carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I must say that I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. It did take me a while to really get into the story but once I did I had a lot of fun with it. I was really eager to read this book since I really liked her books from the Kingmaker Chronicles trilogy. This is the first book in a brand new series that blends science fiction with romance and I think it worked really well.

Tess Bailey and her crew start out this story in a bit of trouble. They have a stolen lab attached to their ship and are about to be caught. They take a chance on a risky maneuver to escape and then need to put the pieces back together. Their ship needs a lot of work and they are wanted by the authorities. Tess runs into Shade who happens to have the skills to put her ship back together. 

I did like the characters in this story quite a bit. Tess was a bit of a mystery especially as the story started but I liked her more an more as we learned more about her past. She considers her crew to be her best friends but she has kept her past hidden from even them. Tess was smart, loyal, and kind, but unsure when it came to Shade. Shade has been through some things and has made some big mistakes. I must say that I liked him right away. He seemed incredibly confident and observant. He does have a pretty big conflict of interest to contend with and I did enjoy getting the chance to peer into his head as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. 

I really did like Shade and Tess together even though it seemed to take a long time for things to start happening. I thought that they had great chemistry and their personalities seemed to mesh very nicely together. I really enjoyed the fact that they had some rather heartwarming scenes, some steamy scenes, some were filled with humor, and some with action. No matter what kind of scene they were in, it seemed that their characters just made it better because they were working together. I also really liked seeing the relationships that Tess had with her crew, who were really more like her family than anything. 

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys romance blended with some lighter science fiction. I think that this book is a solid first entry in what I expect will be an exciting series. I cannot wait to read more from Amanda Bouchet!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca via Edelweiss. 

Initial Thoughts
This is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me so I am rounding up for now. It took me a bit to really get into the story but I thought that the second half of the book was pretty strong. I liked Tess, her crew, and Shade even if I didn't fully connect with any of them. I was surprised that Shade didn't even make an appearance until around the 20% mark. There was plenty of action especially as the book progressed. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen in the next installment in this series.