3.5 stars for this action packed romantic suspense novel. Leo is a pilot who is in Alaska searching for a virus held by a hiding scientist. She is sent by a town elder to get the man she seeks before the bad guys find him first. Turns out who she seeks is not who anyone thought. Elias is a wanted man believed dead, but now he and Leo brave the Alaska wilderness to race on foot back to town and save the residents.

Well written and definitely suspenseful, this book is an action packed ride start to finish. I was able to read the book and follow the story, but this is book 2 of this series and it felt like it. I think I would have understood the characters more had I read book one and the ending of this book wraps up this story to a point, but leads to the next.

I received a copy of this book to read and review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a pretty wild and crazy book! It’s interesting to read about people in these survival situations as I would never survive any of them. The story was good and the romance was there it was very fast paced no time for a break or to breathe before the next thing happened. I didn’t read the first book in the series I should have I’ll have to go back now but this was definitely good.

Wow! This was such a fast-paced, exciting story!! I really enjoyed the secluded location and the survivalist story! I enjoyed the romance as well as the overall story.

BOOK REVIEW: Uncharted by Adriana Anders (Survival Instincts Series | Book 2)

Book 2 of this series (Survival Instincts) continues to deliver a "mixed drink" concoction of genres that will satisfy any reader looking for good "Long Island Iced Tea" version of an exciting read... Spicy Romance | T.I.M.E. Jalapeno Rating: 🌶🌶 (Medium Spicy)... ✨😎✨

T.I.M.E. Most Anticipated Books of 2021

Genre: Suspense | Action Adventure
Sub-Genre: Forced Proximity | Survival Romance | Steamy Romance
Time Period: Contemporary
Location: Alaska

Series: Survival Instincts - Book 2

IF YOU LIKE THIS AUTHOR THEN TRY…
Whiteout by Adriana Anders (Survival Instincts - Book 1)

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All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Books, Lifestyle & Home Ideas for Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com

♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I'm addicted to Adriana Anders' survivalist romance. Uncharted was a fast pace, head over heels adventure. I didn't want to put the book down for one second. I can't wait for the next. I loved the characters. Leo is an agent within a private organization she helped create. Leo has a journey into the Alaskan woods thrust upon her and she gets much more than she expected. Elias is a man with a past hiding in the woods with his dog.

There is an over arching plot in this series but it can be read alone! There are places where the story lags a little and some light moral/ethical complications. It will have you believing in love at first by the end!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #Uncharted #AdrianaAnders #NetGalley

I was super excited about this book after reading the first in the series and all in all I was not disappointed. The suspense is absolute perfection and I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. It picks up the pace and feel of the first book so well and the characters were great. Elias is the epitome of mountain man and Leo is a total badass. The romance between them is unexpectedly sweet, considering the very difficult circumstances and I was rooting for them all the way.
The problem I had with this book only occurred to me after reading a couple other reviews. Leo is unbelievably capable and I was really looking forward to seeing the full extent of her capabilities and that just didn't happen. In the whole book she flies once and after that her only real strength is her resilience. I understood that with Angel in the first book, because she wasn't trained, but I wanted to see Leo shine. In a more abstract way, it was also completely unnecessary for her to come find Elias. He would have found his way back more easily without her and he probably would have joined up with Leo's crew either way. There is also a scene where it is implied that Leo was sexually assaulted and then it is never mentioned again. I don't see the point, there was no reason to bring it up, just to leave it completely unexplained. Of course there is never any rhyme or reason for sexual assault, but these are not real life stories and it would be nice to not have every female character just get strong after having something traumatic happen to them.
For the next book I'm hoping that the female lead will have a much more integral role. Right now I'm seeing a bit of a trend of the heroine getting super banged up and just being admired for her resilience. I don't think that is the only admirable strength the women in this series have...

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Uncharted is survival in the Alaskan wilderness plus hunted by mercenaries plus chemistry equals danger banging.

This book is a lot of fun, if you like adventure and danger. Leo and Elias have some great chemistry, and there's an elder (who I want to be when I grow up) in the small Alaskan settlement who gets a secondary storyline that I really enjoy. Plus a complex adversary who is interesting in his own right.

The book is definitely heavier on the survival/suspense aspect than the romance, but it's an altogether satisfying read.

I'm not much for romantic suspense, but I'll make an exception for Adriana Anders.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When you pick up Uncharted you need to sit down, buckle up and settle in because once the action starts it keeps going. There's barely enough time to take in an entire breath when the next thing happens and so on.

Uncharted continues the fight or flight tension of the first book. Once again people are after the deadly virus that was first discovered in Antarctica and there are many actors in this game. So many one's not sure who's on which side. Leo doesn't begin this adventure in the best way. The little Alaskan town she and her team have been hiding out in while searching for an elusive scientist is suddenly taken hostage by an armed group working for a nefarious organization. Not good when she's trying to get over a stomach bug. She manages to get out aided by a local who insists that she help her find her nephew and save him from the danger that's coming. Leo, who's a skilled pilot is still shot down and Elias, the guy she was sent by the local to look for, comes to her rescue. It's touch and go for a bit because she's badly injured, in and out of consciousness and that only slows down their escape. In her lucid moments she tries to figure out if Elias can be trusted and/or of he's the guy she and her team have been looking for. When the hunters get close, the chase is pretty much nonstop from there. And it only gets more harrowing in the rough Alaskan wilderness.

This was a blast to read! I needed a change of pace and this was definitely it. It's suspenseful and thrilling, and when Leo and Elias decide they can trust each other, it only becomes more intense. A lot of their attraction and chemistry comes from the situation they find themselves in, but they also make sense. They compliment each other beautifully in terms of attitude and grit. Elias has been hiding out in the wilderness for so long that he needs for someone to be able to handle that, too. Leo has just as much grit as he does. The big surprise for me was how much I ended up liking a certain hunter - Ash. His role in everything is not exactly clear but boy, oh boy, does he have the stealthy bad boy vibe down. Combined with an English accent and he is freaking sexy to me. I must know more about this mysterious operative.

Uncharted is ceaseless high-octane fun with tender and steamy interludes thrown in. There's also a a dog (Bo), and who doesn't love a human's best friend that's in on the adventure and looking out for them? I had an awesome time reading this and I'm excited for more to come!

~ Bel

Uncharted is the second long volume in the Survival instincts series by Adriana Anders, a series that also contains a novella. I haven’t read the two cited books (when I have the first in my TBR file) and I haven’t read this author yet (though I’ve bought two other of her books). Let’s say that her synopses attract me enough to make me buy them but I lack time to read all… I’m not giving up 

To return to the book, I loved it. To sum up: pure refreshment, sure evasion, adventure, and an awesome heroine! A must read!

Uncharted features Leo (Leontyne), a pilot, and Elias, a lonesome and tormented hero. Both heroes meet in dangerous circumstances when she comes and rescue him from a mercenary group that not only chases them but also takes an entire town in hostage and eliminates some in the process.

Uncharted is a pure book of adventure and survival which action takes place in Alaska. It’s full of actions till the end to the point that I found myself holding my breath very often as I was afraid for the heroes.

I loved the heroes. Leo is a very badass heroine as I’ve rarely met in books. She knows how to assert herself to the hero, she has a vulnerable side that made me sad for her a lot, and she’s determined to make Elias understand he’s not alone anymore.
However, I found too bad she’s been sick when she has to go rescuing Elias and that she adds up the accidents, especially head traumas. I don’t work in medical field but it seems a little too much for one person.

Elias is a hero as I like them: gruff, strong, kind. He doesn’t trust the heroine at the beginning but he helps her all the same because in spite of what happened to him, he’s still kind-hearted. In any case, while reading his story, the reader’s heart can only bleed for him.

I liked the relationship between the characters, the trust that comes little by little, the unreserved support, the love that unites them. Several scenes touched me, especially near the end when they are saved.
Some readers could think the love story is too fast, but personally, for two years now I’ve been all in what is called insta-love, that is love at first sight that lasts (the authors who specialize in this theme always give several epilogues over several years). In Uncharted, it’s exactly what we have and I love it.
There are not many love scenes in the book, which is in my opinion normal seeing the context. The first scene arrives late in the book, but I found it a bit long and not very sensual. We still feel the attraction between them and I love the heroine’s reaction when she wakes up after her rest at the end. LOL

As for the secondary characters, I loved Amka, Elias’s godmother, and Ash, an enigmatic character for whom we don’t really know whose side he is in exactly.
The scenery descriptions and the technical wording are very well used. Adriana Anders made an excellent job of research. Everything is flowing in spite of the « too much » side for Leo and her physical health.

Uncharted is a very good adventure and survival book that I recommend. The fact of not having read Whiteout, the first volume, isn’t a problem in spite of the red herring about the virus that link them. In any case, as soon as I’m able, I’ll read it and the novella, Deep blue. When closing the book, we have an indication about the two next heroes and I can’t wait.

I absolutely loved book one, so I was excited for another survival story that turned into a romance. This one takes place in Alaska and Leo is an agent trying to find the person living in the woods with a dangerous virus. Instead, she finds Elias, who happens to have dangerous people after him because of this virus. The two go on the run and, I will say, almost all of this book is just them walking and trying not to die. While this happened a lot in the first book, I was hooked on the romance in book one but felt really detached from the romance in book two. There wasn't that much variety in the suspense they were dealing with and it took a long time for the romance to develop, so it was hard to believe how hard and fast they fell for each other by the end. I really wanted to love this one, but it dragged more than anything for me.

Happy Tuesday y’all! Tuesdays are always hard days in my house because the landscapers come our house plus 2-3 of the houses around us and while my dog doesn’t mind personal lawnmowers, as soon as you get an industrial strength lawnmower out there, he thinks something is attacking his house, so he starts going nuts. I’ve tried training him, but he doesn’t even want food, and he’s a very food motivated dog, so today, we decided to go on a 2.2 mile loop of the neighborhood when the lawnmowers were here (since my meeting schedule was super light) and now he’s passed out, so I think it was a great decision!

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of Uncharted. This book came out on August 31st (oof, finally starting to catch up on eARC reviews over here!), so definitely go grab it as soon as you read my review!

Uncharted 4/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:

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…

This was interesting book… it’s got a great plot. It’s super interesting premise wise- lots of stuff happens, Elias and Leo have gotta save the world because an evil corporation is after a deadly virus and Elias is the only one who knows where it is. Great stuff! But man, there was little to no chemistry between Elias and Leo so I had the hardest time caring about them being together. I thought there was more chemistry between each of them and the dog (side note, I love the name Borealis, or Bo for short, for a white husky/malamute mix is Alaska). That made me want to skip through their sex scenes and the forced sexual tension. I really liked how the town worked together- Old Amka was by far my favorite character. And Leo’s team was great, so I definitely want to read more books in the series (this one is book two and in the middle of reading it, I realized that I own an ebook version of book one that I haven’t read yet, so I should probably get on that). You’re probably wondering, Avni, how can you give a book 4 stars if it sounds like you didn’t really like it? I did really enjoy myself while I was reading it! Don’t get me wrong- I was super engaged throughout most of the book, and since I’m a big plot reader, the characters not having enough chemistry for me wasn’t a big deal. Now, when you read this book (and let’s be real, I highly suggest reading it, because there’s so much great action) you might think they have great chemistry, and isn’t that the best part about books? They’re so open to interpretation! Also, side note, trigger warning for talk about mass murder, suicide of a parent, murder of a parent.

I was super into Whiteout, and really looking forward to the next installment in this series. I love a romantic suspense that's not just "someone wants to murder the girl," and the overarching plot line is decidedly not that.

Uncharted, unfortunately, just didn't work for me as well as Whiteout. Like a lot of other reviewers, I felt like their relationship was second to their survival -- it was a lot of falling into cold bodies of water and then waiting to warm up. And unlike Whiteout, it didn't seem all that impossible that they'd survive? I mean, I am on the record as never wanting to sleep somewhere lower on the amenities rating than a Motel 6, so take this with a grain of salt, but all they had to do was keep moving, as opposed to Whiteout where they're literally in ANTARCTICA.

My secondary issue is that Elias, our hero, has been set up to take the fall for what is described as "the largest massacre in America since 9/11." It's probably more a timing flaw than a book flaw, but reading this on the heels of the US pulling out of Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I could have done without that.

Anyways, this wasn't it for me. BUT, I really like Adriana's work overall and I am very invested in this series, so I will of course be picking up the second one.

This book picks up pretty much where Whiteout ends and we are following Leo who is staying up in Alaska with her team as they are trying to find a man who they think can help them with their mission. Leo ends up helping Elias who was once one of America's top criminals and together the two must survive in the wilds of Alaska while also being hunted. I really like these romantic suspense books as all the intense situations help with the insta attraction that always comes. I will also say that this one was more believable then the first which took place in Antartica. I also just love books set in Alaska, the land is always a character as well and I love that. We also get a glimpse of the couple from the first book and I always enjoy seeming past couples in books. Overall this is a fun romantic suspense book, if you also like Alaska then I would recommend picking this one up. Thank you Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review.

This was another amazing book in the Survival Instincts series by Adriana Anders!!! This book will keep you turning the pages!!! Intense and steamy!!! I look forward to her next book!!! Read and enjoy!!!

Heat Factor: → The best way to get warm in the woods is to climb into a sleeping bag naked with another naked person already inside it.
Character Chemistry: I’m kind of stuck on: they’re on a chemical high from running for their lives for days on end. But sure, forever love, absolutely.
Plot: Baddies are still after the mysterious virus. This time Leo, pilot, and Elias, mysterious recluse, are running for their lives (and to save the world?)
Overall: The show-stealer is Amka, the Alaskan wilderness octogenarian lesbian badass.

I have been more interested in romantic suspense lately than I normally am. The construction of romantic suspense is so full of tension that I feel it can hold my attention better than normal people having angsty normal people problems. That said, I am also struggling to read books longer than 250 pages. They just seem insurmountably long. So here I am, reading Uncharted, the sequel to Whiteout, which I’ve been wanting to read for a while and which Holly did read this summer thanks to a recommendation from our blog buddy Miss Bates. The whole idea of this series is intriguing to me. But it took me two weeks to finish the last 30% of this book, so…

The story starts off strong. Leo didn’t leave this small Alaskan town with her team because she was sick, so when the baddies arrive, Amka-the-show-stealer sends Leo off in her ancient Piper Cub plane with misleading instructions that the man Leo has been looking for is in the wilderness. Leo is not far enough ahead of the Baddies in the state-of-the-art new helicopter and is shot down(ish) / crashes not far from the mysterious Elias’s cabin.

And then they run a lot. At first it’s exciting, especially with both Elias and Leo thinking that the other is going to attempt to kill them, plus the actual baddies actually trying to kill them, so Semper Paratus and all that.

Then I don’t know what happens. The pacing did not hold my attention. There were loads and loads of dire, life-threatening obstacles to overcome. Each life-threatening obstacle is described in vivid detail, so the reader can feel the drama of, for example, being sucked under the frigid lake water with broken ice sloshing at the surface like a deadly ice cube whack-a-mole. And there’s a POV tracker baddie (who is smarter than all the other baddies, obvi) on a mission of his own and right on their tail! He’s so clever! He will catch them!!! THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

Except that I don’t feel like anything is happening because (checks notes) Leo and Elias are still trekking through the wilderness. Alone. Together. Just...trekking through the wilderness. Getting progressively hornier as they get filthier, more injured, and more exhausted. They have a lot of feelings, which is useful, I guess, if we’re supposed to believe that they’re falling in love.

I do have to give Anders props for making sex on the hard ground in the freezing cold seem like something that might be fun to do.

I just don’t know where I land on this book. What did the protagonists achieve? Do I buy Leo and Elias’s romance? By the end of the book, they are sooooo in love with each other that I started to buy in, but at the same time the overall story construction trying to achieve the combination of suspenseful tension, moving the plot forward, and developing the romance just didn’t quite get me there. Would I have preferred this suspense book simply to be suspense without the romance? What would that achieve? I just don’t know. And yet I am still curious to know what happens next.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

❤️❤️❤️❤️ out of 5
This book was one hell of a ride that kept you on the edge of your seat (and also had me feeling cold for the couple). A deadly virus, running for their lives and the Alaskan wilderness all made for a great read.

Our heroine is on a mission to find her target in the Alaskan wilderness, a target who has stolen a deadly virus that her and her team are trying to stop from getting in the wrong peoples hands. On her rescue mission she doesn’t find her target but instead a man she is extremely attracted to and has to trust to help her get out of the situation alive. However, he might know a little something about her target and the virus and he needs to know whether he can trust her with the information.

Considering for the whole book they are on the run in the Alaskan wilderness in winter I thought I would get bored with that setting but I didn’t at all. I also thought there couldn’t be much plot development either but once again was pleasantly surprised. Both hero and heroine had their own development arcs as well as a great romance.

Uncharted was a great follow-up to Whiteout. It had the same pulse-pounding action and the same forced-together romance trope which I loved in book 1. I wish I'd read this right after Whiteout because I was a little lost as to who, but figured it out around 30%. This is completely personal, and I don't remember if this was the case in Whiteout, but I prefer to stay in the hero/heroine's head instead of jumping around the cast of characters.
Still a fun book for adrenaline romance junkies!

Leo Eddowes and her teammates are looking for more of a deadly virus. Leo’s illness keeps her in the small town they’re using for a base. When a long time resident comes to her for help getting her godson away from coming danger, she’ll have the adventure and danger of a lifetime with a stranger. Elias Thorne is supposed to be dead. He’s a former U.S. Marshal who life was turned upside down by a corporation intent of ruining the world with a deadly virus. Elias is looking to get away a from the isolation of being a mountain man. When a crashed airplane and its pilot come into his life everything gets turned upside down again. This mountain man and lady pilot just may find an Uncharted way to love and danger.

Adrianna Anders second book in her Survival Instincts series is Uncharted. A thrilling adventure in the wilderness of Alaska. A fight for survival along with growing feels bring two characters together in a unique way. These characters are on the verge of death from their pursuers and the elements and a race for time on just which will get them first. As these two fights for survival and their lives their feelings grow but the dire situation just maybe the cause of these unwanted feelings. Uncharted sends the reader a thrill ride of emotion tension and suspense. You’re kept wondering if they’ll come out of their predicament alive or whether the bad guys will get to them first. If you’re looking for a by the seat of your pants read that will keep you wondering if they will survive this ride of a lifetime and survive the outcome. Adrianna Anders newest book in her Survival Instincts series Uncharted will keep the reader wondering and on the edge of your seat with all the thrills and suspense of this wonderful read. If your not a fan of Adrianna Anders pick up this book and you’ll become one.

Second volume in the Survival Instincts series, Uncharted begins just before the epilogue of Whiteout, the first volume. Just like it, it talks about a rescue mission in a hostile environment, but where Whiteout took us to the frozen wilderness of Antarctica, Uncharted takes us to the snowy mountains of Alaska. We follow Leo, the pilot who saved the heroes near the end of the first volume with an exceptional take-off, when she’s sent to rescue Elias from the attentions of an armed group. They’ll try to save each other between landing on a lake in thawing, diving in icy cold waters, and a snowstorm.
Please note that if you haven’t read the first volume, you will not have real troubles understanding the story, even if there’s a red herring concerning a mortal virus that a pharmaceutical company of questionable morals and motivations wants to recover.

I liked the heroine, she’s strong, badass, with a well-hidden soft heart. However I thought too bad the author felt the need to make her suffer from stomach flu before she starts her mission, when she subjects her later to several heavy traumas that would have really been enough. The accumulation leans toward exaggeration.

I liked the hero, he’s lived something awful because of the pharmaceutical company who didn’t hesitate in framing him as the number-one enemy of America, even killing his parents in the process. He isolated himself from the world years ago, and if he’s distrustful of Leo at first, we quickly understand he’s not totally closed off emotionally. He even shows a caring side when he takes care of the heroine’s diverse wounds.

Both are immediately attracted to each other, but not only Leo gets a head trauma as soon as they meet, they also flee their pursuers while facing a snowstorm, the thawing of a frozen lake, a mudslide, in brief nothing romantic. Their first sex scene had me rolling my eyes as their situation was anything but favorable for hanky-panky. As for the speed of the apparition of the feelings, I don’t know if it’s more about love at first sight or about adrenaline, and I always find this kind of plot difficult to believe as it makes me doubt the lasting of those feelings.

We follow in parallel the situation of the little town’s residents, held hostages by the rest of the armed group after Elias, especially his godmother, an old woman who favors Rambo more than an aged aunty knitting by the fire. In spite of a dark theme, these moments bring a little levity to the novel. In addition, from time to time we have a glimpse of the thoughts of one of the bad guys, one we have trouble really understanding whose side he’s on as his actions and/or thoughts are strange and don’t fit a bad boy nor a good guy.

You’ll have understood, there is lots of action in this story, with the main characters as with the secondary ones. The descriptions of the landscape and the life style in this part of Alaska are interesting, well written and disorientating.

Overall I appreciated this novel even if I liked the suspense side more than the romance side. The general plot progresses a little, and I think I’ll go on reading this series to see where it goes.

Man, Uncharted by Adriana Anders is a rollercoaster ride through the frozen Alaska countryside. Sitting in the 90+ degree heat I could almost swear I felt frostbite setting in. On par with Whiteout, this book had an equal amount of conflict, suspense and harsh weather for our hero and heroine to contend with. That and all the great characters made for a real page turner.

I love Leo. She's tough, easily competes in a man's world yet is a desirable woman. I love the story of the roots of her love for flying. She's so dang tough. She's keeping up with Elias even suffering from food poisoning and a concussion. Elias is tough too. He's survived the wilds out of necessity after being framed by Chronos. He's a man of impeccable morals in a crappy existence with no foreseeable way out, Given their situation, love is not on either of their minds but the more time they spend together they can't help but form an incredible bond. They're smart enough to question their feelings but when it comes down to it their affections are very real.

Throw in a creepy pursuer with unclear origins and motivation and a shocking revelation about the deadly virus that has been the source of all this chaos and Anders has given us another superb page turner.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the ARC.