Uncharted by Adriana Anders
Series: Survival Instincts #2
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on August 31, 2021
Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
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Hotshot pilot Leo Eddowes is afraid of nothing and no one. So when she's asked to evacuate a man from the wilds of Alaska, she doesn't hesitate. But with enemies in close pursuit and the weather turning sour, what should have been a simple mission quickly shifts to disaster.

And there's only one way out.

When Elias Thorne disappeared, he was America's most wanted. Now he's spent more than a decade in one of the most remote places on earth, guarding a dangerous secret. Leo's arrival, quickly followed by a team of expert hunters, leaves him no choice but to join forces with her—and run. Neither is prepared for their reluctant partnership to flare into something as wild and untamed as the frozen world around them...but as desperately cold days melt into scorchingly hot nights, Leo and Elias must learn to dig deep, trust in each other, and forge a bond as strong as the forces of nature.

Stranded together in a frozen wilderness,
There's nowhere left to run...

I love romantic suspense, and I’m always on the hunt for another amazing one that’s not paranormal or erotica. Do you know how hard those are to come by? I absolutely adored the first book in this series, Whiteout, which ended on a cliffhanger. I was eager to get my hands on Uncharted for a resolution to that story… and there wasn’t. lol. There’s some info and some… movement? I’m not sure movement is the right word. It hasn’t been that long since I read Whiteout, but I struggled to remember some things and people that maybe would have helped me piece this story together a little better. Definitely don’t read this one without having read Whiteout first. You’ll be even more confused than I was, because something important happens in that story that they refer to in this one.

Anyway, moving on! I loved the setting. The Alaskan wilderness is always an amazing setting, but it’s particularly exciting in romantic suspense because it’s so treacherous and dangerous. I also loved the dog, Bo! I panic when dogs or cats (or any beloved pet, really) appears in a suspense novel because many, many authors decide that killing or torturing that pet would be a good idea for a plot point. I blacklist those authors. Animal abuse and deaths are a huge trigger for me. As soon as I got attached to Bo and began to fear for her safety, I wrote to Adriana Anders and begged her to tell me if I needed to stop reading this book. She wrote back within an hour and assured me that it was safe to continue. That email meant so, so much to me, and yes. She was right! I’m sorry if this is a spoiler for anyone reading this book, but I think it’s one worth mentioning. And that’s all I’ll say!

I LOVED Bo. She was so, so sweet and my favorite character in this book. She was the very best good girl in so many ways. Leo bugged me a bit with her stubbornness, but I grew to like her more as the book went on. Elias is a gruff and surly teddy bear, and I really liked him. There was less tension and suspense in this book, compared to Whiteout, which was a bit disappointing. The romance was sweet and well-balanced between two people who want to be tough alphas but are willing to be betas sometimes.

My biggest issue with this book was the dialogue, which I can only hope will be changed before publication. All the characters seem to hate speaking in complete or normal-sounding sentences. Here are some spoiler-free examples:

“Today we do the summit. Hopefully before the helicopter arrives.” He pointed straight up. “Hope not to break our necks in the process.”

That “hope not to…” sentence is weird. Like maybe “Let’s hope we don’t break our necks in the process.” just sounds better.

The ringing in her ears continued. Not a good sign.
“You walk?”
No. “Yes.”

What about “Can you walk?” It just feels better.

“You’re burning up.”
She huffed out a weird sound that felt like a laugh. “I mention I had a stomach thing? Food poisoning. I thought. Maybe it was a bug?”
“He paused, eyes wide. “Kidding me?”

Maybe… “Did I mention…” and “Are you kidding me?”

Then there’s a bunch of little sentences all throughout the story like these:

“Leo your real name?”
“Way you’re looking at me. I’ve gotten a lot of that.”
“Know you’re awake.”
“Time is it?”

I could excuse it if they came from one person. Maybe it’s a weird character quirk or something, but these kinds of sentences came from both Elias and Leo, as well as a secondary character or two. I could also excuse it if it happened only once in a while. It’s very common for people to speak like this on occasion. Like, “you ok?” is commonly used without the “are” at the beginning and nobody cares. But people do not talk like this allllll the time, almost every time they say something.

So often when Leo and Elias talk to each other, it’s back and forth with one- to three-word sentences. The dialogue is very short and choppy (this is not a quote, but explains my thoughts because this is how it felt: “You ok?” “Yes. You?” “Yes.” “Good.” “Let’s keep going.” “Ok.”). As evidenced in the examples above, there are frequently missing words, but there are also the bare minimum of words. Elias even sometimes only talks in grunts or other inaudible noises. The quality of the dialogue was so frustrating to me that I nearly DNFed multiple times, but I really really wanted to know what happened so that I can continue with this series (if there are more books coming. I haven’t seen an announcement yet.). I also really like the author and was so touched by her caring attitude towards me that I wanted to love every single thing about this book! She’s so nice, she deserves to have her book loved! And I almost, almost loved it. But the dialogue made me want to scream. It did improve a little in the last third or so of the book, which made it even more obvious to me that this kind of dialogue was not a character quirk. The dialogue wasn’t like this in Whiteout, so I don’t think this is just how the author writes. I keep trying to figure out why these choices were made for this book, and I can’t come up with an explanation.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on way too long about the dialogue. I’ve been purposely vague in most of my review because it’s easy to spoil thrillers. Overall, I’m hoping there’s more books in this series. As I mentioned before, I loved the first one. This one wasn’t as great for me (even though I did really enjoy parts of it), but I’m eager to read another one that wows me again!