Tag Archives: sci-fi romance

Reconstructed

Book Review of Reconstructed (Building a Hero #1), by Tasha Black

ReconstructedI downloaded a free copy of Reconstructed, by Tasha Black. It is currently free on Amazon. (Or was at the time of posting.)

Description from Goodreads:
Westley Worthington has it all. Piles of money, good looks, a head for business, and a seemingly limitless supply of women who want to please him. And that’s just the way he likes it. Until a brush with death causes him to rethink his priorities, and consider someone besides himself for the first time in his privileged life. 

Cordelia Cross has never had it easy. Her duty to her family has her working as an assistant to a man she hates just to pay her sister’s medical bills. When her arrogant boss alienates his last true friend, she finds herself promoted from schedule-managing coffee grabber, to the newest member of West’s inner circle. 

Tempers, and passions, ignite as the two start spending time together, until a shocking accident puts their newfound attraction on ice. When West is faced with the toughest trial of his life, Cordelia helps him realize that he has all the tools he needs to be a force for justice. 

Together, they must turn West into the hero no one ever thought he could be. 

Review:
Wellllll, it wasn’t baaaaad. It just wasn’t very good either. This is a romance above all else and I’m sorry, but it wasn’t enough to carry the plot. Mostly because it wasn’t at all developed and it was too diluted by the attempt at action/sci-fi. Plain Jane assistance works for jerk-face, womanizing boss and is inexplicably attracted to him. Jerk-face, womanizing boss can’t figure out why his starlets no longer appeal and all he can think of is plain Jane assistant. That’s pretty much it. It makes no sense. What’s more, it’s inferred that plain Jane assistant is smart and witty and capable, while all those other pretty, sexy, available women (read slutty, because that’s the subtext) and by extension all other women are not. This makes me twitchy.

Then there’s the attempt at a sci-fi, action plot. It fails almost completely because it’s just too weak. The characters survival stretches credulity. His recover is almost instantaneous. His accomplishments inhuman, but worst of all we’re not shown anything. I have this specific incident I want to use as an example, but it would be a spoiler. So lets just say someone does something impossible to save someone else. He tells that person to go, sacrificing himself. That’s the plan, anyhow. Cut scene, end chapter. New chapter, he is giving someone a gift, culminating in the pseudo-sex scene symbolizing their forever union. We do not see the action. We do not know how he survived. We don’t know what happened to the person saved. We don’t know the aftermath. We don’t know what happened to the ultimate villain, only the minion. We don’t even know who the second person, who disappeared without mention, had been. What was the point of including any of it, if the author was going to skip all the important stuff? Honestly, the book would have been stronger if she had just written an office romance.

The writing itself is ok, for the most part. But it fails at times. For example, the hero does have some character growth, random as if feels at times. But this is part of how the author let the reader know about it. “West was deepening before her eyes – becoming less a caricature of a playboy and more of a man.” Yep, got it. Thanks for making sure I didn’t miss the fact. Head/desk.

So, again, it’s not all bad, though I guess I made it sound like it was. There is a good side character, Dalton, and some obvious set up for future books. But it’s just not really very good.

Mercenary Instinct

Book Review of Mercenary Instinct (Mandrake Company, #1), by Ruby Lionsdrake

Mercenary InstinctI picked up a copy of Ruby Lionsdrake‘s Mercenary Instinct when it was free on Amazon.

Description from Goodreads:
Skulking around in the ruins on a planet swarming with treasure hunters, slavers, and bounty hunters isn’t good for one’s health. But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.

Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.

But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.

Review:
An amusing bit of Sci-Fi/Space Opera romance fluff. Nothing too serious here, but no big grievances on my part either. The characters were likable enough and the plot easy to follow. There were no big surprises and everything seems to happen with questionable ease, but it’s an entertaining ride.

I might have liked a little more world-building and character development and the whole thing could do with another editing pass, but for easy reading it passes.

Ice Planet Barbarians

Book Review of Ice Planet Barbarians, by Ruby Dixon

Ice Planet BarbariansI picked up a copy of Ruby Dixon‘s Ice Planet Barbarians from Amazon when it was free.

Description from Goodreads:
You’d think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you’d be wrong. Because now, the aliens are having ship trouble, and they’ve left their cargo of human women – including me – on an ice planet.

And the only native inhabitant I’ve met? He’s big, horned, blue, and really, really has a thing for me…

Review:
You might not know this about me, but the Mars Needs Women trope is a guilty pleasure of mine. Kind of in the same vein as staying up late to watch cheesy, B-grade science fiction movies on the Sci-fi channel. Give me a bottle of red and a made for TV movie, at 2am and I’d be a happy camper. Laughing maniacally, but happily. You can’t take that shit seriously and the same goes for most well written Mars Needs Women themed books.

Ice Planet Barbarians is one such book. It is written with tongue firmly in cheek. It’s not that there aren’t serious bits, but the book doesn’t insist on taking itself seriously. Which always seems to feel like it gives me permission to laugh at it, as if I’m laughing with it. It’s freeing.

It’s not without missteps. The conversant computer is a little too conversationally chatty and well informed, not computer-like at all. The alien physique seemed a little too specialized to human female pleasure to be believable. Even without many females, I have a hard time believing every it’ll-feel-good practiced hadn’t been explored in some way. So, teaching him to kiss was eye-roll worthy and I don’t know that the rape in the beginning was necessary to make being kidnapped by aliens for an unknown purpose terrifying enough.

For the most part though, this was a fun space romp. You just have to remember what it’s meant to be (and not be) to enjoy it. It helps if you’re already familiar with the trope. I’d happily pick up more, just for the fun of it.