The Tide of War by Lori A. Witt

Dystopian sci-fi plot at its finest! 

4,5 holy-shit-I-didn't-expect-to-like-this-book-so-much stars for this wonderful piece of work

Okay, first of all I love the references the book kind of starts with combined with what we know from the synopsis. A quote from Hitler at the beginning (and one from Eisenhower. The monsters they're fighting against have pupils shaped like an S. Our protagonists are American and Russian. Well done Lori A. Witt you had my full attention from that moment onward.

I got this ebook for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

We have two main protagonists in the Defending Epsilon series, Kyle West an American fighter pilot living in London with his family and Andrei Dezhnyov (phew, so glad I learned a bit russian in school so reading his  last name isn't difficult) an Elite Squadron Gunner stationed on Epsilon, an outpost close to the enemies home planet where only the best of the Fleet go but never return from.

Kyle and his gunner Emily are time and time again invited to join the Elite Squadron but Kyle doesn't want to leave his family behind to go somewhere he very likely will never see them again. This changes when an attack takes everything from him. Soon after the fighter pilot and his gunner are on their way to Epsilon light years away from their planet. 

The pair is chosen for Commander Andrei's Squadron. Kyle and Andrei grow gradually closer, though Kyle feels guilty for being attracted to another man so soon after his lovers death.

Life seems to be going on as normal. Their superior is an idiot. Beer is good after a mission and sex is even better. Too many people die and there aren't enough Elite Squad fighter pilots or gunners to replace them. The usual.
That is until they discover something that makes them doubt everything they considered as true and right up to this very point.

Phew, I'm so glad I got this ebook from Negalley 'cause normally I'm not so much into science-fiction novels and the synopsis didn't make me think I want to read it all that much. It was a bit misleading and made me think that this would be just another book among many. Not bad but not good either. Nothing to remember after being through with it. Boy was my assumption wrong.

So, I won't spoiler anything, but I advice you still not skip the next paragraph if you haven't read the book 'cause it might give something away for when you read the book and have the same train of thought I had.

There were many subtle and not so subtle hints to give you a bad feeling about where this was going which I really liked because still I was like 'nope, this ain't gonna go in the direction I thought of for a moment there that would just be horrible'.

When I reached the end of the book I could only think 'I demand more pages!' and I'm really glad that this appears to be a series. You could end the book at that point. It would leave a few questions more open then I like and cripple the probable potential the plot piled up but it would fit the characters. Neither their relationships nor their character are normal, so an unconventional ending would suit them just fine but I won't complain about a sequel. Or maybe I should rather say I'm impatiently waiting for it.

Another thing I'm hoping to get in the next book besides some answers are more scenes between Kyle and Andrei. They have good chemistry between them but there weren't enough scenes in this book. Or at least not enough to make their not-really-romantic-relationship-but-rather-friendship-with-benefits palpable enough for me to be on a par with the rest of the story. This doesn't mean that I find the characterisation lacking though! The fact that the they are though but can still crack and break apart is something I really appreciate. Everyone has a breaking point even if it's someone from an Elite Squadron.

Before I'll start ranting about this book any more than I already did I'll just tell you to go and read it if you like dystopian books, cruel but good plots, well done characters, sci-fi (even if you don't this isn't heavy sci-fi), strong women or the fact that you won't even notice that it has 370 pages.