State of Alliance (Collapse Series Book 5)

This series continues to be an action packed, 100% clean Young Adult/NA post-apocalyptic series that I very much enjoy! There's never much down time and the rare moments of perceived safety and contentment are short lived.If you're new to this series, go check out my review for book one, State of Emergency. It's very hard to review book 5 in a series without giving away vital information from the previous 4 books to readers who haven't yet checked out the series. You may not want to read ahead, not because there'll be spoilers necessarily, but because of the nature of the progression of this series, more than likely something will be spoiled for you.This series is about how an electromagnetic pulse destroyed modern society world wide. The US and its government collapsed. Those who survived soon find out a foreign force calling themselves Omega has begun to infiltrate the US to take over and capture everyone, filing them into camps to do the work which will support the Omega troops. Then there are those fighting against Omega, forming militias and gaining momentum in their cause. Now the characters are faced with negotiations to become part of the Pacific Northwest Alliance.The main characters: 20 year old Cassidy Hart is now a militia member, a sniper, a Commander, and a Senator representing the new government of California. 29 year old Chris Young, is a militia member, a former Navy SEAL, a Commander, and the love interest of Cassidy.To catch you up to speed for where our characters find themselves at the start of book 5, the capitol has just been hit by a bomb or a missile, and everyone is scrambling to quickly set up a recovery area and teams to start finding survivors.I normally cringe when later books in a series spend pages and pages on recapping everything that's happened up to that point but this was a rare exception to my feelings on that. There is so much leading up to book 5 in this series that it is important the reader doesn't lose sight of what has occurred and whose to blame. I valued the brief recap that is listed in Chapter 1. It didn't go on and on. It was to the point and was as if Cassidy was writing a journal entry telling her story of hardship and how she's come to be in the roles she finds herself.Cassidy is a very strong heroine. That's not to say she doesn't depend on and lean on others for support and encouragement. But her circle of trusted friends is incredibly small, especially as she soon realizes that nowhere is safe from Omega and its followers and sympathizers.I have a few irritations, if you want to call them that. One is that we didn't get farther in the story. I would like to see these books be much longer to therefore make more progress in the overall story and plots. I always feel like just when it's really getting good it ends. My second irritation is that, even though this whole series has been 100% clean of language and mature content, that the romance part of the story between Cassidy and Chris would be more developed. I realize it's a very small part of the overall story but as a romance fan first and foremost, I would enjoy their relationship to be a bit more intense. Sure, war is all around them, but what keeps humanity going are the connections you share with other people.Nevertheless, I still very much enjoyed yet another Collapse book and look forward to what's to come for our favorite Freedom Fighters! There's no word yet on book 6's release date as of the writing of this post, but at the end of book 5 the author lets the reader know it's "to be continued in book 6".Favorite Quotes:I am a fighter, now. Nothing stands in my way. I am capable. I am fast. I am smart."Dwelling on what was isn't a wise thing to do, my girl. It'll distract from what's important now.""Sometimes you have to say something, or the moment will be over, and it will be too late."Hope for the best, get ready for the crappy.Love is not made. Love just happens."We're not helpless," I say. "We're fighters. And we'll keep fighting, because that's what we do best."Language Rating: 0 (none)Mature Content Rating: 0 (none)Final Rating: 4 stars

Pretty good as post apocalyptic books go. I am glad to see the main character finally go from a whiny twit to someone who is actually tough. Although the main female character does still do stupid things on occasion. Like most of the books of this genre, the series is pretty PG rated. The "bad" guys go around killing men, women and children and occasionally keep them as slaves but that is it. It seems to me, in a real situation of this type, they would kill the men, but the women would be a commodity that would be kept around, if nothing more than for the moral of the men. In almost all the wars through out history, the conquering army has come through and left a lot of pregnant widows and unmarried women behind. Also their torture techniques leave something to be desired. There were a lot of things they could have done to the main female character that they did not do. Otherwise it is pretty good.

Although I wouldn't call it perfect, I really enjoyed reading State of Alliance. I guess I see the world with a more cynical view than the author but it's hard for me to believe that, in the midst of all the chaos and death, the only thing even hinting at a sexual aspect to the story is an occasional innocent hug or kiss. But again, I enjoyed the book.

This book ended with a small twist, that I did not see coming. This series is written so well. The author builds characters, but does it in a way which allows her to keep the story going. She never strays from the characters in the book. I also enjoy how her other series is coming through this one. I was so excited that she wrote a book six and seven. I cannot wait to see where this story goes.

Summer Lane did it again! State of Alliance ( book 5 ) is even more than I expected. This series just keeps getting better and better, not that I expected any less. Cassidy and Chris are by far an amazing duo. Friends, lovers, soldiers, and most importantly , leaders. I can not find words to describe how awesome this book is. If you enjoy action, dystopian, romance, sadness, happiness, betrayal, this is it!!! Love , love , this !!! Thank you Summer Lane

Loved this book, great series. I really like the fact it doesn't end on a cliffhanger in each book. Some of the things the heroine does are a little unrealistic but who am I to say it couldn't happen. All in all, great series, good writing, story gets going and doesn't stop. Can't wait to finish all the books!

I love summer lane and all of her collapse series books. I love her series about Elle Costas and I can't wait to read the Bravo series!! I love the militia aspect instead of just the survival of an apocalypse aspect. 5 stars for all of her books!!

Quick, easy read that keeps you entertained. The character develop is good and keeps you coming back for more with each book in the series.

The 5th episode in the Collapse Saga was a slightly different book to the others in the series. For starters, it was a bit slower than the first books in the series. But although there was a little less action (and not by much I might add), it made up for this in Character development. This was the book in which Cassidy finally seemed to evolve from teenage girl into Commander – or more importantly Senator – Hart. Whilst in earlier evolutions of the Collapse series she has taken Command of Militia and seemed to be growing, she has never seemed overly comfortable in the role, nor completely in control. However, in this story, she finally seems to have grown into the role that has been thrust upon her.Summer Lane spends some time in this story evolving Cassidy, delving deeper into her, and giving us a much greater understanding of how much Cassidy has grown since the Omega invasion started.We also get to learn a bit more about Chris, the Omega invasion, and several other ancillary characters.Alliances sees the bigger picture unfolding as well, as Summer Lane takes on the Strategic Role and starts to give us a real oversight of what has been happening throughout the world, and we get to see a bit of who is coming to join in on our side, and who isn't. There are also reunions of a sort as a young girl and her faithful hound join the series to lend a helpful hand – something that I was thrilled at!Overall this was a fantastic addition to the series as it was a great character development story, but with all the usual epic invasion story that Summer does so well. If you are loving this series, then this is a must!

Typically brilliant.

Read it, loved it...waiting for the next one!