Uncharted: A Scorching Hot Forced Proximity Romance (Survival Instincts, 2)

Uncharted was a fantastic read with a great suspense plot and an excellent romance between a pilot and a man in hiding.

Pilot Leo Eddowes can fly anything and no mission is too dangerous for her. When she's asked to evacuate a man from the Alaskan wilderness, she doesn't hesitate. Elias Thorne has been in hiding for the last decade when Leo shows up to escort him out of the wilderness. But when a team of expert hunters follow her right to him, Elias and Leo are forced to go on the run. With the enemy closing in, Elias and Leo will have to brave the elements while fighting the burning hot attraction between them.

Whiteout was one of my favorite books last year so when I saw there was a sequel coming out, I knew I wanted to pick it up. While Uncharted is the second book in the series, it functions well as a standalone. There are some minor plot points you may be missing going in to the book, but I thought the book filled in those missing pieces pretty well.

Leo's character intrigued me in the first book, so I was excited to see this book followed her particularly after the final scene in Whiteout showed Leo in a precarious situation. A former combat pilot, Leo has been flying for years and she loves every second of it. Right away I knew I'd love Leo's character; she's bright, she doesn't back down from a fight, and she knows what she wants. Elias was an excellent counterbalance to Leo's character. Whereas Leo jumps without thinking, Elias is more of the slow, methodical sort. I liked that he had backup plans for his backup plans and that he didn't let himself be caught off guard. Their relationship builds over the course of the book while they're on the run together and I enjoyed watching it develop. The chemistry between these two is amazing and the steamy scenes were very well done.

The suspense plot in this book was fantastic with the perfect amount of tension and action. Basically the people after Elias believe he has in his possession a deadly virus that they want and they won't stop until they get it. The action starts almost right away in this book and doesn't let up until the book ends. Elias and Leo are on the run for most of the book with the bad guys right on their tails. They manage to slow down their pursuers a few times but they're relentless and they continue to chase them across the wilderness. The harsh conditions they're in would make their escape bad enough but on top of that, Leo is injured which does slow them down. As we get closer to the end of the book, the pace picks up even more and the final confrontation with the bad guy is action-packed and very well done.

Overall Uncharted was an amazing read and I can't wait to read more in the series. I highly recommend this series if you're looking for some great romantic suspense.

**I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher which I voluntarily and honestly reviewed.**

Uncharted is a sinister, steamy tale that finds ex-military pilot Leo Eddowes and former US Marshall Elias Thorne in a race against time to save themselves against not only the harsh Alaskan wilderness but a team of mercenaries on a mission to find Campbell Turner, the man who has the virus they’re all looking for before they do.

The prose is tight and enticing. The characters are resilient, resourceful, and relentless. And the plot is a menacing tale of mischief, mayhem, manipulation, romance, impulsivity, sizzling attraction, desperation, drama, tension, survival, violence, and murder.

Overall, Uncharted is a propulsive, provocative, action-packed thrill ride by Anders that is highly entertaining, thoroughly engrossing, and the perfect choice for anyone who enjoys a really good survivalist tale with a lot of heat.

Not a great read

This is a great sequel to the first book "Whiteout". It ends on a bit of cliffhanger, but I haven't seen any mention of a third book, at the time of this review. But it is a good book and I will likely read it again.

What a great page turner this book was. The action starts with Leo Eddowes flying into the wilds of Alaska to evacuate a man who is being hunted by a Chronos team. Only the man she finds is Elias Thornes, one of America's most wanted men. He was supposed to be dead. Instead the man she was looking for was the one who died ten years earlier. Pursued by the enemy team, they escape into the dangerous Alaskan wilderness. As they grow to trust and respect each other, a stronger feeling wells up from deep in their hearts. I can't wait for the next book in this series.

I'm a sucker for a great story set in dangerous remote locations. After finishing White Out, the fiirst book in the series, I've been anxiously awaiting the release of this book. And it was well worth the wait.

Elias Thorne disappeared ten years ago,, running from the good guys and the bad guys alike. He's spent that time off the grid in a remote corner of Alaska. When his past catches up with him, he finds himself on the run again. Only this time he isn't alone.

Leo Eddowes loves a challenge, so when she's asked to head to Alaska in search of a missing scientist, she doesn't hesitate. Only things don't quite go as planned. So when one of the townspeople offers to point her in the direction of her missing quarry, Leo is just desperate enough to listen.. Now, with the enemy closing in and the weather hampering their every move, two solitary, guarded individuals will need to find a way to trust each other, to survive both their enemies and mother nature.

Fast moving and always exciting, each turn of the page brought more excitement or another surprising twist to the story.. The characters were engaging, and, while at times the romance was a little sappy,, it fit the character's personalities and never detracted from the action. .I also like the way the weather and the setting were so much a part of the story they felt like secondary characters. As soon as I finished I was ready to jump back in and read it again to make sure I hadn't missed anything the first time around.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

Whiteout was one of my favorite reads of 2020, so of course I was excited to see what crazy wilderness shenanigans would happen this time. While different in several ways, this book still scratches that same itch for me.

It’s some kind of luck for Leo to get a tip about the scientist her team has been searching for the same day she’s out sick with a stomach bug – and even worse luck that a hostile corporate extraction team is right behind her. And then she’s shot down shortly before she reaches his location. Luckily, she’s rescued by Elias, a man who’s spent the past decade living in the Alaskan wilderness and knows the area like the back of his hand. Leo’s not sure why the bad guys are after him or why he rescued her, but they form an unlikely team fleeing through the wilderness to reach the nearest town. Injured and pursued, Leo has nothing to show for it, because Elias isn’t the man she’s looking for. Or is he?

“Never, can’t, won’t. I don’t believe in those words.[…] Even metal melts if you get it hot enough.”

Leo’s the type of person to be constantly on the move, ready to tackle whatever comes her way. And as a Black female elite pilot, it’s a trait that’s served her well. While she’s not military any longer, she feels a strong kinship with her fellow team and is similarly driven to find the virus that the Chronos Corporation desperately wants for nefarious purposes. Elias is a wrench in those plans, much in the same way she is for him. Elias has spent years living mostly by himself, with only his dog Bo for company. There’s a good reason for him to be hiding in the woods, and he’s wary of how Leo is tangled up in it. Like Leo, he’s extremely good at what he does, and that’s keeping himself alive in the wilderness. Both characters are just incredibly competent, and I loved seeing that.

“There wasn’t time for this now—thinking about how this person who’d been sent to him—who’d literally fallen from the sky—made him strong in a way he’d never felt. Together, he thought, letting his mind take an uncharacteristically fanciful spin, they were more than the sum of their parts.”

While I liked the individual characters, I think the romance didn’t work as well. In the first book, while the main characters weren’t close, they at least knew each other. In this one, the characters meet for the first time when the heroine’s concussed after a plane crash (oh, and suffering from some sort of stomach virus). They’re on the run almost immediately from that point onwards, so the whole “getting to know you” bit is secondary to the “running for our lives” plot. The individual character development was fine – after all, we get to see inside each character’s head – but it takes a while for them to even start trusting each other, let alone falling in love. What I really liked about the romance, though, is how it’s built on respect. Leo’s impressed by how prepared Elias is for nearly every eventuality, and how good he is at navigating and surviving in the wilderness. Elias is impressed by Leo’s flying (what little of it he sees before she crashes) and her spirit; she’s not one to give up, even against insurmountable odds.

The POV alternates mostly between Leo and Elias’s third-person, but also occasionally switches to one of the bad guys hunting them down. Usually I don’t care for the villain POV and quickly rush through those bits, but I actually liked the character in this case. As for other secondary characters, well, they’re escaping through the Alaskan wilderness, so there’s not really a ton of other people in the book! But without being too spoilery, I will say that I want to be Amka when I grow up! The suspense portion of the plot was excellent, if a bit on the unbelievable side – they get injured a lot and yet somehow keep on going. It was gripping, though, and I gulped down large chunks of the book at a time because I simply had to know what was going to happen next.

Overall, this was another extremely enjoyable romantic suspense, even if the romantic relationship took longer to get in place. There’s several options for who the next book might be about and I can’t wait to see what’s next in this series!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

What a fun, action packed ride this was!!! I loved kickass Leo from the first page and I'm so happy that she found her future in Elias. They had amazing chemistry and were both badasses the way they fought for each other and survival. I can't wait to read more in this phenomenal series!!!

Uncharted is an exciting, fast-paced epic romantic adventure. I was so looking forward to this one after reading Ford and Angel's book. I was not disappointed.
It takes about half of the book to get to any real "romance", but it is very much worth the wait! Leo and Elias were like molten lava.... the heat just oozed between the two of them. It took their sexual tension a while to build, but when it did, the explosion was HOT.
I'm a sucker for a take-charge, grumpy loner of a hero. Elias was all that, but he was also vulnerable. His past forced him into self-isolation and for years the only companion he had was his dog. The Alaskan wilderness became his home. His quiet world was turned upside down when Leo literally crashed into his life.
Leo was starchy and prickly and independent. She was extremely capable in her own right, but injuries from the plane crash forced her to be dependent on Elias. On the run from a common enemy, fighting the elements and a treacherous environment, the attraction between them caught them both by surprise.
Leo and Elias went from wary strangers to survival buddies to "need you NOW" sexual partners in a matter of days, but the journey they were on probably felt like years. I loved seeing them each come to realize that what they had was worth risking not only their lives but their hearts.
There has not been a book written by Adriana Anders that I have not been 110% in love with, and this one is no exception. Her characters are so unique, the storylines are so engrossing, the reader truly feels like they are a part of the adventure.