ARC Review: Into the Blue by Chanel Cleeton

As soon as I had finished Fly With Me by Chanel Cleeton, I couldn't wait to dive into Into the Blue. I really loved the first book in the series and couldn't wait to get more of these sexy fighter pilots. Into the Blue was really good as well, and I enjoyed reading it a lot. This series is definitely one worth checking out if you haven't already and I highly recommend reading these in order if possible. It isn't necessary, but the characters are interconnected and I think it really adds to the enjoyment to start at the beginning and see how each of these characters changes over the course of the series not to mention there are some things that will be spoiled if you don't start at the beginning. 

Eric Jansen (Thor) loves his job and flying but after a tragic loss, he finds himself struggling a bit. Needing to get his head on straight, he heads home to South Carolina determined to figure things out. But when he runs into the only girl he has ever loved, he realizes that there might be more for him to work out than he thought. Becca Madison has tried for ten years to forget the boy who broke her heart, but when she comes face to face with Eric all the feelings they once shared come back stronger than ever. Eric knows that he threw away the best thing that ever happened to him when he dumped her and broke their engagement, but can he win her back after all this time when the reasons they broke up in the first place are all still there? 

I really liked Eric and Becca. These two had such a strong connection and chemistry. It was clear right away that love was never their problem. Each of them had dreams, and those dreams didn't exactly mesh well together when it came to their relationship and the future. Eric broke Becca's heart, but it was easy to see that he had been hurting too. I hated that he had dumped her and that all that time had gone by, but because of their ages and his reasons for it, I completely understood it even when I didn't like it. It was nice to see that while a lot had changed over the years, everything that had been between them had not. It really felt so natural and perfect between these two that I knew right away that they were meant for one another.

I will say that while I enjoyed this one a lot, this book didn't pack quite the same punch the first one did. It didn't seem to have the same intensity or emotion the first one did, and I found myself missing the camaraderie between the guys that the first book had. Into the Blue focused a lot more on Eric and Becca, and while I did enjoy that I also wanted to see her transition into his world a bit more. It just felt like they were so far removed from all it because he was on leave and most of this story happened away from what the norm would be for these two moving forward. Like the first book, this one ended pretty abruptly and it felt really rushed to me. I don't know if this is a trend with Chanel Cleeton or maybe just this series, but if the next book is anything like this one, there will be a jump in time between the end of this book and the start of the next one. I would have loved to have been given an epilogue or something to kind of ease from this book to the next. While I do like how things ended in this one as in the first, it just felt like the author ran out of steam when she got to the end and again it didn't seem to do the story justice. While I had hoped for more of the previous characters in this book to kind of wrap their story up (and we did see some of them), this book didn't really give me that sense of satisfaction that I had been hoping for after the rushed ending of the first one, so I am not holding out a ton of hope that I will get that in the next book either. I do really like this series though, and the next book is the one I have been waiting for! Easy's story was one I wanted immediately after finishing Fly With Me, and I am so excited after reading the snippet at the end of Into the Blue. It is currently set to release at the start of 2017 though, so we have quite a wait for it. Even with the few criticisms I had here though, this series is one that I am really enjoying and would recommend for fans of contemporary romance.

**ARC Provided by Publisher**

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