Review: At Star’s End by Anna Hackett

Posted on June 27, 2014June 23, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: The Phoenix Adventures, #1
Length: 137 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: March 31, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Dr. Eos Rai has spent a lifetime dedicated to her mother’s dream of finding the long-lost Mona Lisa. When Eos uncovers tantalizing evidence of Star’s End—the last known location of the masterpiece—she’s shocked when her employer, the Galactic Institute of Historic Preservation, refuses to back her expedition. Left with no choice, Eos must trust the most notorious treasure hunter in the galaxy, a man she finds infuriating, annoying and far too tempting.

Dathan Phoenix can sniff out relics at a stellar mile. With his brothers by his side, he takes the adventures that suit him and refuses to become a lazy, bitter failure like their father. When the gorgeous Eos Rai comes looking to hire him, he knows she’s trouble, but he’s lured into a hunt that turns into a wild and dangerous adventure. As Eos and Dathan are pushed to their limits, they discover treasure isn’t the only thing they’re drawn to…but how will their desire survive when Dathan demands the Mona Lisa as his payment?

My Review:

Space pirates and the Mona Lisa. Now there’s a combination that doesn’t turn up everyday!

At Star’s End is a rollicking space piracy adventure wrapped around a hot romance between an archeologist and the pirate captain. Although the emphasis in the story is on the action/adventure and the romance, the science fiction aspects provide just the right sauce, along with a touch of pathos.

Star’s End is a place. A mythical place where the first Earth colony ships, loaded with the most beautiful art and artifacts of our dying planet, ended up. By the time period of this story, Star’s End is a lost legend. It appears in history books, it’s treasures are mostly known through surviving computer files, but no one has ever found the actual place. It seems to be literally at the stars’ end.

Archeologists’ careers have come to unhappy ends in the fruitless search for the lost Terran treasure, including the career and life of Dr. Eos Rai’s mother. Eos has devoted herself to proving her mother’s theories correct. And at last she has a lead on the trove–but her bosses at the Galactic Institute of Historic Preservation refuse to back an expedition.

That’s where the Phoenix brothers come in. Dathan Phoenix, along with his brothers Niklas and Zayn are pretty legendary themselves. Legendary treasure hunters, that is. The Phoenix brothers search for treasure and historic artifacts for purely mercenary motives; they’re in it for the money.

Eos is in it for the thrill of the hunt, and for the glory of getting her latest finds into the museum. But without museum backing, the Phoenix brothers are her only choice for this personal mission. A mission that becomes even more personal when she and Dathan can’t seem to stop the spark of attraction that flares up between them.

They’ve always been on opposite sides of the fence, but opposites definitely do attract.

Treasure hunts also attract poachers, including a hunter who is as much after brother Niklas as any treasure they might discover. (I hope this story turns up in a later book).

As they get further away from civilized space, the chase gets more and more dangerous. Too many rivals try to kidnap Eos for the secret she holds. But no matter how difficult the hunt, Eos never gives up or gives in.

Except to what she feels for Dathan.

Escape Rating A-: Another review called At Star’s End the love child of Indiana Jones and Firefly, and that’s a pretty good description. The universe by the time of the story has gotten kind of dark and gritty, much like the background of Firefly. But the adventure part of the story is pure Indiana Jones’ treasure chasing, non-stop action and danger, with a heroine who gets herself into, and out of, every kind of trap and trouble imaginable.

This is Eos’ story. Her information, her find, and often her danger. It’s about what she wants, and what she thinks she wants. Does she just want to find Star’s End, or is she trying to validate her mother’s career? Does she want to go back to the Museum, or does she want a more interesting, and more dangerous, future with Dathan? If he’s looking for a long-term relationship, and not just a fling, that is.

If you love the action/adventure type of science fiction romance, let these space pirates steal you away, and steal your heart.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews

Posted on April 17, 2014March 22, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Kinsmen #2
Length: 96 pages
Publisher: NYLA
Date Released: September 16, 2011
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance

Claire Shannon is a killer. She uses no weapons, only her mind.

Born on a planet locked in a long war, Claire is a psycher, a woman with the ability to attack minds and infiltrate a biological computer network where psychers battle to the death. But when the war abruptly ends, Claire must hide her psycher’s ability to survive. She is deported to a new planet, a vivid beautiful place, where she meets Venturo Escana, a powerful psycher, whose presence overwhelms both her mind and her body.

She thought she had left war and death behind, but now she must fight for her new life and this battle might just cost her everything…

My Review:

Silver Shark is set in the same universe as Silent Blade, but tells a much different love story and shows us a much different side of this particular future.

It’s also twice as long, which gives the reader not just more world building, but also more character development.

And it’s still too short.

This is not a peaceful future that we see. Resources are scarce, and interplanetary conflict is a fact of life. Brodwyn has been at war with Melko for all of Claire’s life. Each faction claims the planet Uley, and neither will give up.

Everyone contributes to the war effort. Claire is drafted at age 14, forced to leave her terminally ill mother behind so that she can put her “psycher” talents to use for Melko. Claire is extremely powerful, able to infiltrate and kill on the bionet. She fights because that’s all there is to life in her world.

Then Melko surrenders. The talent that has been her biggest asset suddenly paints a target on her back. The conquerors will be certain that she is too dangerous to live. So she hides her abilities, making herself seem like any other refugee, no matter what painful tests are administered to smoke out psychers like her.

As an ordinary refugee, she is sent to Rada, the home planet of the first book, Silent Blade. Her shielding is so perfect, she appears mind-blind, making her the perfect candidate for a job with Ventura Escana. His firm specializes in security, and he is a powerful psycher.

He thinks Claire’s mind is restful because it’s so quiet. He has no clue that the woman he has hired to be his administrative assistant is nearly as powerful as he is. He doesn’t discover that the reason she is so capable, that she is so perfect at anticipating his needs, is because she is just like him.

Ven just thinks she’s perfect.

Until she is forced to open her shell and save her fellow refugees. Ven is as fascinated with the female psycher he battles on the bionet as he is with the admin he is not supposed to touch.

Then he finds out they are one and the same.

Escape Rating A-: This story goes into more depth about this futuristic world. We see Rada through Claire’s eyes, as she learns to adapt to a life that has a future other than war and more war. She wants to live, and maintaining her shield is a requirement, but we see her struggle.

There’s also an element of the classic love trope where the admin or secretary falls in love with the boss, and it’s done very well. Unlike so many stories of this type, Claire and Ven really are equals in power, even if he doesn’t know it. He needs someone who will challenge him, and Claire is more than capable of being very challenging on every level.

We see more of Claire’s perspective than Ven’s, but both of them are interesting, likeable characters and the reader wants to see their happy ending. But the ending was a bit sudden, and Ven is way too accepting of the fact that Claire has been deceiving him all along. I’d love to have seen them take a bit more time to work things out.

While it isn’t necessary to read Silent Blade before Silver Shark, reading both does provide more background for the world, and it makes the scene where Ven brings Claire to meet Meli and Celino that much more fun.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: The Descartes Legacy by Nina Croft

Posted on March 31, 2014March 3, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Romantic suspense, Science Fiction Romance
Length: 250 pages
Publisher: Entangled: Edge
Date Released: September 30, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Lucas Grafton has spent the last ten years hunting the Conclave, a secret organization who took everything from him: his wife, his child, his very identity. Now he has a lead—an imminent terrorist attack on London—code-named Descartes.

Born with a genetic illness, Jenna Young has always known she was different. But the unexpected death of her father catapults her into a world of murder and terrorism she never expected. In order to stay alive, she must solve a twenty-five year old mystery—and her only ally a hard bitter man in search or retribution, her only clue the Descartes Highlands, an area on the near side of the moon.

Luke’s need for revenge collides with Jenna’s hunt for the past, and together they must stand against the Conclave. All the while uncovering the truth behind Jenna’s illness, a truth that will make Jenna question her very humanity.

My Review:

The Descartes Legacy takes a fairly standard romantic suspense story and enhances it with a bit of science fiction in order to create a “can’t stop reading” experience.

All the elements of romantic suspense are right there; heroine experiences a major life change event that makes her investigate something mysterious. Said investigation pushes the buttons of some very shady customers and heroine finds herself in serious jeapardy without knowing why. In swoops hero to save her life and help her with her investigation. Bad guys continue to pursue for nefarious reasons. Heroine makes life-changing discovery. Evildoers attempt to suppress heroine’s knowledge. After climactic fight, hero and heroine start new life together.

Just because something follows a formula, doesn’t mean that the author hasn’t taken the elements of that formula into new and interesting directions. In the case of The Descartes Legacy, those elements were born on the moon.

Really.

Jenna Young believes that she is dying. She believes that she has a genetic disease and that her father-the-doctor has been giving her medicine to keep the disease at bay. Then he dies suddenly and she’s running out of meds.

She thinks she’s sick, so she turns to another doctor to get the medication she needs. Her friend gets tortured and killed, and she has no idea why.

What she did makes perfect sense, based on what she believed. But what she believed isn’t true. Over the course of the story, Jenna discovers that nothing she believed about herself and her origins is true.

Her father didn’t just lie, he covered up his part in a world-spanning power-hungry organization called “The Conclave”. An organization whose genetic experimentation both created Jenna, and ordered her “termination” at age 4.

Jenna’s always known she was different. But as she is forced to dive into the murky politics of The Conclave, she discovers just how different she is.

And Jenna’s not the only one peering into the depths of the Conclave’s evil, nor is the death of her doctor-friend the only torture-and-murder to be laid at their door.

Lucas Grafton has been looking for revenge against that organization for ten years, since they murdered his wife and daughter. But Luke’s search for justice runs him headlong into Jenna’s need for the truth.

Luke starts out uncertain whether Jenna is an innocent bystander, a co-conspirator, or bait in a trap. Eventually he discovers that she is all three, but by then, he’s willing to sacrifice anything to keep her safe.

And she feels the same way about him.

Escape Rating A-: The story ends with a series of stunning revelations that make the reader yearn for more. It doesn’t feel so much that things have concluded as that there is a pause in the action. Jenna and Luke’s story isn’t over, and I want to know what happens next. Very, very much.

The science fictional elements in The Descartes Legacy are of the “laboratory” variety rather than the space ship type. It’s not just that Jenna was created through some very tricky genetic engineering, but it’s the source of some of her genetic material that pushes the story through the science fiction envelope.

The “Descartes” in the title is not a reference to Renaissance philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, at least not directly. It refers to the Descartes Highlands on the moon, and to Apollo 16’s mission there.

The Conclave is a many-headed, completely heartless beast of an organization. The plot that Jenna and Luke discover is chilling in its inhumanity. Discovering the nature of that plot and stopping it add to the breakneck pace of the story.

But this is also a romance, and that part of the story hinges on the chemistry between Jenna and Luke. For all the science fiction, their story together has a few too many times when Jenna is a drugged and helpless captive, waiting for Luke to rescue her. Considering the powers she discovers during the story, she gets kidnapped a bit often.

And there was definitely a touch of insta-love in their relationship. But the thriller and suspense elements still kept me racing to finish the story.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews

Posted on March 28, 2014March 14, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Science fiction romance
Series: Kinsmen #1
Length: 50 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Date Released: June 2, 2009
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Old hatreds die hard. Old love dies harder.

On Meli Galdes’ home planet, the struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport–in business and on the battlefield. For years her lethal skills have been a valuable asset in advancing her family’s interests. She’s more than earned her right to retire, but her kinsmen have one last favor to ask.

Kill the man who ruined her life.

Celino Carvanna’s razor-sharp business acumen–and skills with a blade–won him the freedom to do as he pleases. There’s only one thing he can’t seem to control–his reaction to the mysterious woman who tantalizes his senses. Her eyes alone set his blood simmering, stirring ridiculous adolescent fantasies about breasts and honey. With a few words she dissects his soul. Who is she? And how does she slide so easily under his well-guarded skin?

It’s almost too easy to draw Celino within the kill zone. Meli plans to revel in him. Drink him in. Wring every drop of pleasure out of every moment.

And when she’s sure he belongs to her, she will finally repay a decade’s worth of pain–in a single, brutal dose of reality.

My Review:

Revenge is a dish best served hot and with a side of passion cones.

Although the revenge that Meli Galdes plans and the revenge she actually gets are two different things.

Blame it on those passion cones, which are a dessert in the province of Dahlia on this futuristic world that Ilona Andrews has created for her Kinsmen series.

The future is a dangerous place. As envisioned in this series, the ability to survive interplanetary journeys and planet colonization was provided to certain families through genetic modification. Their descendants rule, through the inheritance of lethal talents and deadly implants.

Those with special abilities are Kinsmen. Survival of their families, and their family corporations, is considered the highest achievement–by any means necessary.

Meli Galdes was a casualty of two families desire for greatness. A daughter of the Galdes, she was contracted in marriage when she was 10 to the heir of the Carvanna family. Unfortunately for Meli, young Celino Carvanna saw their impending marriage as a fence around his freedom. As soon as he could, he disavowed the contract, leaving Meli unmarried but still bound. No one else would court her for fear of angering Carvanna should he decide to someday claim his bride.

So Meli chose to be disavowed by her family, so that she could do business for them in secret. Deadly business–we call it ‘wetwork’. As an “excise”, Meli became her family’s best and most deniable assassin.

When she tires of the game of death and the loneliness of her life, Meli retires. But her father asks her to take one last job–to kill the man who broke her heart, all those years ago. Killing the head of the Carvanna’s corporation will save the Galdes’ family business from ruin.

Meli gets close to Celino by turning herself into a woman he can’t resist. The problem for Meli is that it makes her the woman she once trained to be; the perfect partner for Celino.

So should she condemn her family by sparing her target, or kill the man she has come to love?

Escape Rating B+: This is too short! The world creation looks fascinating, but I want to see more of it. How did the families get this way? What other powers are available? How do they know how rare particular talents are?

Underneath the futuristic setting, Silent Blade is a second chance at love story. Meli and Celino missed it the first time around, because their six year age difference loomed large when they were 16 and 22 respectively, but is miniscule now that they are adults.

Celino was also a selfish asshat, because he could have set Meli free instead of leaving her in limbo. (On the other hand, selfish, 22 and privileged go hand-in-hand.) Celino had the world at his feet, and he didn’t think beyond his own desires.

Meli comes back into his life and makes him desire her. She is just what he is looking for, but doesn’t know it. She, on the other hand, knows perfectly well what she is setting up. She just doesn’t expect that her own emotions will be engaged. Again.

She can destroy him. She can even manage to destroy him in such a way that her family survives the crisis that started this mess. It takes her a long time to accomplish her mission without leaving dead bodies in her wake.

Even though she is left broken-hearted again, at least this time, she has company–a man who finally realizes that it is worth breaking his own chains.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 3-2-14

Posted on March 2, 2014March 2, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

For all you lovers of science fiction romance out there, the latest issue of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly is out! We have lots of terrific stuff on tap, including interviews with Gail Carriger and Beth Ciotta and an original short story by Danielle Davis. And of course, reviews by yours truly and some of my fellow SFR lovers. Check out the latest issue here — especially Charlee Alden’s editorial about cyborg squirrels!

One of this week’s giveaways is for the second book in a series that I absolutely love, and that totally surprised me. Last year, Library Journal sent me The Garden of Stones by Mark T. Barnes to review. I really enjoy a good epic fantasy, but this was an author new to me. Also, it was published by Amazon’s 47North, and those have been hit or miss for me so far. The story completely blew me away. It has magic, and epically nasty politics, along with a pair of star-crossed lovers and a potentially deadly romantic triangle. Mark is giving away a signed copy of the second book in the series, The Obsidian Heart, and I just can’t recommend this series enough.

And this week we have dragon books. Cass practically forced me to read Never Deal with Dragons, and she should have a review of The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan as well. She gave the first book in the Lady Trent series, A Natural History of Dragons, 15 stars over at Book Lovers last year. I can’t wait to see what she has to say about this one! (I think it’s a question of how many pluses Cass will add to her A. We’ll see.)

Current Giveaways:

$10 Amazon or B&N gift card in the Leap into Books Giveaway
One copy of Cider Brook by Carla Neggers (paperback)
SIGNED copy of The Obsidian Heart by Mark T. Barnes
$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal cash courtesy of Susan Kaye Quinn
(1) $50 Amazon Gift Card, (2) $10 Amazon gift cards and 2 Author swag packs courtesy of Susannah Sandlin

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: Lovely, Dark and Deep by Susannah Sandlin
Guest Post by Susannah Sandlin on Pirates and Templars + Giveaway
Guest Post by Mark T. Barnes on Starting in the Middle + Giveaway
B Review: Cider Brook by Carla Neggers
Q&A with Carla Neggers + Giveaway
A- Review: Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn + Giveaway
Leap Into Books Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (78)

Coming Next Week:

Bittersweet Darkness (The Order #3) by Nina Croft (blog tour review and giveaway)
Never Deal with Dragons (DRACIM #1) by Lorenda Christensen (review)
Deceiving Lies (Forgiving Lies #1) by Molly McAdams (blog tour review)
Death Defying (Blood Hunter #3) by Nina Croft (blog tour review and giveaway)
The Tropic of Serpents (Lady Trent #2) by Marie Brennan (review by Cass)

Review: Lace & Lead by M. A. Grant

Posted on December 10, 2013November 17, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Length: 102 pages
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Date Released: November 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Blue-blood Emmaline Gregson survived one of the most brutal mining accidents ever recorded in the Republic, but she’s never been in a firefight. So when unknown assailants circle the family estate, the only man she can rely on is Peirce Taggart. A former Lawman turned mercenary, Peirce has a simple job: protect Emmaline until her father can collect her and sell her to sex trafficker Richard Stone to pay off his debts. But when Arthur Gregson tries to cheat his way out of the contract, Emmaline seizes the opportunity to hire Peirce for herself, regardless of how crude, dangerous, or appealing he may be. Given the chance for redemption, he promises to help her escape both her father and Stone. But Peirce soon realises that hiding her in his apartment until the storm has passed may be more dangerous than looking down the barrel of a gun…

My Review:

My heart keeps wanting to say Firefly, although when I break the story down, it isn’t a logical reaction. Pierce Taggart sure as hell isn’t an avatar for Mal Reynolds, and Emmaline Gregson has nothing in common with Inara Serra, although it turns out she has quite an affinity for Kaylee.

But this has the feel that Firefly did, a futuristic western, even if that future is rather undefined in Lace & Lead. And Pierce Taggart is also an ex-military man, as Reynolds was. Except that Taggart’s cause wasn’t lost in the fight, only his sister.

In this future, the mostly good army is fighting against aliens who are not human and seem to think we might be dinner. I don’t know about you, but that feels like way more than a difference of opinion that can be smoothed over with a little negotiation. I like my parts attached.

I said “mostly good” because some of Taggart’s former comrades-in-arms are as susceptible to human forms of corruption as the criminally-minded in our world. Just because they fight the good fight some of the time, doesn’t mean some people are always good.

One of the reasons that Lace & Lead feels like a western is because the story starts on a very western-seeming ranch. Admittedly a ranch with some very high-tech security gadgets, but still a ranch. Also, our heroine is not just wearing a corset, but wearing gowns (gowns!) that require a corset to fit properly. Retro-fashion at its finest.

All of Emmaline Gregson’s references to her life before the story begins are to a life where women, or at least “blue-blooded women” are not supposed to have any agency. Her future was supposed to have involved a move from her father’s dubious care to her husband’s, with her being a sheltered child-woman never allowed to make any decisions for herself along the way.

The attack on the ranch that begins the story shoves her life off course and changes everything. Lucky for her, it also breaks her father’s contract with Pierce Taggart. Because Taggart is something unusual, an honorable soldier-of-fortune.

When Emmaline’s father sends a rival band of mercs to kill his crew in order to prevent them from collecting their pay, it does pretty much invalidate their contract, freeing him to take a much more honorable contract from Emmaline.

Because Emmaline wants Taggart to protect her from her disgusting father and the man he was planning to sell her to. Yes, I said sell. In order to pay off a very large debt, “dear old dad” is planning to sell his gently-reared, blue-blooded and virgin daughter to a known flesh peddler.

Attempting to stiff his hired guns by turning them into stiffs is by far the least of his sins, but it is where the story gets mighty interesting.

Taggart thinks Arthur Gregson is an arrogant prick. He thinks all blue-bloods are useless except as a source of jobs for his team. Until Emmaline.

Because while he’s busy rescuing her, she’s equally busy transforming herself from the worthless prissy bitch she never wanted to be into something else entirely.

It’s not just that she’s beautiful in dingy cargo pants as she crawls under old engines and learns to rebuild discarded military transport–it’s that she’s finally found a life that suits her right down to the ground.

If only the men chasing both of them will let her keep it. And Taggart.

Escape Rating B+: There’s a lot of story packed into a relatively short novella, and it packs a surprising amount of emotional punch.

Lace & Lead feels space western, and it hints at it effectively without a lot of detailed worldbuilding. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed a bit more worldbuilding. There’s a piece missing about how extremely different life is between the high and low classes. It always is different, but Emmaline’s total lack of agency to the point where she wasn’t permitted to pick her own clothing seemed beyond extreme, especially compared to Taggart’s sister’s life in the military.

The rich are always different from you and me, but on this world, how did they get this far that way?

Emmaline is an active participant in her own rescue. She may need Taggart and his men to break her out, but she was planning to find a way of escape from before the story starts. Also, the suspense subplot of why the chase continues to pursue her involves an earlier incident where Emma very much took matters into her own hands.

She’s not the shrinking violet her society expected her to be. It’s important in the story that Taggart doesn’t just fall for her, however reluctantly, but that he also provides her with a way to do meaningful work for the first time in her life. She needs that purpose as much as she turns out to need him.

Because she needs to become his equal or they don’t have a chance. Not to save their lives, and not to make a future.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Alien Admirer by Jessica E. Subject

Posted on December 6, 2013November 30, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Science fiction romance
Series: Alien Next Door, #2
Length: 69 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Date Released: October 30, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

He fills her with forbidden longing…

Widowed for over a year, Sera longs for the company of her younger, sexier neighbor, the one man she can never have—unless she plans to rob the cradle. It’s too dangerous…

She’s the only one for him…

Adam never wanted to settle down…until Sera. But even when her children give him the green light, he must prove age is an alien concept…

Will Sera give him a chance, or will Adam be left in the cold, never more than her alien admirer?

Alien Admirer takes a light touch with the science fiction aspects of this science fiction romance, but the author shows a deft hand with the down-to-earth problems involved in a widow with young children not just thinking about dating, but falling in love with the younger man next door.

The story is sweet, sexy and realistic about how it handles the issues of a woman who more than young enough to move on with her life after the death of her husband more than a year previously, but who has kids that she has to put first in everything she does.

And her best buddy is her next-door-neighbor, a man eight years her junior that her kids absolutely adore and who not only takes great care of them, but clearly loves them for themselves.

The only problem is that Adam is still living over his parents’ garage; and until recently, he hasn’t exactly acted like he was looking to settle down. So it’s not at all surprising that Sera is skeptical about what seems like Adam’s sudden interest in settling down with her.

Her erotic dreams about him don’t factor into her decision making. He’s gorgeous and she’s still among the living. She’s human, but she’s not stupid. It just doesn’t make sense to her that Adam is really interested in her.

What she doesn’t know is that Adam isn’t strictly human. And that now that he knows that Sera is his mate, she really is the only woman for him. For the rest of his life. Whether she accepts him or not.

Escape Rating B+: I enjoyed this story a lot. Enough that I went to Amazon and bought the first book in the series, Alien Adoration, because I want to read Adam’s parents’ story.

One of the tropes that seems to be difficult to get right is the older woman/younger man romance. There are issues that have to be dealt with, but too often the problems are glossed over or the concept is played for laughs. In this case, the author treated Sera’s concerns about the age difference seriously, and made sure that they were addressed rather than dismissed.

The children were not just plot devices either, they were real people, surprisingly so for a very short novella. And it was cute that they helped Adam arrange things for the lovely happily ever after.

If you like your science fiction romance light on the SF and emphasis on the R, get your own (copy of) Alien Admirer.

This review originally appeared in Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Alien Adoration by Jessica E. Subject

Posted on December 6, 2013November 30, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Science fiction romance
Series: Alien Next Door, #1
Length: 83 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Date Released: April 29, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon

Erotic dreams fill her with need…

Night after night, Rachel fantasizes about her sexy, playboy neighbor. But in her small town, no one changes, least of all the bad boy next door. But when Luke rescues her not once but twice from disastrous dates, she dares to believe her knight in black leather armor may be the right man for her after all.

Until she learns the truth…

Life on Earth has never been easy for Luke. Stranded as a little boy, he struggled to craft an existence for himself, but he never forgot the first human he met–and he never stopped wanting to see her again. Returning to Hanton, Luke longs for Rachel. Yet, nothing goes as he plans, and Rachel barely notices him. Convincing her he isn’t like all the jerks she’s dated means telling her the truth, but can she handle it?

Can she overcome her fears, or will she deny her alien adoration and leave him stranded once more?

My Review:

I read Alien Adoration after I read the second book in the Alien Next Door series, Alien Admirer. That means I already knew most of what was going to happen in Alien Adoration. More relevant for the purpose of this review, I bought Alien Adoration because I enjoyed Alien Admirer so much, and I was hoping that the first book in the series would be as much fun as the second, while filling in a few more details.

Which means, unfortunately, that I didn’t adore Alien Adoration as much as I admired Alien Admirer. This first book in the series was definitely cute and sweet, but didn’t seem quite as polished as the second book.

(And I’m aware that someone should take my punning license away, but the temptation was irresistible.)

As with Alien Admirer, in Alien Adoration we have our alien hero and our “original recipe human” heroine.

But while in book 2, the heroine’s story had the most depth, in book one we have Luke, an alien from outer space who played with one too many buttons on the control panel of his parents’ spaceship as it passed by Earth.

Luke stranded himself here as a boy, seeming to be about eight years old. He appeared in the middle of the night in an unprepossessing small town, and is observed by a little girl staring out the window. She lets herself out of the house, and meets her first, and last, alien. She never forgets the night, but can’t remember his name.

Rachel grows up, and sometimes wonders if that night was a dream. She dreams it over and over as the years go by.

She still lives in the same small town, a place that seems to be the divorce capitol of the universe. Or at least Earth. Marriages don’t last (her parents’ marriage certainly didn’t) and relationships have an incredibly short shelf life.

Especially the “relationships” that the hottie next door seems to have. Gorgeous women come home with him in the early evening, and leave screaming in the middle of the night.

It’s too bad for Rachel that she can’t help thinking about her neighbor, and that there don’t seem to be any decent men in town. The local church ladies feel so sorry for her, they fix her up with one “nephew” or “cousin” after another. Too bad they all turn out to be scumbags.

She has no clue that the hot neighbor with the revolving front door is the grown-up version of the little alien boy. Or that he’s come to her small town to find her.

Escape Rating B-: There’s a sweetness to the romance between Luke and Rachel that lets the reader overlook some of the fluffy shortcuts in the storytelling while reading, but this one just isn’t quite up to Alien Admirer.

We never do know what makes Rachel’s small town of Hanton such a rotten place for people to build lasting relationships. It doesn’t just seem to be Rachel’s perception, the place really is that bad. But why? Is it something in the water? Is everyone in a high-risk profession? Alien influence?

Luke comes to Hanton with the express purpose of finding Rachel. If she’s the woman he wants so badly, why is the skank parade passing through his front door? Especially with her right next door and having a ringside seat for the show? Some part of this combination didn’t work for me.

Particularly when added with Rachel’s own unfortunate dating history. She has kissed more than a few of the town frogs. A lot of the guys in Hanton are real jerks. When they confirm they’re jerks, Rachel dumps them. But Luke’s behavior looks awfully jerk-like, and rightfully makes her wary.

Although I do wonder if the so-called “church ladies” don’t have something to do with the high divorce rate. They seem to have a corner on the destructively evil gossip market. Maybe they’re witches?

This review originally appeared in Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Stacking the Shelves (67)

Posted on November 16, 2013November 16, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

For all lovers of Science Fiction Romance out there, be sure to take a look at the inaugural issue of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. It’s that awesome cover over on the right by the multi-talented Kaz Augustin, who is also the Chief Editor. If you like SFR, I’m sure you’ll find a few more books to add to your TBR pile.

But if SFR doesn’t light your rocket engine, maybe some of these will appeal?