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Review: Afloat (Staying Afloat #3) by Isabelle Adler

No place is safe anymore.

Matt and his crew know it all too well—and it’s especially true now as the war with the Alraki has reached the heart of Federation space and struck close to home. Suddenly, Matt is faced with a difficult choice. He has the opportunity to sway the tide of the war and rectify a past wrong by helping the Fleet obtain a groundbreaking Alraki technology. But to do so, he must risk his ship and the lives of his crewmates.

With Matt’s archenemy, the infamous Captain Rodgers, still on the loose and bent on revenge, the Alraki aren’t the only ones who pose a deadly threat to Matt and the people most dear to his heart. With danger and betrayal haunting their steps, Matt and Ryce must find a way to save their friends even as sinister secrets from the past threaten to tear them apart.

This time, the price of staying afloat might be higher than what Matt is willing to pay.


A seriously satisfying space adventure!

What I’ve come to realize about this trilogy is that this is all about Matt and his journey. He’s a guy who grew up in a military family, who couldn’t handle or didn’t want to handle authority, who became disillusioned and wanted no part in being simply a tool. Thus, Matt left the Federation and his family and hasn’t really looked back. He’d say he’s a loner, one who doesn’t care about anything but making the next dollar, but that would be a lie. As much as he may protest, Matt has an extremely strong moral campus when push comes to shove, not to mention loyalty to his crew of three, which happens to include his lover Ryce, a genetically modified superhuman whose skills often come in oh so handy. Matt’s living life by his own rules, despite many disgruntled adversaries who make it difficult for him to make an honest living, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

One day, Matt gets a call from his sister’s first officer. She’s a major in the Federation and has been gravely injured in an alien Alraki skirmish, so much so that he might want to come and possibly say his goodbyes just in case.... and thus, this brings Matt full circle, returning him to the fold and up close and personal with his estranged admiral of a father. Somehow, Matt finds himself recruited for a suicide mission as lives, mainly humanity in its entirety, hangs in the balance when it’s discovered that the Alraki enemy has powerful technology that could turn the war in their favor. Reluctantly, Matt and his crew join a special ops team to steal a prototype to help even the odds, and that’s when things get hairy.

In and amongst this covert operation, it becomes known that despite his often fatalist attitude and his own self hatred of past mistakes, Matt’s brand of resilience serves him very very well in times of extreme life threatening situations. This makes for very intense storytelling that has been consistently seen throughout all 3 books. Ensue fingernail biting action as they fight aliens, encounter government cover ups, suffer betrayals on the highest order, and undergo death defying stunts, all in and amongst some swoony romance. Toss in the return of a most vile enemy who just won’t fucking die, and Matt and Ryce must trust in each other (as well as the rest of their team) to pull out all the stops to possibly maybe have a chance at surviving.

So, in the spirit of any good space saga a’la Star Trek and/or Star Wars, the stakes are sky high, the probability of failure is basically a forgone conclusion but remember, smarts, pure grit, and lots of luck go a long way.

Obviously, I quite enjoyed myself, and Adler delivers a gratifying conclusion to this story arc. I urge you to start with Adrift, in the hopes that she might get a second wind and tell more stories of Matt and his scrappy crew. I suspect there’s plenty of trouble they can get themselves into without even looking. One can only hope.




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