Enemy Within by Tal Bauer (#3): A ending that will leave you emotionally exhausted

Enemy Within by Tal Bauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I started reading Enemy Within I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to finish it without having a breakdown and when I finished it I was emotionally exhausted.





I was thinking, how am I supposed to write a review about this? My mind has been completely blown by this book so I’m pretty sure I don’t have any coherent thought for this.

This obviously isn’t a standalone because it continues where Enemy of My Enemy left off. Ethan and Jack are trying to stop the evil plans of the former General Madigan and they both continue being amazing together and I really enjoy seeing Jack being a badass.

“Their love has redefined our entire planet.”

What can I say that I haven’t already said with the other two books? Action-pack, plot twists after plot twists, secrets, betrayals, lies but multiplied x 1000. And I spent the whole book worrying about what was going to happen next. (The whole freaking series actually)

image:

Of course, all those things are mixed with some swoony moments because Bauer never left the romance behind.

Again, we get to see some really tender and frustrated moment with the other couples – Sasha, Sergey, Adam and Faisal.

When it comes to favorite couples you know Adam and Faisal are fighting for the first place against Jack and Ethan. So, I was so happy seeing some relationship development for Adam and my dreamy prince.

“I love you, habibi. That love gives me strength. I won’t hide it. I won’t hide who I am. Not anymore.”

Sergey and Sasha. I was really curious to see how these two were going to end up together, I was afraid it was gonna be just like Jack and Ethan because they had some pretty similar situations but I’m glad with what I got. It was another sweet and *painful* slow burn. God, Sasha couldn’t be more stubborn.

“I am stronger with you because I love you. You are stronger when you love me, yes?” He nodded. He couldn’t speak. “Then let us be strong.”

But *there’s always a but* it wasn’t an easy read at all. It was more difficult to read than book 1 and 2. Maybe because my heart was still healing from what happened in book 2 or just because everything that happened in book 3 was so… AHG.



There’s no coherent word to explain everything that happens in this 3rd book, you gotta experience it on your own.

What got me on the edge of my seat and constantly fidgeting was the betrayal thing. There’s no one they could trust and I was losing my mind trying to figure out who the fucking mole was. The whole book I was “No, don’t say that! Don’t say he’s alive! You don’t know if you can trust him/her!” (view spoiler)[And I hate that Bauer made me doubt about Levi and Scott. You know I like them both very much because they’re really good friends to Ethan and I was gonna end up completely destroyed if they’d have been part of Magidan’s plan. (hide spoiler)]

Bauer did it again; I can’t stop saying how impressed I am. This was a contemporary story with a touch of futuristic aspects that I enjoyed very much.

I consider it was a long book, not because of the 400-ish pages it has, no. It’s long because all the things that happen. There are like 10 different situations going on, with different characters and it’s very hard to keep up with everything without going crazy. It was kinda of distracting because while I was reading what was happening with Adam and Faisal, I wanted the story to go back with Levi because I wanted to know more about the things he was doing.

Alright, the end… There are some loose strings that I think gives Bauer the power to continue this story if he wants to. Jack and Ethan conclude their journey in this book, they finally got their HEA but I’m afraid it can be an HFN. Those who already read this book knows that the world is a fucked up place and we saw how delicate happiness and peace is.

The world definitely is far from being restored after what happened with Madigan. Faisal and Adam have a long way to accomplish their HEA. (view spoiler)[ Faisal is going to be king and his kingdom hates gay men, so there’s no HEA for them yet. (hide spoiler)]

Sasha and Sergey, they also don’t have an HEA. They may be the next to get their own story *I hope they get their own story* (view spoiler)[ because Russia still has some work to do. Sasha is going to train with the NASA, they’ll have a long-distance relationship and they aren’t outed yet. We don’t actually know what will happen to them, we don’t even know if Russians are going to accept or condemn them. (hide spoiler)]

Though, if Bauer is going to do a story with them, I hope Faisal and Adam get theirs first.

What else can I say…? What happened on Enemy of the States is finally resolve so there’s no excuse for you to not start this series right away.



Yeah, Sam totally gets the essence from these books ;)</["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]>

View all my reviews