Tag Archives: sci-fi romance

Book Review of Polaris Rising and Aurora Blazing, by Jessie Mihalik

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I won a paperback copy of Jessie Mihalik‘s Aurora Blazing through Goodreads. So, I borrowed Polaris Rising from the local library.

Description of Polaris Rising:

A space princess on the run and a notorious outlaw soldier become unlikely allies in this imaginative, sexy space opera adventure—the first in an exciting science fiction trilogy.

In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars.

Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now her luck has run out. To ensure she cannot escape again, the fiery princess is thrown into a prison cell with Marcus Loch. Known as the Devil of Fornax Zero, Loch is rumored to have killed his entire chain of command during the Fornax Rebellion, and the Consortium wants his head.

When the ship returning them to Earth is attacked by a battle cruiser from rival House Rockhurst, Ada realizes that if her jilted fiancé captures her, she’ll become a political prisoner and a liability to her House. Her only hope is to strike a deal with the dangerous fugitive: a fortune if he helps her escape.

But when you make a deal with an irresistibly attractive Devil, you may lose more than you bargained for . . .

Review:

This wasn’t bad for a sci-fi romance…romance in space…romantic sci-fi (whatever you want to call it). I enjoyed both the main character and the hero, though I REALLY wish we had a little of Marcus’ POV.

However, I was bothered by two big things (and several smaller things that I won’t bother with). One, there were some BIG coincidences that helped Ada along. At one point, something was stolen from her on one planet, then on a whole separate planet she went to buy a replacement from a fence and ended up buying back her own thing. I can’t imagine that happening without divine intervention or something. Secondly, this is said to belong in the future, but there are too many similarities to contemporary times. The fashion is exactly the same, a suit and tie or tux is still ideal for a man. Women still wear flowy dresses, strappy heels, and makeup. A good breakfast is still waffles, eggs, and bacon. Society is still patriarchal and sexist as hell. Humans have conquered the galaxy and culture hasn’t changed at all?

All and all, I’d be more than happy to read book two (have it, in fact). But I don’t feel any pressing need to rush to it.

Description of Aurora Blazing:

Bianca von Hasenberg did her duty for High House von Hasenberg and ended up trapped in a terrible marriage. When her husband dies unexpectedly and leaves her a happy widow, she vows never to marry again. Instead, she uses her connections to save other young women. Information is power and Bianca has a network that would be the envy of the ’verse—if anyone knew about it.

After an attack, Bianca’s oldest brother, the House von Hasenberg heir, disappears from Earth without a trace. Determined to find him, Bianca leaves against orders. When she refuses to return, her father sends Ian Bishop, the director of House von Hasenberg security, to haul her home like a recalcitrant child.

Bianca leads Ian on a merry chase across the universe, but when their paths finally collide, she persuades him that they would be far more successful at finding her brother if they worked together. She will do anything to save her sibling, even if it means spending time alone on a small ship with the handsome, infuriating man who once broke her heart.

As clues lead them deep into rival House Rockhurst territory, Bianca must decide if she can trust Ian with the one piece of information that could destroy her completely. . .

Review:

I enjoyed the second half of this book, but the first half not at all. My problem was that the hero was a condescending asshat to the heroine. Over and over again he would stymie her efforts and then pretend she was being unreasonable because she wouldn’t blindly follow unreasonable orders. If he hadn’t been the obvious eventual love interest, but just a beleaguered head of security beholden to her father, rather than her, I might not have hated it. But that he was supposed to be the man she fell in love with, in fact, was having lusty thoughts about even while being 100% unlikable made me hate him and the book. When he finally had a sudden personality transplant, just past the halfway mark, I tolerated the book. Unfortunately, the last hundred and fifty pages didn’t give me enough distance from the first hundred and fifty to say I liked it. I liked book one and I still like the overarching plot. So, I’ll read book three. But this one was a dud for me.

The Glass Admiral

Book Review of The Glass Admiral, by Kit Smart

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I won an  e-copy of Kit Smart‘s The Glass Admiral through Goodreads.

Description:
Cavalry officer and master horse trainer Lt. Megarheri Saverna, doesn’t have much use for males of the two legged variety beyond an occasional one night stand. She is, therefore, less than pleased to be dragged off-planet, away from her horses and assigned as batwoman to Space Fleet’s most notoriously difficult hero. Even if he’s gorgeous, witty, unexpected and quite possibly the sexiest man in the universe.

Admiral Sen Kosuri has never seen himself as anything other than what he is; a severely disabled, half Recessive fleet officer; an admiral in name only. Relegated to a desk since the mutiny that left him disabled, he never thought he’d see a field command again and now that he has, he is determined to keep it even if it means making use of his reluctant ‘batwoman’ for however long she lasts.

Tough, funny, beautiful and more than able to handle anything he throws at her, Lt. Saverna is a revelation; one that soon sparks a sexual attraction that triggers his Recessive mating impulses and has him seeing beyond what he is to what he could be and hoping that she might last forever.

Warning: The Glass Admiral is a sci-fi romance featuring a disabled hero and strong female lead that contains sexual situations and several graphic descriptions of intimacy. Intended for mature readers.

Review:
This was almost a lot of light weight fun. There was never going to be any bulk or seriousness to it, but for a fluffy read it almost made the mark. It started out well, with the two meeting and then immediately finding themselves attacked by pirates. But then she tried to seduce him in an access hatch in the middle of mortal danger (15 minutes after meeting him) and I grimaced. It was too fast. But even then, it still might have just been a little bit of erotic fluff to read. But it didn’t manage that either.

The editing is a mess. (At one point I passed a paragraph I thought might actually be a left over plotting note. The paragraph didn’t fit where it was and didn’t make any sense to the story.) And information is dropped willy-nilly. For example, toward the end she states she wants to claim him because she’s a dragon and I stopped and went, “Wait, does she mean that literally or is that, like, her unit in the Calvary?” The book has no ending. Of course it ends, and I knew it wasn’t stand-alone, but nothing wraps up, there’s no build-up to anything, there’s nothing to mark a logical break between books. It literally just ends out of nowhere. It’s too precipitous to even be called a cliffhanger.

All of it added up to a mess…but a mess that you could see good bones in. Given to a competent content and developmental editor this could be good. But it’s not there yet. And none of this touches on my biggest problem. I chose to read this book because I thought it might be a fun read, but also because it had a lot of elements you don’t often see. She was the more experienced sexual partner and that alpha-type male was disabled, living with chronic pain and injury. Plus, given the cover, I assumed he would be black. (And though the word isn’t used, by his description his was.) But then, as the only notably black character, he’s referred to as a Recessive (whatever that is, his race I think) and was subject to a very public sexual maturation in which he apparently had a prolonged raging hard-on he couldn’t control among other things, which was followed by years of doctors taking liberties with his body and a loss of autonomy. I was very, very uncomfortable with the implications.

Learning to Want

Book Review of Learning to Want, by Tami Veldura

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I think I picked Tami Velbura‘s Learning to Want up in a Instrafreebie giveaway. It was certainly something along those lines.

Description from Goodreads:
Khoram is an enforcer, a bodyguard, but his boss has just betrayed him. Now he’s stranded on a desert planet he’s never heard of, chained to the only other human around.

Atash grew up in the cracks of Dulia’s complex social structure, where dominance and submission are a man’s worth. He’s struggled for years on a lower caste but Khoram could be his ticket to a better life if they can find common ground.

Atash wants to teach Khoram the art of submitting by choice and maybe make a name for himself along the way. Khoram, however, isn’t here to play Atash’s political games. He’s going to escape, if his former employer doesn’t see him killed first.

Review:
So, I found my experience with Learning to Want mixed at best. Picking up a book about a master/slave relationship (and not one in which characters play master or slave, but a real one in which one is actually owned by the other) is always an iffy proposition. Add to the mix that the enslaved character was a free black man, even if the enslaving character is black scaled (he’s still of the dominant, slave owning culture) is an uncomfortable echo of recent Western history. Though, if this was just the authors attempt to include some diversity I have to appreciate the effort.

There was just a lot of squink around the edges of the story. Even the Ohiri, the perfectly bland race that entered enslavement willingly and was supposed to be an example of unproblematic slavery, were raised from birth to submission. There willingness was coerced at best and they’re completely dismissed in the book. Background fodder, basically.

But my main issue is that, with the exception of transport in the beginning, which we’re told was 20+ days, but we don’t see, the whole book is about a week. In that time a free man was captured, molested, sold at auction, fondled some more (with some dubious consent), introduced to BDSM (which was really JUST SPANKING), come to NEED it, fallen in love, accepted and appreciated his ‘collar and cuffs’ (a euphemism of slavery), performed a perfect power-play sex ‘scene’ in front of hundreds, formed a soul bond and lived happily ever after (as a slave). And I was just like, “Ummmm, uh-uh. No way. We have skimmed over some major trauma here.”

Some books have a magic peen, where someone has sex one time and everything is magically perfect in the plot. This book had a magic paddle. One spanking and Khoram released all his guilt over being a drug dealing slaver in the past and accepted his lot as a sexual slave, craved it even. NO. Big fat No.

This book seemed to want to have both slaves and consent in the same people. In fact, that the slave must consent is stated more than once by characters in the book, seriously stressed even. And that just can’t work. It can’t. Veldura tried real hard, but IT DOES NOT WORK.

The writing is fine. In fact there are the occasional turns of phrase that are really beautiful. And the editing didn’t stand out as problematic. But the plot did. It is too rushed and the ‘free and consenting slave’ is an impossibility that Veldura failed to make feel anything but icky. As fluff, ok it’s fine. I could even like it. But think even the smallest amount about the plot and the whole thing collapses in on itself.