I picked Robin T. Popp‘s romantic space opera, Too Close to the Sun up off of the KDP free list. At the time of posting it was still free.
Description from Goodreads:
Hunted and on the run, galactic smuggler Angel Torrence stole a ship to escape capture, not realizing until too late that the ship’s computer, not she, was in control. With its disembodied voice, arrogant, bossy and sounding very male, it blared out of the Icarus’ control panel, not to thank her for rescuing him and his ship from the terrorist attack, but to instruct her to set a course for the most perilous planet in the known universe.
On the riskiest mission of his career, Colonel Nicoli Romanof had allowed his life essence and his physical form to be separated. And the Harvesters had taken the bait; his body. Now he needed the cocky pilot who’d stolen his vessel to help him retrieve his person and destroy the deadly race of aliens. Then he discovered the young pilot was a woman and he kissed his chances of success goodbye.
When Nicoli refused her assistance because of her gender, Angel would have moved heaven and earth to prove she was up to the task. But she never expected the colonel’s physique to be so magnificent or his heart to be so courageous. When a passion she couldn’t deny flared between them, she wondered if they’d found love or flown…Too close to the sun
Review (with slight spoilers):
This book was all right. It had some things I really liked and some that I literally scoffed at. On the plus side, Angel was independent and fearless. She was a heroine in her own right. There were some really funny little side comments in the book that made me laugh. Nicoli was a sexy, honor-bound male who was more than willing to put his life on the line to do the right thing and protect those he cared about. You have to appreciate that. The book also presented an interesting take on what it means to be ‘free.’ Thus, the title of both the book and Nicoli’s ship is clever.
On the negative side, this is a case of insta-love to the extreme, initially based on NOTHING more than appearances. I mean NOTHING. In both cases, they (Nicoli and Angel) fell irrevocably in lust with the body of the other when it wasn’t even inhabited by their consciousness or life essence and without knowing it was the other person. So literally just their naked body. But the reader is led to believe that true love could bloom from this very quickly. I found that a little hard to swallow.
While Angel is a strong-willed heroine who rescued Nicoli as often as he rescued her, she never had to rescue him because he had simply put himself in pointless danger or done something stupid. Example: lose her way in the dark (in her own home world), step in a crevice, and twist her ankle. Really!? That move alone almost negates enough respectable heroineness to put her in bimbo territory. Lastly, everyone has a happy ending. I know, that should be a good thing right? But how realistic is it? Examples: The antagonist has been working toward his carefully laid plan for a very, very long time, and then he suddenly lets it all fall apart for no apparent reason. He suddenly can’t keep his cool and does irrational things in public, giving himself away. Why, or rather why now? Then after Angel and Nicoli defeat this bad guy (or rather are present when he defeats himself) a benevolent leader takes over. But there is no mention of what happened to the previous leader, who wasn’t the big bad. I can’t imagine he just suddenly decided to peacefully pass the reigns to another….mysterious happy ending. Plus, everyone pairs off perfectly. It’s all just a little too clean for me.
The writing was fine, and the book ended with a teaser of the next one, Dark Side of the Sun. It looked interesting enough to be worth reading. So, all-in-all an alright read.