantly and joyously surprised.

noah by anna hackettNiko’s romance first appears to be following the pattern set by Noah, where the guy is some type of civilian and the woman is a soldier. (Marcus started this pattern in general, where one party is a soldier and the other is a civilian, but in the case of Marcus, Gabe and others, the guy is the soldier and the female is the civilian).

However, it turns out that Niko, the leader of the Enclave group of survivors, is actually a former Russian assassin, so the story turns out to be one of the ones where both parties, as in Cruz and Shaw, are soldiers of one stripe or another.

Because the heroine of Niko, Mackenna Carides, is definitely a soldier. She’s the second in command of Roth’s Squad Nine. She’s also a woman who was taught by her strict soldier-father that emotions made a soldier weak. To Mackenna, love is the ultimate distraction, and she refuses to even acknowledge the heat between Niko and her unwilling self.

But Niko isn’t willing to let Mackenna go. She’s the first woman who has made him feel much of anything at all in the months since the Gizzida landed, and he’s not willing to turn aside from something that makes life worth living and worth fighting for.

So when the Gizzida start knocking out the survivors’ crucial drone force, Niko attaches himself to the strike teams. It’s the only way he can keep Mackenna safe without questioning her abilities.

He’s already made that mistake once, and it cost him dearly. He’s afraid that letting the deadly assassin that he used to be out of its cage will make Mackenna retreat from him yet again. But those skills that he once put to use targeting his country’s enemies may be the only things that can save his friends now.

Escape Rating B: It’s time to kick Gizzida ass off our Earth. After 9 books that show just how dystopian things have gotten after the alien apocalypse landed, it just plain feels like time for the overall plot to get resolved.

Things can’t keep going the way they are. The Gizzida are much more powerful than the remaining Earth forces, they have all the tech and intel that they could possibly need, and every human that they capture is another potential Borg. Whoops, I meant Gizzida.

They also have no interest in peace or compromise. They are basically intelligent (very intelligent) Borg locusts. If this war of attrition continues, they will “attrit” the human race out of existence.

So since I just can’t bear the thought of a book where the last two humans die in each other’s arms, somehow the human resistance has to kick the Gizzida out. And because the two romance patterns in the series feel like they’ve explored all their possible options, my personal opinion is that this needs to head towards a wrap up.

Your warp speed, of course, may vary.

As much as I enjoy this series, part of my sense that it is time to wrap it up may come from my reactions to Niko and Mackenna themselves. Niko’s baggage dealt with his time as a Russian assassin, but did not get nearly as much into how he felt about discovering that he was fooled by their late and unlamented leader (see Roth for details on those events) Mackenna’s baggage was dropped on her shoulders by her cold and strict father. We only get hints about what makes Mackenna tick, and it didn’t feel like enough. Also, it is hard to have the baggage go back to pre-Gizzida Earth, when there is more than enough post-Gizzida trauma to give anyone nightmares.

For this reader, it just feels like it’s time to kick Gizzida butt.

Review: Hell Squad: Holmes by Anna Hackett

Review: Hell Squad: Holmes by Anna HackettHell Squad: Holmes Formats available: ebook
Series: Hell Squad #8
Pages: 143
on March 8th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazon
Goodreads

The battle of survival against the invading aliens heats up…but Hell Squad never quits.

General Adam Holmes’ life is dedicated to keeping his small band of survivors alive. On the run, with only Hell Squad and the other soldiers for protection, they are making their last dangerous drive to the secret stronghold of the Enclave. But there are a lot of aliens between them and their destination, and the survivors are tired, worn, and at the end of their limits. Adam feels the pressure dragging him down, but as their leader, he can’t be their friend and he can’t dump his burden on anyone else.

Long before the alien invasion, Liberty Lawler survived her own personal hell. Since then, she’s vowed to enjoy everything life has to offer and she’s managed to do that, even in the middle of an apocalypse. She does what she can to help the survivors in her convoy, but one man holds himself apart, working tirelessly for them all. Liberty can see Adam is at his breaking point and she vows to tear through his rigid control and save him from himself.

But the aliens are throwing everything they have at the humans, trying to stop them from reaching the Enclave. Adam will find his resolve tested and the pressure higher than ever. But it will be one beautiful woman—one who won’t take no for an answer and who worms under his skin—who can save them all and give him the strength to go on.

My Review:

I did what I usually do when I get a new Anna Hackett book – I started reading this the minute I finished downloading it. I love her Hell Squad series, and I am so happy to finally get a story that I’ve been waiting for. It’s been plain to me from fairly early on that General Adam Holmes was more than just an authority figure. He needed someone to fight for, and fight for him, every bit as much as the men and women who form the squads.

This was exactly what I was waiting for, and reading it made my day.

I’m also glad that even though the series could conceivably end here, it doesn’t. I think the story will move into another phase, but the overall goal of getting the alien invading Gizzida off our Earth still has a ways to go. But by the end of Holmes, it’s clear that the survivors of the Blue Mountain Base, with the assistance of the residents of the Enclave, finally have a chance at getting the job done.

Personally, I’m hoping for an Independence Day type scenario. We’ll see.

But in the meantime, there’s Holmes. Adam Holmes found himself the highest-ranking surviving officer after the aliens tore Earth to shreds and the battered survivors made their way to the Blue Mountain Base in Australia. Whether there are survivors on other continents, or even on Australia’s west coast, no one knows.

All that Adam Holmes knows is that it is up to him to lead the survivors, and to find a way to throw the Gizzida off our world. It’s a burden that he carries alone, and there is no one for him to lean on when things get tough, and when he has to make the hard decisions and live with the awful consequences.

After 18 months of bare survival topped by a deadly mad dash across a desert bristling with enemies, Adam Holmes is pretty much living in his own dark night of the soul. He believes that he deserves to be alone with his choices, and that no one can or will stand beside him as he hangs on to life and hope by a fraying thread.

And into that darkness sashays Liberty Lawler. We’ve met Liberty before, and probably already formed an opinion. She’s been the self-appointed morale officer for the Base and the fleeing convoy, and she’s damn good at her nebulous job. She has also been a “good-time girl”, always interested in hot, fast sex with a soldier to hold the darkness at bay for both of them for a little while.

So she sees Adam Holmes as someone who needs his own darkness held at bay for a little while, whether with a haircut, a strong cup of coffee, or a favorite candy. Or with Liberty in the quiet of his command vehicle, pushing the darkness away one screaming orgasm at a time.

He can’t figure out what she could possibly see in him. And she can’t figure out why no one has ever noticed just how unbearably alone their commander is – or just how hot he is under all his starched uniforms.

But when the aliens figure out that Adam Holmes is the person giving the humans the will to fight back and the plans to make it successful, they target him with all they’ve got.

And try to take away the one person who makes his life worth living.

Escape Rating A-: The one complaint I have about the Hell Squad series is that the books are always too short. It’s not that there isn’t a clear beginning, middle and end, but that I’m always left gasping at the end, screaming for MORE!

I’ve been waiting for several books now for Adam Holmes to get his own story. As much as I’ve loved the rest of the series, I always have a soft spot in my heart for whoever is the leader. Whoever that person is, I always want to see them get a happy ending, and not just the traditional hot hero types, who are usually at the squad leader level in this type of scenario.

The interesting character for me in this book was Liberty Lawler. The times we’ve seen her previously, one would get the impression that she is the base “bicycle” and that everyone has taken a ride. Except, obviously, the General. But looking into Liberty’s background, and her mission with the survivors, I feel that I’ve done her a big disservice, along with a whole lot of undeserved slut-shaming. I feel ashamed of my previous assumptions, and am glad to see her get a happy ending of her very own.

shaw by anna hackettThe journey in this book, is as harrowing, or more so, than the stories in Noah (reviewed here) and Shaw (here). As the survivors get closer to the Enclave, the Gizzida pull out every nasty stop they can think of (and they can think of a lot) to stop the convoy from reaching their safe haven. And with each book in this series, the Gizzida show just how nastily adaptable they are.

Throwing them off the planet is going to be one tough fight. And I can’t wait!

Review: Shaw by Anna Hackett

Review: Shaw by Anna HackettShaw (Hell Squad #7) by Anna Hackett
Formats available: ebook
Series: Hell Squad #7
on January 26th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazon
Goodreads

Hell Squad sniper Shaw Baird is a man on a mission. His squad is his family and now the invading aliens have done the unforgivable…taken one of his team. Claudia Frost—soldier, friend, and all-round badass—is running on borrowed time. Shaw has vowed to bring her home, whatever it takes…and he’s only just realizing now she’s been taken that Claudia is a vital piece of him.

Claudia Frost is surviving…barely. Kept in chains, made to fight for the aliens’ enjoyment, she can’t survive much longer. But she knows her squad is coming for her…knows Shaw is coming. Only thoughts of the sexy, charming sniper get her through the hell, and for the first time in forever, she wishes she hadn’t let the wounds of her past stop her from taking a taste of the man who is her friend, her sanity and her secret obsession.

But rescuing Claudia is only the first dangerous step. The alien keeping Claudia prisoner is far more intelligent, far more patient and a hell of a lot deadlier than any they’ve faced before. Not only is he hunting their band of human survivors through the forests of the Blue Mountains, but he wants Claudia. And he’ll let nothing get in his way.

My Review:

noah by anna hackettThe action in Shaw picks up bare moments after Noah (reviewed here) ends. And it’s a story that series fans have been waiting for.

Throughout the series, the two Hell Squad snipers, Baird Shaw and Claudia Frost, have been striking sparks off each other every time they argue. Which is pretty damn often. They tease each other, rile each other, and drive each other crazy at every turn. And have each other’s backs when the going gets tough.

The one thing they aren’t is lovers. It’s debatable at points whether they are even friends. Which does not mean that they don’t trust each other with their lives.

Shaw was always a ladies’ man. And in the sexually relaxed atmosphere of post-invasion Blue Mountain Base, he has his pick of the soldier bunnies and anyone else looking for a way to beat back the stress for a few hours.

Claudia used to be married to a man who was just like Shaw seems to be. She’s not interested in anything more than friendship, because she’s playing it safe.

Until nothing is safe any longer.

At the end of Noah, Blue Mountain Base is discovered by the alien Gizzida invaders, and Claudia is captured as the human convoy pulls out. A week later, the survivors are on the dangerous road to the Enclave discovered in Roth while the Hell Squad runs itself ragged trying to protect the convoy and search for Claudia.

Claudia is being tortured by the Gizzida, but certain that her squad won’t give up until they find her. Because if she lets any other thought into her head, she’ll give up, curl up around the pain of her repeated injuries, and die.

Meanwhile, Shaw is falling apart. Now that Claudia is gone, he’s forced to admit to himself that he cares about her more than he has been willing to even think about. And that he’s scared to death that they won’t reach her in time. He’s equally scared that when they do find her, he’ll only screw up the only relationship he’s ever wanted.

Claudia just regrets that she didn’t at least kiss Shaw before her capture. Now that her life is failing, not exploring the possibilities with Shaw, or at least finding out if any of his rep is true, is the one thing she wishes she could do over.

Rescuing Claudia is just the beginning. Now that she has more time, both Claudia and Shaw find that the fears that kept them apart before are even stronger than ever.

And the convoy has miles to go before they reach safety, and the Gizzida are relentless in their pursuit. They are also damned lucky. Or is it more than just luck?

Escape Rating A-: I’ve made no secret that I love this series, and Shaw is no exception. I’ve been expecting this one for a while, because it’s been clear from the very beginning that Shaw and Claudia had a whole lot of chemistry that they were both determined to ignore.

The great thing about this story is that we finally find out why, and it all makes heartbreaking sense. Like so many of the couples, these are two people who would not have had the patience to discover that they belong together, were it not for the invasion.

And this is in spite of both of them being in the same branch of the service, and having been at least acquainted before the alien shit hit the earth fan. It’s only after Claudia’s capture and rescue that they are both able to get beyond the traumas they’ve been carrying around in their baggage. They are living in a situation where life is just manifestly too short for the crap that was keeping them apart.

Just as in the rest of this marvelous series, the romance between Shaw and Claudia is in some ways a subplot. Admittedly an extremely important subplot.

The plot is the convoy and its struggle to escape the mountains. The fleeing survivors of Blue Mountain Base need to get to the Enclave before the Gizzida pick them off one by one. The longer the harrowing journey goes on, the more people they lose.

But considering the way that Gizzida torture and then transform their prisoners, letting themselves be captured is not an option. This truly is one of the cases where there are worse fates than death. And yet, the toll this journey takes on the survivors is appropriately high. Everyone is running fill tilt, and at the ragged edge of their endurance.

Part of the story is the relentless pursuit by one particular Gizzida – the one who tortured Claudia. Whether “the Huntsman” has always been able to think outside the Gizzida box, or whether he learned it from Claudia, he’s different from most of the other aliens. Just like some of the other commanders, the Huntsman thinks for himself, and has his own motivations outside of the general Gizzida desire to strip the planet. His pursuit of Claudia is very, very personal, but completely non-sexual. It’s chilling, but not stalker-creepy. And nearly unstoppable.

In each book in this series, we get a glimpse of who will be featured in the next book. I’m pleased to say that the next book will feature General Holmes. It’s about time that someone stepped in to help the man carry the mountain of stress and regret he’s been living with for so long. And I’m fascinated by the choice for the heroine. It’s going to take a lot of explanation to make this relationship work.

And it should be awesome.

Review: Hell Squad: Reed, Roth, Noah by Anna Hackett

reed by anna hackettTitle: Reed by Anna Hackett
Format read: eARC provided by the author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: science fiction romance, post apocalyptic
Series: Hell Squad #4
Length: 204 pages
Publisher: Anna Hackett
Date Released: August 10, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

As part of Hell Squad, former Coalition Navy SEAL Reed MacKinnon fights for humanity’s freedom from the alien invaders. He also fights for his brown-eyed girl-the woman he rescued from the aliens’ secret laboratory. He admires her quiet strength and will to survive, not to mention her elfin looks and curvy body…but he knows he has to keep his distance. She’s nowhere near ready for what he has to offer and he’ll protect her from everything, even his own powerful desires. Energy scientist Natalya Vasin has lived through hell. Still struggling after her captivity, scarred by the aliens’ experimentation, all she wants is to be normal again…and she wants Reed MacKinnon. But the rugged soldier is holding back, treating her like glass, and she won’t accept that from anybody. As Reed and Natalya wage a sensual battle of desires, they also work together to decipher a mysterious alien energy cube. Hell Squad needs Natalya’s expertise and they need her to go back into alien territory to use it. But on a mission to destroy an alien outpost, secrets are uncovered-of what the raptors really did to Natalya. Secrets that mean the future she wants with Reed is just an impossible dream.

 

roth by anna hackett
Title: Roth by Anna Hackett
Format read: eARC provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance, post apocalyptic
Series: Hell Squad #5
Length: 204 pages
Publisher: Anna Hackett
Date Released: August 10, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

In the aftermath of a deadly alien invasion, a band of survivors fights on…

Roth Masters is a protector to the bone. Driven by the losses of his past, he fights side-by-side with Hell Squad to protect the human survivors of the alien invasion. As leader of Squad Nine, he and his team are known for their perfect timing in a firefight. But Roth knows they need more intel on the raptor invaders—something to turn the tide of the battle. And he knows the woman he rescued from an alien facility is hiding secrets he desperately wants to uncover.

Former Coalition Central Intelligence Agent Avery Stillman is still adjusting to her new life. Left with terrible gaps in her memory, she has vague recollections of failed negotiations with the aliens, the invasion, and after that…nothing. Until a hard-bodied soldier pulled her from a tank in an alien lab. Now she’s trying desperately to remember, to help fight back, and also battling the crazy attraction to the man who keeps pushing her for things she can’t remember.

Soon Roth finds himself torn between his duty and keeping the strong woman he’s falling for safe. As the pair head into alien territory to investigate, they are attacked and crash land alone, far from base. They have to work together to survive the aliens, but when Avery finally remembers everything…her secrets could annihilate all they hold dear.

 

noah by anna hackettTitle: Noah by Anna Hackett
Format read: eARC provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance, post apocalyptic
Series: Hell Squad #6
Length: 204 pages
Publisher: Anna Hackett
Date Released: August 10, 2015
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

The battle of survival against the invading aliens heats up…but Hell Squad never quits.

Tech genius Noah Kim works day and night to keep the survivors at Blue Mountain Base with lights, power and hot water. He’s also working on a top secret project to help keep them safe. He’s tired, stressed and under pressure—and one woman adds to it all. An annoying, infuriating redhead he calls Captain Dragon.

Captain Laura Bladon lost everything she cared for in the alien invasion: her loving family, her Navy SEAL fiancé and her military career. Since then, she’s been numb, her feelings encased in ice, and she’s dedicated herself to her job as chief interrogator and running the base’s prison. But one person can get under her skin in an instant—arrogant, brilliant Noah. He’s the one thing that makes her feel—and that makes her very afraid.

But as Laura helps Noah on his project, the two are drawn irresistibly together. As they head into the desert with Hell Squad on a mission to a hidden alien outpost, sparks fly and a passionate desire is uncovered. Both are holding onto past hurts, scared to take the risk of loving again…but when the unthinkable happens, it changes everything…and Laura and Noah must find the power to save themselves, their friends and their love.

My Review:

Because I read these in one lovely distracting bunch, I’m going to review them the same way. If you like either science fiction romance or post-apocalyptic romance (or both), Anna Hackett’s Hell Squad series is a wonderful way to spend some time in a setting where you absolutely would not want to live. No matter how much fun it is to peek over the characters’ shoulders and see their lives!

gabe by anna hackettOne of the fun things about this series is that the ending of each story gives readers a sneak preview of who the main couple will be in the next book. So at the end of Gabe (reviewed here) we all knew Reed was next. Likewise, Reed foreshadows Roth a bit, and Roth foreshadows Noah. And for those of us who are awaiting the next book with the proverbial bated breath, events at the end of Noah tell us that the next hero is Shaw, who looks like he is finally about to get his head out of his ass – if it doesn’t get handed to him first.

Back to our current three installments, Reed, Roth and Noah. This series so far has shown us two different romantic patterns. In Reed and Noah, just like in Gabe and Marcus (reviewed here) we have a couple where the romantic leads are in an opposites attract mode – or at least surface opposites. In these stories, one party is a soldier, and the other is what passes for a civilian in this brave new world. Marcus’ Elle is a former society child turned communications officer, Gabe’s Emerson is the Base’s Chief Medical Officer. With Reed, the woman of his dreams is a scientist and former POW – one that he rescued from the alien’s experimental labs. The couple in Noah still maintains the pattern, but refreshingly reversed. Noah is Blue Mountain Base’s Chief Technologist, and his would-be lady is the Head of Security.

In all of these stories, we have two people who are absolutely certain that they must be wrong for each other, only to discover that they are absolutely right. Who they would have been before the invasion no longer matters. With the remnants of humanity barely holding their own against the reptilian Gizzida, the strength to survive and the need to find joy in the midst of insanity pretty much conquer all superficial differences. Eventually.

Watching these couples who would probably never even have met before the world ended find out they belong together is marvelous.

cruz by anna hackettThe story in Roth is similar to the romance in Cruz (reviewed here). Both of the people in the couple are warriors of one stripe or another. In Cruz, Santha is a warrior and a scout. In the case of Roth, the woman who haunts his dreams (in more ways than one) is Avery, who is not just a soldier but was also a member of the team that first negotiated with the Gizzida. As Avery finally recovers from her time as an alien test subject, her newly awakened memories reveal that it wasn’t just the Gizzida who were negotiating in bad faith – the humans were too. Or at least one human – the head honcho of the Human Coalition. The pressure is on Avery to remember everything she can about the traitor and his plans, because Blue Mountain Base is closely threatened by the aliens, and they need a Plan B – a safe place to retreat with all their people, both military and civilian. When Roth and Avery investigate potential bolt holes, they find one hell of a surprise, and a whole lot of hope.

Escape Rating A-: The deeper I get into this series, the more I see it as a science fiction romance/post-apocalyptic crossover. This is a near future Earth, but it is definitely a future. Before everything went to hell in the alien invasion handbasket, this was an Earth where we had finally created a peaceful world Coalition government. That’s an achievement that seems pretty far from where we sit today, on the heels of the terrorist attacks on Paris, Baghdad and Beirut last week.

Hell Squad is also post-apocalyptic without being ‘prepper’ fiction. No one expected an alien invasion. This isn’t about some group that finally had their paranoia justified. Blue Mountain Base was a military base that a lot of Coalition military knew existed. Once the squads start getting together, they go out to rescue other survivors. And of course there is a lot of word of mouth about a safe place that spreads virally among the remaining human population. People still trickle in, and survivors still get found, but fewer and fewer all the time. While I don’t generally like prepper fiction, I like Hell Squad because it focuses on the survival and not the paranoia.

The romances in this series drive the characters, and yet they don’t drive the story. The story is the different things that individuals do (and don’t do) in order to keep humanity alive. We keep learning more and more about the alien invasion, the aliens’ motivations, and finally, what went wrong. The chief characters in each book, the ones who find love amidst the chaos, do some things differently because they have found their own personal reason to live life to the fullest, but the story is about them all fighting the good and necessary fight against terrible odds.

One of the things in this part of the series that is now driving the action forward is that Plan B and the reason it exists in the first place. There has not been much in the series until now of humans acting evilly for evil’s sake or for self-aggrandizing, or even self-preservation, purposes. We finally get a glimpse of the dark side of humanity in Roth, as the Blue Mountain Base discovers that humanity was betrayed in return for a safe haven for a select few. Unlike the betrayal of the human race to the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, our evildoer in the Hell Squad series knows exactly what he’s doing when he sells out 99% of the human race to save himself and his selected elite.

We’ve seen the remnant of humanity at Blue Mountain Base survive. Now that they know what they are doing and why they are doing it, they know they have to do more to throw the Gizzida off our planet. As Emily St. John Mandel repeated in the awesome Station Eleven, quoting the Star Trek Voyager episode Survival Instinct, “Because survival is insufficient.”

It looks like that sentiment is going to drive the rest of the series. And I can’t wait.

Review: Gabe by Anna Hackett

Review: Gabe by Anna HackettGabe by Anna Hackett
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Series: Hell Squad #3
Pages: 210
Published by Anna Hackett on August 10th 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleBookshop.org
Goodreads

Hell Squad soldier Gabe Jackson has lost everything that mattered, including his twin brother. Now he just wants to kill the invading aliens anyway he knows how...and he knows a lot of ways. Previously part of a secret Army super-soldier project, he's faster, stronger, deadlier...but on the inside, he's a mass of rage, and pain, and grief-all waiting for a chance to drag him under. Until he finds her. Dr. Emerson Green had her life planned: thrive in the high-stress environment of the ER, build her career, have a great life. Then the raptor alien invasion happened. Now she's the head of the medical team for the secret base sheltering human survivors outside of Sydney. She's also in charge of patching up the soldiers who get too close to raptor claws. She'd never planned for this...and she'd never planned for sexy, brooding Gabe Jackson. As Emerson uncovers clues to the aliens' secret plans for the human race, she and Gabe collide in a storm of volatile passion. But the brooding soldier is as stubborn as he is silent, and Emerson knows she must convince him to reach out to her...because Gabe is a ticking time bomb about to go off.

My Review:

There be Borg here.

Not exactly, but close enough. In this third entry in Hackett’s awesome post-apocalyptic SFR Hell Squad series, the invading Gizzida reveal that at least part of their purpose in conquering Earth was to “assimilate” the human race by transforming them into the reptilian Gizzida, and Hell Squad has found the transformation tanks to prove it.

Anyone who doesn’t hear echoes of Star Trek when the transformation system is named “Genesys” isn’t paying enough attention. Not that the Trek homage matters to the plot, but I love it when my new SFR loves reference my old SFR loves.

Your warp speed may vary.

cruz by anna hackettThe romance in this entry, after series opener Marcus (reviewed here) and Cruz (here) was hinted at during the previous book. Gabe lost his twin brother Zeke in the first book. But he went batshit crazy in the second book when base medico Emerson Green was temporarily captured in their hunt for human prisoners/experimentees/torture victims.

It was pretty obvious at that point that something was going on between the genetically modified warrior and the doc. Even if whatever it was was only in Gabe’s dreams, or Emerson’s nightmares. Or both.

One of the things that has changed since the end of the world as we know it arrived is that casual sex has become the go-to stress reliever for a significant chunk of the population of the secret Blue Mountain base.

One of “Doc” Emerson’s worries is what will happen when everyone’s birth control implants get way past their expiration dates. Whether the last outpost at the end of the human race in the middle of a guerrilla war is or is not the best place to start having a population explosion, Emerson knows its going to happen soon.

Sooner than she thinks, as Cruz’s lover, Santha, becomes the first woman to find herself unexpectedly , but happily, pregnant.

marcus by anna hackettIt’s also a personal question for Emerson, as she and Gabe are secretly providing each other with a bulwark against the all-too-frequent nightmares. Just like in the first book, Gabe doesn’t think he’s good enough for Emerson, and doesn’t think a genetically modified warrior like himself is a safe lover for anyone, let alone the well-educated doctor.

A lot of this story is the push-pull between Gabe and Emerson, as they try to work out whether either of them can manage a real relationship. She buries her stress in overwork, and he kills his, over and over, by slaughtering Gizzida. Neither of them is good at talking about their feelings, or sometimes even admitting they have feelings. Or that they can’t stop feeling things about each other, whether it’s a good idea or not.

But while Gabe and Emerson are sorting out their feelings for each other, the Gizzida are laying a trap for both the doctor and the Hell Squad. Their leader thinks that Emerson and the Squad would be perfect additions to their race.

Escape Rating A-: I love this series. It is the perfect blend of romance, action adventure and science fiction worldbuilding. It’s also a great post-apocalyptic series for people who don’t generally like post-apocalyptic stories.

But then I expect no less from this author. Which is why her books are my go-tos when my schedule goes FUBAR as it did this week. It’s not that I didn’t want to read the book I originally scheduled, it’s that I knew I couldn’t tackle 672 pages in one night.

Gabe, on the other hand, was an absolute treat. We get to see more of the workings of Blue Mountain base, and we learn chillingly more about the Gizzida’s motives. Which make complete sense from their perspective, while still giving us humans the shivers.

I like it when my villains make sense. Bwahaha is funny but does not a superior foe make.

I also enjoy the way that the romances are not the driving force of the story, but they are a driving force for the characters. Gabe is going berserker because he isn’t dealing with the loss of his twin, and can’t deal with his feelings for Emerson.

Speaking of not dealing with stress, in one of these books I want to see the base commander finally find someone of his own. He needs to have someone he can rely on, and someone who can relieve his mountain of stress!

Emerson is suffering from PTSD after her capture by the Gizzida, and is unwilling to take the time to deal with it. (Doctors make the WORST patients). Gabe and Emerson help each other forget what’s hurting them, and in the process, help each other remember how good it is to be alive and what they have that is worth fighting for.

Review: Cruz by Anna Hackett

Review: Cruz by Anna HackettCruz (Hell Squad #2) by Anna Hackett
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Series: Hell Squad #2
Pages: 244
Published by Anna Hackett on August 10th 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleBookshop.org
Goodreads

Battle-hardened soldier Cruz Ramos is running on empty. As second-in-command of the deadliest commando squad fighting the invading aliens, he doesn't know why he's fighting anymore. He's seen too much destruction, devastation, and far too much death. Still, every day he goes out to protect those humans left, and every day the growing numbness threatens to take over. Until a mysterious woman emerges from the ruins of destroyed Sydney and saves him from a pack of rampaging aliens. Santha Kade has one goal: revenge. The raptors who have devastated the Earth have taken everything from her: her team, her home, her beloved sister. Santha-a former police officer-has spent a year alone in the ruined city, waging her own guerrilla war. Sure, she might get lonely sometimes, but she doesn't have room for anything but vengeance. Not even for a sexy soldier with liquid brown eyes, a bone-melting accent, and a face designed to drive a woman wild. But as Cruz and Santha join forces to rescue human hostages from the aliens, their explosive attraction is impossible to resist. Can these two warriors survive long enough to find something worth living for?

My Review:

This was not the book I intended to read for today. Who knew that someone could possibly make a book titled The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse boring? When that fell with a thud, I turned to one of my go-to authors, Anna Hackett. She has never disappointed me.

marcus by anna hackettAnd certainly still hasn’t with Cruz, the second book in her post-apocalyptic Hell Squad series. A lot of the setup for this series is in the first book, Marcus, reviewed here. The brave new world that Hackett has envisioned in Hell Squad needs a whole lot of bravery, because the new world mostly sucks.

In this near-future, the apocalypse that the series is dealing with the aftermath of is an alien invasion. The Gizzida look a lot like a cross between the aliens in Alien and ancient Earth dinosaurs – chiefly the predatory kind. However, these reptilian invaders have a philosophy that owes more than a bit to Star Trek’s Borg. They intend to absorb the human race and make it stronger. The difference between the Borg and the Gizzida is that these invaders don’t wipe out their own individuality. Or at least not all of it. Or they may be even more like the Borg than we’re sure of at this point, having a queen who is an individual directing an army of drones.

But our story follows the human resistance. Who seem a lot more sympathetic than the invaders. The Gizzida wiped out all the human cities with bombs and raptors, but humanity fights back. The Hell Squad lives and works at Blue Mountain Base in Australia, far outside Sydney. In my head I see Blue Mountain Base looking an awful lot like the Cheyenne Mountain Complex outside Colorado Springs in Stargate SG1, crossed with that sense of last humans fighting back from Battlestar Galactica.

(There have been a lot of references to BSG this week. A good trope is a reused trope.)

In the first book, Marcus, we were introduced to the people who make up Squad Six of the resistance out of Blue Mountain. Squad Six is much better known to everyone except the base commander as Hell Squad. They go into hell and bring hell to their enemy.

At the very end of the first book, we met Santha Kade, a lone warrior who is fighting the aliens all by herself, and has been for a year. She’s a former SWAT officer, and is good at fighting and staying alive.

She also fascinates one of the members of Hell Squad, Cruz Ramos. There’s something about the woman warrior that keeps Cruz from descending into the unfeeling darkness of too many missions, too many deaths, and not enough hope that the fight is worthwhile.

Santha thinks that Cruz makes great eye candy, but she’s in this fight to avenge herself against the alien commander who murdered her sister right before her eyes, while Santha was paralyzed by an alien poisoned weapon. She’s not ready for the emotional confusion of a relationship. On the other hand, some life-affirming hot sex seems like an incredibly good idea. At least with Cruz.

Santha is not interested in being part of the hierarchy and orderly chain of command at Blue Mountain Base, in spite of the safety that comes with having a secure hideout. But they need her. The resistance has learned that the aliens have kidnapped a group of human scientists, and the resistance wants to mount a rescue.

But in order to rescue someone, first you have to know where to look for them. Santha has the best, in depth intelligence on the alien operations, because she’s spent an entire year observing them and searching for the alien commander. They need her intel, and when she is injured, she finally realizes that she needs them. At least a little bit.

Santha still burns for revenge. Blue Mountain wants a surgical strike, in, rescue the prisoners, out. Of course it all goes FUBAR.

Because in the best alien invasion tradition, the Gizzida aren’t just capturing scientists for their knowledge, they are grabbing humans of all types, ages and sizes so that they can conduct torturous experiments. The Gizzida want to see what makes us tick. Because, in best evil alien fashion, they want to make us all stop ticking.

The laboratories that Hell Squad uncovers show a hell that none of them imagined in their worst nightmares. But they will stop at nothing to get those people out. One way or another.

Escape Rating A-: This second book in the series gets a little more into the aliens’ motives. Not that there isn’t still more to come, but for the first time we hear one speaking to a human while thinking they are on top, and getting just a tiny bit into their outline for the subjugation of the human race. It begins to let us see that the Gizzida are not just evil for evil’s sake. They don’t see themselves as evil. They think they have a manifest destiny. We naturally think they are purely destructive.

Just like in the first book, there is a romance here. Cruz and Santha have fascinated each other from the first time they met. But Santha is totally invested in her revenge-motivated lone-wolf crusade, and Cruz is part of a team. He’s more than willing to open up that team to include Santha, but living in the base will mean submitting herself to the same rules and discipline as everyone else. Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but while you are in the midst of pursuing it it’s damn hard to let go of.

Unlike the romance in Marcus, Cruz and Santha are coming from the same kind of place. They are both soldiers, and they have both always been soldiers. Cruz admires Santha’s strength and intelligence. Life in the resistance is a hard life likely to end in premature death. They both need someone who accepts the darkness in every survivor, and who has the strength to fight, often literally, to grab some joy from existence and fight to keep it.

They are also both people who have a lot of demons in them, and need a partner physically strong enough to hold them down when necessary, or spar equally with them until exhaustion moves to temporary oblivion.

It’s a very different relationship than the one between Marcus and Elle in the first book. Marcus needs a refuge, and Elle needs validation that she’s a capable partner. Cruz and Santha both need people who have been exactly where the other one is and understands the monsters they hold inside.

The plot of the story – discovering and rescuing the captives, is a heartbreaker from beginning to end. While this theme has been used before, here it was especially gut wrenching, because Hell Squad has to deal both with healing the ones who can possibly be healed, and making the unfortunate but necessary call that in some extreme circumstances, death can be a mercy, especially for those we love.

If you like your end of the world scenarios with a little bit of love and whole lot of fighting back, Hell Squad is a winner.

Review: Marcus by Anna Hackett

Review: Marcus by Anna HackettMarcus (Hell Squad, Book 1) by Anna Hackett
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Series: Hell Squad #1
Pages: 217
Published by Anna Hackett on April 19th 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's WebsiteAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboBookshop.org
Goodreads

In the aftermath of a deadly alien invasion, a band of survivors fights on…
In a world gone to hell, Elle Milton—once the darling of the Sydney social scene—has carved a role for herself as the communications officer for the toughest commando team fighting for humanity’s survival—Hell Squad. It’s her chance to make a difference and make up for horrible past mistakes…despite the fact that its battle-hardened commander never wanted her on his team.
When Hell Squad is tasked with destroying a strategic alien facility, Elle knows they need her skills in the field. But first she must go head to head with Marcus Steele and convince him she won’t be a liability.
Marcus Steele is a warrior through and through. He fights to protect the innocent and give the human race a chance to survive. And that includes the beautiful, gutsy Elle who twists him up inside with a single look. The last thing he wants is to take her into a warzone, but soon they are thrown together battling both the alien invaders and their overwhelming attraction. And Marcus will learn just how much he’ll sacrifice to keep her safe.

The setup for this book, and for the Hell Squad series, reminds me of a combination of the movie Independence Day and the TV series Battlestar Galactica (the remake, not the original). Just like in Independence Day, the aliens have not only landed, but they have targeted all of our major cities and are the in process of wiping out the human race.

It’s been a long time since I saw the movie, but my memory says that the aliens looked like the raptors. In the book, the aliens look an awful lot like honking big dinosaurs, only clearly with way more intelligence as well as advanced space flight.

The story also has the dystopian feel of BSG. It’s not that the humans have space flight, but the gritty feeling of the last human outposts fighting back against an overwhelming invasion as they barely keep their technology together feels similar.

The Hell Squad series is certainly dystopian, or at any rate post-apocalyptic. The humans know exactly what the apocalypse was in this case – the aliens landed and are well on their way to wiping out humanity. Victories for the human survivors are damn few and very far between.

The humans in the Blue Mountain outpost in Australia are all too aware that even if they somehow manage to take Earth back from the alien Raptors, nothing will ever be the same.

In this first installment of the Hell Squad series, we focus on one of the combat squads that operates out of Blue Mountain Base. Squad Six, otherwise known as Hell Squad, is one of several squads that regularly conducts raids in enemy territory, scrounging for supplies, assisting isolated groups of humans reach the relatively safe base, and attempting to capture enemy intel.

The story in this book is in the context of one such intel operation. Through torturing a captured Raptor prisoner, they have determined that there is an enemy communications hub somewhere in their patrol area. They even have enemy data crystals that pinpoint the exact location. What they need is a translator.

What they have is Elle Milton, their comms officer. Elle has learned more of the Raptor language than anyone else. She knows enough to know that the data crystal they have recovered will lead them to the hub, but not enough to translate the exact directions. Elle needs a Rosetta Stone.

Marcus, the leader of Hell Squad, just wants to keep Elle safe. It’s pretty obvious to everyone in his squad that he is in love with the beautiful refugee who has worked so hard to become a comms officer. Her life pre-invasion was that of a spoiled little society girl, and she has worked damn hard to become someone useful. Someone strong. And she is endlessly disappointed that Marcus does not want her around – not on his missions, and not in his life.

Of course, Elle couldn’t be more wrong. It takes the high-adrenaline danger of needing to take Elle on a mission to make Marcus admit that he’s been keeping her at arm’s length in order to protect her. Elle’s way of proving to Marcus that he’s wrong is to not just get the mission done, but to save his life along the way.

Escape Rating A-: As the series introduction, Marcus is short and tremendously fun. We get glimpses of the way that the world has gone to hell, just enough to explain things without being overwhelming. We see the humans as survivors, and not just as victims. It reminds me of Station Eleven (see review) in that respect. We don’t need to live through the entire alien invasion to get the picture. It’s enough to show the humans as plucky survivors who have a hell of a fight on their hands, even if it is a fight they are mostly losing at the beginning.

The love story is a classic. Marcus the military leader feels like the only thing he’s good for is killing. And he is good at killing raptors, but he is also a terrific leader for his squad. He feels like he is atoning for some of the dirty missions he conducted while he was in U.S. Special Forces, before the invasion. He feels as if his hands will never be clean, and he doesn’t think he deserves happiness in general or Elle in particular.

Elle has her own demons to fight. As a spoiled party girl, Elle had no skills with which to fight off the raptors when they invaded her parents’ estate and killed them. Elle feels like she hid uselessly in a closet as she listened to her parents die, and has become a comms officer in order to battle past her own feelings of uselessness and worthlessness.

So when Marcus shoves her away, she interprets it as her worthlessness and not his need to protect. They make a very stubborn, but equally matched, pair.

The mission is one that showcases what humanity has lost, and at the same time bonds Elle with Marcus and with his whole unit.

The raptors have taken over a public library, because they are using the library’s data banks to translate human electronic documents into their language. They don’t just control the whole planet, they want to make sure that they wrest every scrap of technology out of it as well. These aliens are like interstellar locusts, they find a planet, kill its inhabitants and steal its technology, then fly away leaving their conquest a dead hulk in space.

But Elle is able to use the aliens attempt to reverse engineer English the other way. She gets enough of a start to reverse engineer the aliens’ language, and find their communications hub. The mission to take out the hub is an action-packed page turner that will keep any reader glued to their seat.

It’s impossible not to root for these stubborn humans to find a way to throw the aliens off of our world. And the fight has just begun.