“I want to show you everything. One day, I’m going to show you everything.”
This is probably one of the most low-key science fiction romances I’ve ever read. I anticipated a whole lot of angsty conflict after reading the first chapter, but.. there really wasn’t too much. The first time readers are introduced to Gael he is trying to talk himself into committing a murder. Before he can convince himself to pull the trigger, someone else does the deed for him. Which leaves him running from not only the man who just blew a guy’s head off, but also from his employers who sent him to complete the mission. The only way off the hell hole of a planet he resides on and away from the people looking for him is to accept a contract off world as a companion to a lonely miner.
The first time readers meet Abraham Bauer, better known as Bram, he is down in the dredges of his claim, trying to figure out the size of the seam he just discovered. A retired foreman with the Muedini Corporation, now he mines his own claim and farms his leased land. He’s built himself a nice homestead, but he’s lonely and wants to find a nice man and maybe start a family someday. Which is why he goes looking for love on the holo terminal and sees Gael for the first time. Gael is running from a shitty life on a planet where the poor are basically owned by powerful families. Slavery and child labor are legal and the only way out is to become someone else and run to another planet. He takes Bram up on his contract thinking he was finally getting at chance at a different kind of life. Bram is ready for a partner to share his life and farm with. This could be something good for both of them.
Their relationship is slow, and steady, and the getting to know you is romantic. Bram is gruff, but tender. Gael wants so much to be accepted and wanted. I liked how these two fit together, different strengths, different vulnerabilities, but they fit together like puzzle pieces. I also appreciated how Bram was determined to not in any way pressure Gael into a sexual side to their relationship. By the time they finally fell into each other I was convinced that it was the exact right time for it to happen. There are some complications… a stowaway that pops up at the beginning, Gael’s past, Bram’s reservations, and the unforgiving harsh environment. But these two really want that chance at a new life together.
The science fiction aspects were done very well, and it was very easy to follow along and understand the world building. The stark, desolate surroundings leant a certain tension to the storyline, even as Bram and Gael’s relationship built slowly, but steadily. Very nicely done and I would definitely recommend.
“I want to show you everything. One day, I’m going to show you everything.”
This is probably one of the most low-key science fiction romances I’ve ever read. I anticipated a whole lot of angsty conflict after reading the first chapter, but.. there really wasn’t too much. The first time readers are introduced to Gael he is trying to talk himself into committing a murder. Before he can convince himself to pull the trigger, someone else does the deed for him. Which leaves him running from not only the man who just blew a guy’s head off, but also from his employers who sent him to complete the mission. The only way off the hell hole of a planet he resides on and away from the people looking for him is to accept a contract off world as a companion to a lonely miner.
The first time readers meet Abraham Bauer, better known as Bram, he is down in the dredges of his claim, trying to figure out the size of the seam he just discovered. A retired foreman with the Muedini Corporation, now he mines his own claim and farms his leased land. He’s built himself a nice homestead, but he’s lonely and wants to find a nice man and maybe start a family someday. Which is why he goes looking for love on the holo terminal and sees Gael for the first time. Gael is running from a shitty life on a planet where the poor are basically owned by powerful families. Slavery and child labor are legal and the only way out is to become someone else and run to another planet. He takes Bram up on his contract thinking he was finally getting at chance at a different kind of life. Bram is ready for a partner to share his life and farm with. This could be something good for both of them.
Their relationship is slow, and steady, and the getting to know you is romantic. Bram is gruff, but tender. Gael wants so much to be accepted and wanted. I liked how these two fit together, different strengths, different vulnerabilities, but they fit together like puzzle pieces. I also appreciated how Bram was determined to not in any way pressure Gael into a sexual side to their relationship. By the time they finally fell into each other I was convinced that it was the exact right time for it to happen. There are some complications… a stowaway that pops up at the beginning, Gael’s past, Bram’s reservations, and the unforgiving harsh environment. But these two really want that chance at a new life together.
The science fiction aspects were done very well, and it was very easy to follow along and understand the world building. The stark, desolate surroundings leant a certain tension to the storyline, even as Bram and Gael’s relationship built slowly, but steadily. Very nicely done and I would definitely recommend.
I was so excited when Jennifer Estep announced plans to release a novella from Zane Zimmer’s POV. After the events in book two, I suspected she might and even called it in my review.
Zane Zimmer, of House Zimmer, is still reeling from the news that Vesper Quill is his sister. With the escape of Vesper and Kyrion Caldaren, he’s now the leader of the Arrows and has been tasked with finding their hideout and bringing them back to the Imperium. Even with all of that on his mind, he is still worried about the Techwave and what their plans are going forward. For now, he’s traveling with his family to the country estate of another House and celebrating the Summer Solstice.
The Galactic Bonds series is an action-packed good time set in space. The previous two books featured the same protagonists–Vesper and Kyrion–bonded and now on the run. Now it’s Zane’s turn to defeat The Techwave terrorists and maybe connect with the woman who will eventually own his heart. He also has some serious realizations about his family and himself. The sarcastic, good-time playboy is more than meets the eye and what you see in the press.
While this book is novella length, it does move the overall series plot arc along by giving hints at what The Techwave as planned and why they infiltrated the Spring Solstice celebration. I think the building up of Zane’s relationship with Asterin, and her friendship with Vesper and Caldaren are foreshadowing what is to come in the next book in the series. Will Zane travel to her home world to locate the missing couple? Is there a bond in the future for him and Lady Asterin? I’m beyond excited to find out.
Vesper Quill and Kyrion Caldaren are back in the second book of the Galactic Bonds series. When we last left them, they had defeated the traitorous owner of Kent Corp and went their separate ways, Kyrion oblivious to the bond that still existed between him and Vesper after she had cleverly hidden the effects of the test given by the Imperium leader Lord Callus Holloway.
When the book opens several months later, Vesper has taken over Kent Corp and turned it into Quill Corp, determined to right wrongs and put out quality products. But thanks to her seer abilities she knows that members of the Techwave movement will contact her and she has plans to track them to their hidey hole and turn that information in so they can be taken down. Then it all goes sideways, she’s taken hostage and Kyrian finally realizes that his truebond with Vesper is still intact and he sets out to save her. He has other orders from Holloway, to kill her, but he’s not about to do that when he’s just coming to terms that Vesper means more to him than he had admitted to himself in the past.
I will admit to taking a sneak peek at the ending when I first opened my Kindle copy. After the conclusion of the last book, I NEEDED to know if Vesper and Kyrion’s relationship would show some progression. I wasn’t expecting all hearts and flowers, but my romance-loving heart needed some movement in a positive direction. Let’s just say that I was happy. The pacing is a bit slow at the very start, catching up with Vesper and Kyrion, and seeing how they are both doing on their own, without each other despite their bond. Then Vesper is kidnapped and taken off-world to a Techwave facility and the pacing and action picks up pretty quickly.
Once this couple reunites and partners in an investigation into what the plans are for Vesper’s stolen designs, their chemistry, and bond are undeniable. But they are still fighting it and their feelings for each other. Ms. Estep uses familiar tools to connect all the plot points, as both Kyrian and Vesper take trips into Vesper’s dream world and find that their bond is the key to saving both of their lives. The last 25% is a wild, thrilling ride and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out how they would defeat the bad guys and cement their union. Of course, they are helped out by loyal, loving friends and their contributions are necessary to the success of Kyrion’s rescue plans.
While I have a feeling we will see more of this couple in the future, I do sense that the next book might feature a different couple, or at least set them up as prominent characters. Which makes me very happy. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this author writes more books in this world, especially after the revelations in the last few pages.
This is the third book in the series and features grumpy security expert Rax Varon and Clara, the princess who while escaping her evil uncle and an arranged marriage she doesn’t want takes a ride on his ship (unbeknownst to him) back to the Ignisar.
This book was SO much fun. A bodyguard, hurt/comfort, marriage of convenience romance with an MMC who goes into protective mode when he realizes the woman who drives him crazy is hiding from her family for a damn good reason. I loved being back on the Ignisar and seeing the dynamic between all the crew members. Rax and his brother have this wonderfully close, yet with some gentle ribbing and sparring, relationship that made me fall in love with both of them. The romance between Clara and Rax is beautiful as she is finding herself in a safe space, and he is learning how to protect her while also giving her room to come into her own.
Throw in the kink with consent, an exciting rescue scene, and the recovery and rehabilitation of a beloved friend at the end and this was my favorite so far in this series.
Here’s to hoping that Rax’s brother and his hunky prince get a love story of their own in the future.
All in all, highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys science fiction romance....more
The second book in the series focuses on Elanie (Sunny’s BFF) a half-human bionic who from what I can tell is the person who keeps everything together on the Ignisar and the ship’s doctor, Sem.
Elanie finally downloads her hormone update from LunaCorp and realizes she doesn’t recognize her body anymore. Sunny recommends a visit to the doctor on board, and Elanie finally relents and visits Sem, who as an empath finds it hard to treat his new patient since he can’t read her emotions. The fact that he’s super attracted to her doesn’t help either.
This is more of an adventure, coming-of-age type tale. Elanie and Sem find themselves on a frozen planet when Elanie is “called” by a faction of bionics looking for freedom from LunaCorp. They learn to depend on each other and it takes them away from the Dr./Patient relationship and enables them to really get to know each other. I liked Sem’s gentle demeanor and Elanie’s sexual awakening while finding her independence. Their romance was quite lovely....more
This is the first book in the series and features Sunny, the hospitality specialist on board the Ignisar, and her one-time one-night stand turned newly hired coworker, Freddie.
Sunny is bright and open and lovely to pretty much everyone she comes across. When she and Freddie had their fling they did so under assumed names so neither thought they would see the other ever again, so realizing they would be working together was a bit of a shock to both of them. Freddie is thrilled and hoping to reconnect, while Sunny has a strict no-dating co-workers rule that she won’t break despite the lovely, multiple orgasm night she spent with Freddie. Despite her sunny, friendly disposition she harbors some deep hurts, and it turns out the wonderfully beta Freddie might be just the person to help her heal.
I kind of fell in love with the ship and its crew members as a whole in this novel. Sunny and Freddie were the main characters, but the setting of the pleasure ship, with all its quirks and interesting rooms and activities as well as every one of the characters in it, are what make this book shine. This is a found family who clearly loves and values each other. There is a subplot of some bad guys, doing bad things, for bad reasons, but it totally worked for the story.
The third and final book in the Starlight’s Shadow science fiction romance series features the crew’s daring recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen, and the Valovian teleporter, Nilo Shoren, who once left her standing in a bar by herself while he stole her job.
To say I was excited about this book would be an understatement. I was in full gimme, gimme, gimme mode. I will admit to being super bummed to find out that this would be the final installment in the series, I was hoping that the rest of the crew, specifically the polyam lovers, would get their own HEA. And I guess they kind of do… in like a secondary character, let’s have a brief conversation to wrap up that plot line and give those characters just a tad bit of closure way. That’s not to say I didn’t devour Capture the Sun as soon as I opened my Kindle to read, I totally did, but I do wish there would have been at least a novella for the secondary characters left hanging. I’m kind of hoping they appear in a later series.
Lexi agrees to take a job and it brings her back to Valovia, which she knows is a bad idea, but the money is right so she heads there anyway. And OF COURSE it’s a set-up, and guess who comes to her rescue when the shit hits the fan…
This puts these two in close quarters and forces them to work together when they find out that their friends and found family are in trouble and headed into a dangerous situation. So they make a plan to follow, and help them defeat the bad guys and prevent another war.
This book felt sexier than the previous two for me, maybe because of the set-up and the fact that this couple already had an established connection and chemistry. At the same time there is a whole lot of time spent doing the mundane work of figuring out a way to help the Starlight’s Shadow, getting the tools needed for their rescue attempt, and figuring out a way off planet. So while I did like the “will they or won’t they” aspect of the first part of the book, I also thought the beginning dragged a bit. Then they finally get to where Tavi, Torran, and crew are being held and the stakes get higher and the action picks up.
I liked the way this author managed to wrap up the plot points all nice and neat. I won’t won’t spoil anything, but I think fans of this author will be happy with the ending. Lexi and Nilo’s relationship goes from zero to a hundred pretty quickly, but I did like their chemistry and balanced relationship. I’m a sucker for competent protagonists and these two have it in spades. There is a touch of hurt/comfort with Nilo sacrificing himself to save Lexi several times and her having to take care of him while his body and mind heal.
All in all, I enjoyed the entire series immensely and am keeping my fingers crossed that we will see more of these characters in the future.
I’ve always enjoyed Jennifer Estep’s fantasy and urban fantasy novels, so when I heard she was writing a book set in space I was immediately all in. Gimme. Only Bad Options features fated mates, enemies to lovers, and protagonists from completely different stations in life tropes. If fated mates isn’t your thing, don’t worry there is no instalove here, just two people stuck in an impossible situation, at first wary of each other (there might even be some death threats) and then grudgingly forced to partner together to take down the bad guys.
Vesper Quill is a lowly worker in the research and development department of Kent Corp. But she’s figured out that the company she works for is hiding something about the recent crash of one of their newly designed starcruisers. They are pushing the pilot error angle, but she knows that it’s actually a pretty big design flaw. What she doesn’t realize until it’s too late is that they will do anything to keep it a secret, including shipping her off-world and right into the middle of a war.
Kyrion Coldren is the head of the Arrows, a fighting force that strikes terror across the galaxy. He’s used to being in control and in command, then he meets Vesper during a battle and realizes that they share a truebond. One he will do anything to break, even if that means killing Vesper to get rid of it.
I jumped right into this book as soon as it hit my Kindle. Vesper is an intriguing heroine, with her seer abilities and affinity with technology. She’s smart, resilient, and takes no shit. I absolutely loved that she always knew how to fix all the broken things and her magic helped her instinctively know ways to make them work better. That magic also helps her when she finds herself stuck aboard a space vessel on its way into the middle of a bloody conflict. This is where she meets the infamous Kyrion and ends up being stuck with him and an unwanted Truebond.
It took me a bit longer to appreciate Kyrion, mainly because he was so cold and aloof. It could also be that his desire to kill Vesper to get rid of their bond. He does redeem himself, but it’s only after his backstory finally comes out and he and Vesper form a partnership of sorts.
If you are looking for a straightforward science fiction romance, this isn’t it (right now). Only Bad Options reads like a space opera with a romantic element. Although, being very familiar with this author’s backlist I believe that she will absolutely be expanding on that romance in the books to come. And I LIKED that this book focused on the world-building and extensive political players. I liked that readers aren’t thrown into an insta-love situation forced by a bond, but instead get to know Vesper and Kyrion as individuals. I’m hoping that their relationship builds bit by bit in future installments until it’s a choice to be together.
The ending was well done and wrapped up the conflict nicely, while still giving just a hint of what is to come. I’m looking forward to it.
This author has quickly become one of my absolute favorites in the fantasy/sci-fi genre. When one of her new or upcoming releases hit my Kindle I drop everything and settle in for a rollicking good time. I’m never disappointed.
Eclipse the Moon is the second book in this series, which began with Hunt the Stars and the introduction of this world and the now expanded crew of Starlight’s Shadow. Having met these characters I immediately fell in love and started mentally pairing up characters for future installments. Kee and Varro jumped to the top of my couple radar with their early misunderstandings and obvious chemistry.
The overall series plot continues on with this found family crew on the lookout for Commodore Frank Morten, who they believe was involved in the kidnapping of Torren’s nephew and possibly a more sinister plan to restart the war between FHP and the Valovian Empire. Kee is the ship’s information guru and hacker, able to dive deep into secure systems and retrieve intelligence material. But her hunt for Morten’s whereabouts seems to be at a standstill. So she obtains permission from Tavi to stay behind on Bastion, a space station with an FHP base, on the next restocking run. If it gives her some space from Varro, all the better. Maybe she can get her infatuation under control and her head back in the friend zone.
But Varro has other plans, and his need to protect her leaves them separated from their team and on their own for what turns out to be a dangerous mission.
Yet another Jessie Mihalik book that rocked my world. I adored this grumpy/sunshine space adventure thoroughly. I have a thing for hackers and information gatherers in my romance and Kee and her big brain ticked all my pleasure boxes. Pairing her with a Valovian weapons expert who grunts and scowls and is determined to keep her safe no matter the cost was just icing on the science fiction cake for me. You know when the heroine thinks the hero doesn’t like her “like that” because he is standoffish, yet does all these little things for her that she mistakes for just simple kindness because he wants to be friends? This is Kee and Varro. So when they are stuck together in a room short on space there are lots of misunderstandings and finally an admission that Varro feels the same way. But can a man whose mental abilities are so vast that other Valovian’s are scared of him, let down his guard enough to take a chance on love?
The plot is very intricate with all kinds of threads that I don’t believe will be tied up until the very last book in the series. But there is movement toward a big showdown and what I think will be the discovery of a vast plan that encompasses more than one government. This is book two and I had to check the author’s website to see if there is any mention of just how many books there will be in this series because I see at least two more romances I want to see play out. One of them is the polyam quad that was teased about in book one and is mentioned just a little more in-depth here. I have my mind set on this happening so be prepared for tears if it doesn’t.
Eclipse the Moon is a fast-paced, thrilling space opera. I’m kind of mad at myself for reading it so fast because now I have a long wait for the next book in the series. If science fiction/fantasy is your genre of choice you won’t want to miss this one. This is the good stuff.
This is just a fabulous series, that keeps getting better with each new installment.
System Collapse opens with action and Murderbot, who is dealing with PTSD from the events Network Effect, a little bit off and struggling with its feelings of anxiety and fear. ART, Murderbot, and their humans are on a peacekeeping mission of sorts, trying to help a group of settlers on a planet with alien contamination from becoming indentured servants to an evil corporation. It takes a bit for the shit to hit the fan, which is always does, but oh, boy, once it does the adrenaline gets pumping and its non-stop action right up until the end.
This is definitely not a series to read out of order, or to begin in the middle of. Every new story builds on the plotline of the last book. The relationships between Murderbot, ART, and the rest of the supporting cast become stronger with each new adventure. If you’re not already a fan, do yourself a favor and add it to your TBR.
I glommed this entire series in the last couple of months and have zero regrets. Murderbot is exactly what I needed to start off my year.
This is the sixth, and newest, release in the Murderbot Diaries, which follows a rogue SecUnit’s adventures. This book was a return to the novella length page count and it was a quick, easy read. Murderbot is asked to help station security with an investigation of a dead human on Preservation Station. And despite its misgivings and the fact that it would rather be watching entertainment vids, the request is granted.
I can’t help but love the humor, amazing action scenes, and wonderful world-building. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the events of the last book. Before I read the blurb I did wonder if this next release would have Murderbot helping ART or back with his Preservation Station humans. Thankfully, we get a nice long look around Preservation Station. I think this was the exact right direction to take this series.
Murderbot is evolving and I enjoyed seeing it not being able to rely simply on hacking but having to think outside the box. I think it is starting to almost enjoy and find a bit of comfort in its relationships with the humans who readers first met in book one. These are Murderbot’s humans and it is their SecUnit, they make a good team.
Another fabulous book in a fabulous series. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
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