DNF @30%

Book source ~ NetGalley

I read Hunt the Wolf, book 1 of SEAL Team Six and gave it a 3. Since I had both that and this book from NetGalley I moved on to this one. Ok, I made it through the sea of testosterone in book 1, but I just can’t do it in this book. The writing itself isn’t too horrible, but the pages of weapons and equipment descriptions are snoozeable. The main character is an alpha male constantly thumping his chest and talking about how awesome he is. It gets old real quick. I love a good military thriller as much as the next reader, but this book is filled with so much dick wagging that I have no desire to slog through any more of it. While it may appeal to many readers, I am not one of them.

I think this is probably going to be the last book in this series that I am going to read. It wasn't bad, it's just that I no longer like the main character, Crocker. I've almost grown to hate him because of all his whining about his family and how much he blames the breakdown in his marriage on his soon to be ex-wife, Holly. When you don't like the main character it makes it hard to read the book.

That being said I did end up enjoying this overall. It had some good action scenes, which is something I had previously enjoyed about this series. I also love how relevant this to current events. One thing I didn't like (besides Crocker) was that the ending was very drawn out and it became boring at times.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

Ugh, the more that I read this the more I remember how much I had previously grown to hate Crocker. He has spent most of this book so far whining about his life, especially the fact that he and his wife are separated. He seems to want to always blame it on her when he was the one to screw everything up. His actions show that he doesn't care about hiss family like he should.

UPDATED: Upon reading the reviews of this book on Amazon, it appears that the author has taken license with the truth. It may be that the author did not participate in any of the situations listed. That being said, I still found this to be a very good read, and in the case that it is all fiction, shame on the author.
An incredible story! Chase (alias), a British Special Forces soldier who found himself an early retirement due to injury, continues his career as a private military contractor (PMC). Taking assignments as varied as a bodyguard for rich people, to stints with other special forces soldiers (retired SEALs, Delta Force, etc) in war zones throughout the Middle East. The author had many hair-raising adventures, it is amazing that he has packed so much living into one life. The chapters detailing incidents in Iraq, the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, and Benghazi Libya were spell binding!
Mr. Chase has an excellent ability to narrate, and the descriptions are so vivid that you feel you are there with him. If he can manage to stay clear of harms way long enough to write a sequel, I will be first in line to purchase it!
On a side note, I was flabbergasted at the amount of money spent on PMC's. Bear with me while I give a quote from the book: "In November 2003, the US Congress established the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, which allocated $18.4 BILLION (!!!) to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure... That was on top of the $54.4 BILLION Congress had provided that year for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the $92.1 BILLION it set aside in 2004, the $58 BILLION in 2005, and so on..... The money was huge. So was the number of firms that showed up to bid for contracts - 181, according to a US GAO report - eventually employing AS MANY AS 190,000 CONTRACTOR AND SUBCONTRACTOR PERSONNEL."
Wow! To paraphrase an old line, "Take a a billion dollars here, and a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money here".
And equally incredible is the process used to circumnavigate Congressional Oversight by hiring the PMC's. And the fact that these PMC's are pretty much out there on their own; no backup from the regular military, and no disability pensions or life insurance if the situations go bad. In fact, the government can deny any knowledge of these people, no matter how heroic their deeds may be.
This book was a real eye-opener for me. I highly, highly recommend this one!
(In the interest of fairness, I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for a fair review.)