I really enjoyed the first three books in the series, but after the third book, it kind of felt finished. Since I was reading a book containing the first books all in one, I knew it had to continue one way or another, but I was still a bit disappointed in the way they made it happen. After all, they might have been acting as rebels, they are not soldiers.

The action is still very fast-paced but the story is less big than the previous books. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the series, also in the second part.

We can’t all be winners all the time.

That’s the theme of this book.

Sure, in the past, things have gone wrong. Plans have gone awry. People have been killed.

But the main objective was always achieved.

Wirrawee Bridge. The officer’s houses. Cobbler’s Bay.

Not in this book.

This book is all about failure.

Small mistakes.

The kind you make because you’ve been living a perfectly ordinary life for six months.

The kind you make because you’re adjusting to being dumped back in a war zone.

The kind you make because you take things for granted.

The main objective is not achieved, not by either group.

Despite their failure, it’s still a good book to read. Ellie’s reflects a lot on the trauma of war, of being reintroduced to it against her will, but at the same time tempering it with the joy of being home and in the bush doing what she does best.

There’s plenty of action, including a high-speed chase while being shot at and riding horses bareback in the middle of the night whilst being shot at. Well, there’s a lot of being shot at, and not a lot of time spent in Hell.

Even though the gang failed in their main objectives, there’s still thrills enough to keep reading and although the climax doesn’t culminate in the usual explosions there’s enough to want to know what the gang will be up to in the next instalment.

My favourite female character is definitely Ellie Linton from John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began series.  I just love those books and have read them upwards of ten times each (always in order, so if I have a craving for Ellie then I have to read the whole series, not just an individual book from the series).  This series is another that I haven't read for ages and so haven't reviewed any of them because it's not fair to do a half-hearted review of such a fantastic series.  I think Marsden really captured some (not all) of the emotions teenagers would feel during such a traumatic time as the shock invasion of your country.  I wasn't so comfortable with his idea of teenage love and sex, but I am a bit prejudiced against any sex involving a teenage girl written by a middle aged man, it always weirds me out.