3.5 stars

I received an ARC in exchange for a review.

Although this book is about one of the main characters from the HORNET books (Eric "Harvard" Physick), it is the first in a spin off about the Class Alpha HORNET trainees. It is written in new adult style, which for me was a little more difficult to get into because personally, this style isn't my favorite. It can be read as a standalone. The book started a little slow for me, but once I got into it and adjusted to the different style, it hooked me.

It was interesting to have Harvard become so much more fleshed out as a character. He definitely had a unique back story and a lot of baggage that came with it. I have mixed feelings about Sami. She made a huge mistake that I had a hard time getting past, but she and Harvard are a pretty good match. Their little nerd hearts suit each other!

I enjoyed all the geek references, getting to see the HORNET characters again, and meeting the Class Alpha team. My interest is definitely piqued to learn more about these new characters, so I am looking forward to reading further books in this series.

Fragmented Loyalty is a HUGE whirlwind. I adored the blurb and wanted to read the book as soon as possible. I have always been a fan of white hat hackers and loved how Sami wanted to take control of her life by doing what she was born to do. I will let you know that there are multiple jaw dropping bombs that you will NOT be prepared for. When you have two hackers with major secrets, they might be falling for each other, but what happens when it's the sky that falls open and those secrets come out?!?

This was my first book by Tonya Burrows, but it will be the first in a long line, I am sure of it! Fragmented Loyalty is action packed with an intense story line and some super steamy scenes, I cannot wait to see what happens next in this series- 4 outta 5 stars from me!

PS: Thank you to Tonya Burrows, Entangled Publishing, Netgalley, and Insklinger PR for allowing me an advanced copy of the book to read and review honestly.

It's been a couple of years since Tonya Burrows published the last book in the Hornet series but I was always hoping we'd get a book for Harvard so I was really happy when I found out about this new spin off series Hornet: Class Alpha, starting with Fragmented Loyalty. Although this series is focusing on the team Hornet have been training Harvard is a member of the original group and you'll see a lot of familiar faces from the previous books showing up as teachers and mentors. I think you could probably start with this book but you'll definitely have a much fuller reading experience if you read the original series first.

Harvard is Hornet's tech wiz and he's been instrumental in many of the team's rescue missions thanks to his surveillance skills and the backup support he's offered. He's an expert hacker and a total nerd, also really sweet and very protective of his team. All Harvard has ever wanted is to find a place to belong, as a child genius who graduated school far earlier than most he never really fitted in with his peers and with a vindictive alcoholic mother he never had much support at home either. The Hornet team have become his family and what he wants more than anything is to prove himself to them.

Sami is also a hacker extraordinaire but one who got caught up with a bad group and crossed some lines as a child and was sent to juvie at the age of 14. Her family disowned her after she was released so she was left completely alone at 18 with nothing and nobody. She made the mistake of agreeing to a favour to a mystery benefactor in exchange for the money she needed to survive and three years later she's still waiting for the hammer to drop. Being accepted into Hornet's training program was a chance for Sami to turn her life around, she wants to make something of her life but when her benefactor finally calls in their favour things go downhill fast.

I was so happy to be back in this world, as far as the series timeline goes not much time has passed, in fact some of this book touches on previous events just from a different perspective, but in reality it's been a while and I enjoyed catching up with the characters. I worried for a minute that I wouldn't remember everyone but it all seemed to fall back into place very quickly. Harvard and Sami are both great characters, I loved the geeky banter between them as they fan out on things like Star Wars and Game of Thrones and it was very easy to imagine being friends with them. They have a lot in common and they had wonderful chemistry but I did find it a little frustrating that neither of them opened up about their secrets a little sooner. It worked for the story but put a bit of a downer on their budding romance. It wasn't too hard to look past that though and I was totally rooting for them to work it all out.

The story has everything I'd expect from a Hornet novel, great romance, lots of intrigue and a nice amount of action. I'm enjoying getting to know the rest of the Alpha Class and I'm very happy that Wolfe's book is up next.

Samira's IT skills are a force to be reckoned with but as a teenager those same skills turned her life upside down. She now has her life on the right path and is excited to be part of the Hornet team however her past may destroy the progress she has made and betray those she has come to care the most about.

Harvard is a member of Hornet and Samira’s teacher who also has a past he would like to forget. Harvard and Samira are trying to deny their attraction to each other but that is easier said than done when they are working together. When you add in the threat that they are under personally as well as professionally things are about to get very complicated.

I enjoyed Samira and Harvard together and they have so much in common. They are both trying to find their place in the organization and are about to realize that family is who you can count on when you need someone the most.

Action, suspense, a forbidden romance, set in a military style secret organization training program. Yums!
The heroine, Samira (Sami) spent half her teenage years in juvenile detention after being convicted of a felony for hacking. An idealistic brilliant geek, S had used her skills to infiltrate monied organizations and direct their funds to various charities. After being sentenced, her parents disown her and S finds herself alone and desperate. A mysterious benefactor “loans” her money – directly into her bank account - in return for a future favour.
After working a few years in a dead end job as a barista, the ever resourceful S hacks her way into earning herself the attention of the head of a large tech company and thereafter a position in Class Alpha, a training program for a secretive organization HORNET that rescues hostages the government can’t or won’t go after.
Eric aka Harvard is the person that is sent to pick S up at the airport when she arrives in Wyoming where HORNET’s base in. I pretty much fell in love with him right there: shy, bespectacled, dimples and a nerdy sense of humour (t-shirts with snarky slogans), sci-fi aficionado (Star Wars, Star Trek!).
The chemistry between Sami and Harvard was fantastic from their 1st meeting, 2 brilliant geeks who speak the same language, have the same interests and “get” one another. But with H being S’s mentor/instructor, both of them know a relationship would have been unethical and put a strain in the training program and both hold back. All the near kisses, almost touches – loved the tension!
The whole HORNET/Class alpha setting was wonderful to read. The camaraderie between the trainers as well as the Hornet leaders, how the bond between the trainees develop and there’s loads of humour as well lovely touches of poignancy.
Great read.

**I received a copy of Fragmented Loyalty from Entangled Publishing and Net Galley in exchange for a honest and voluntary review. The opinions below are my own and not solicited in any way.**

Fragmented Loyalty by Tonya Burrows is the first book in her new HORNET: Class Alpha #1 series. I have read several of her HORNET books and have to say I was glad to read that Gabe, Quinn and Jean-Luc help out the new team of trainees. This is Harvard, Eric Physick, and Samira Blackwoods's story both are accomplished hacker and computer geeks. Only Harvard has a huge secret that will lead to the climatic ending that will have the entire team of old and new HORNET members trying to save the world from a man bent on revenge because of what happened when they were teenagers. Oh did I mention that Eric/Harvard's T-shirts are the best ever with their sarcastic sayings?
Samira not only hacked into some of the most secure databases but at the age of 14 was part of A.K.A but after being caught she ended up in Juvie and no computers until she became an adult. Her parents disowned her and all her friends as well. So at 21 years she applied to Class Alpha yearning for a new life. The best part of the story her ability to embrace her Geek side with a R2 D2 suitcase and how she makes friends with Wolfe, Remy and Gavin by just making sure that no one on the team gets left behind on the Grinder Hill. But when her past comes back to haunt her by asking for a way to destroy HORNET via a computer she'll have to hurt those who gave her a life long job.But when not only the no fraternization clause, virus in the system and of course the evil villain comes to hurt everyone who means the most to her or will Harvard's secret be the end of their love?

Nerdy heroes and heroines – is it sad that I understood all of their jokes and t-shirts and gadgets? No, because who does not love a guy who wears glasses and knows his way around computers. This story took me a little while to get into and even though I love action/suspense stories some of the action kind of drug for me. But it is still a very good story. The romance is nice and I had the feeling that both Eric/Harvard and Sami were so young and their feelings were so new that they weren’t sure of what do it. Ah, young love.

An interesting premise and story. I did not realize it was a spin off of a series, but that would make sense as some of the leaders in the group are married and protective of their spouses. The characters have an interesting backstory that is acknowledged as secretive, but most do not know each other’s background/baggage. The world development is detailed and creates the training grounds and base of this covert op group. I enjoyed the dynamic between the teams and students and the main couple Gigi and Harvard. The internal dialogue about their concerns and feelings was helpful and provided key information on why they reacted certain ways. The information on the type of missions and connection to the CEO left me with questions/confusion though and I did feel some of the scenes provided too much information about this unknown hacker. Overall I enjoyed the story and I would read more about this organization.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled for the chance to read this book and share my opinions.

4.25⭐

I've been a big fan of the HORNET series since the start and was excited to see a new story being released, but I have to say, I did find it a little hard to get into. Still, once the story got going, and I got used to the new writing style, I was gripped and I really liked the blend of old and new characters, although there were a couple of moments when I genuinely wished the old stories were much fresher in my mind. But I truly enjoyed the mix of mystery and romance Fragmented Loyalty had going on. Not to mention all the geekyness although I must confess all the Star Wars references went way over my head!! But with a little suspense as this story reached its conclusion as well as plenty of character development this really was a cracking read, and it's one I would happily recommend to others.

3.5 stars.
Quotes (from ARC):
“I’d been alone for so long it hadn’t crossed my mind that I didn’t have to be.” (Harvard/Eric)
«"We’re family. Family sticks. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly”» (Gabe Bristow)

An enjoyable and action-packed read, “Fragmented Loyalty”, by Tonya Burrows (Entangled: Embrace), features two young, lonely and talented geeks who adore each other and have serious, heavy baggage despite their youth.
Eerily evocative of real, current events, the first book on this new series displays and explores the kind of strong, deep relationships and bonds Tonya Burrows writes so well, while the characters navigate the world of hackers and hacking and the fragmented ethics of it.
Harvard/Eric and Sami are lovable and relatable characters; in each we see the unloved child they were. Harvard, the competent and intelligent agent we’ve known from Hornet, is still the boy with no parental references, always trying to emulate the leaders he so much admires (and loves).
Affections, love, friendship play a major role in this world, with Hornet veterans lending their expertise, knowledge and much appreciated tolerance to Class Alpha recruits.
I loved how Tonya Burrows captured the youth, insecurities and need of love/guidance of both main characters.
Appropriate for readers who love a non-Alpha hero and gender equality in romance and who can surpass a somewhat convoluted suspense plotline, where the main characters sometimes might be more a burden than an asset.
Looking forward to the next Class Alpha book, to meet again these wonderful people!

ARC received for review

3.5 stars

This is a spin-off from the HORNET series. It starts with Harvard, their tech guru. It was a very slow start. I looked down and thought I might be half-way or more, but was only at 33%. It did pick up shortly after that. I loved Harvard/Eric and Sami/Gigi interactions, nerdiness, and romance. I really loved seeing the previous Hornet boys, and can't wait to see the rest of Class Alpha fall.

Loved this book! This is a spin off from the HORNET series, focusing on training the next generation for HORNET. Sami is a young woman who was arrested as a teen for hacking and sent to juvie for three years. When she was released, her family disowned her. This left her few options, so when HORNET came calling, she said yes before she even knew what it was.

Once there, she met Harvard - techie extraordinaire and member of the HORNET team. While he is respected for his skills, he has a seedy past that know one knows about....and his past intersects with Sami's in a way that neither has any idea of. When they fall in love without either knowing the truth about the other, things get really complicated.

I loved the training aspect, and, along with all the back stories, it made this an interesting book. I loved the characters and how they interacted - even Sami, who at times seemed TSTL - quite an accomplishment for such a brilliant mind.

When they're forced to pull together to fight a common enemy, the story moves so quickly that the pages almost turn themselves. I couldn't put it down and was totally engrossed in the story. I'm already looking forward to the next book. The author is on my must read authors' list.

It’s a little jarring to have a HORNET spin-off written in the New Adult 1st person POV—haven’t we all gotten used to Harvard and the rest of the team taking on missions from the contemporary romantic suspense perspective?—even though it does signal a split from Burrow’s main series. ‘Fragmented Loyalty’ is Eric Physick aka Harvard’s story and is a reminder of how far the HORNET guys have come…and how far the gap there is that still exists between him and the older, more experienced operators.

Given that, Burrow’s shift into NA does seem appropriate in some ways, with Harvard and Sami at the forefront of the chaos that follows them—stuck as they are because of so many things that they can’t individually let go of despite their growing attraction to each other. That they each have a criminal past isn’t a surprise or out of place amongst the rogues in HORNET though reading about a lack of maturity in the case of Sami’s in some instances could be grating. Their histories are linked in a series of coincidental and tragic circumstances however, and it does make for entertaining reading.

Burrows layers onto Harvard’s past, filling him out, spinning a complex web of deceit, black ‘hatting’ and social disenfranchisement that lends Harvard a more sympathetic sheen, but also a more petulant tone as this NA perspective somehow distances this story from the rest of the HORNET books that have a more ‘adult’ feel to them. Sami on the other hand, was frustratingly TSTL, hanging onto a deception that drove the plot despite her best (and inexplicably foolish) intentions. It’s not quite a morality tale of child prodigies gone wrong but rather, what happens when raw talent without parental guidance runs unchecked and the consequences that they reap as they grow up.

‘Fragmented Loyalty’ is definitely pacey and absorbing in parts, even if it concludes with a more unbelievable slap on the wrist kind of punishment for a HEA. I’m not entirely sold on this pairing—Harvard and Sami did seem a bit too unstable individually given their mental states—, particularly with Sami’s (near-unforgivable) idiocy but then, this is probably just me and my preferences speaking.

You know the saying, "too smart for their own good?" This applies to Sami and Harvard. The scary thing is, is that I can see this happening. Yikes!