The New Releases in science fiction romance just keep coming!
Vivien Jackson’s Perfect Gravity (Wanted and Wired Book 2) is a sequel I’ve been eagerly anticipating. She has quite a different twist on the way she tells her futuristic stories. The plot: Kellen Hockley usually keeps quiet about his past, but once upon a time he loved a girl named Angela. He hasn’t seen her in a decade, but now he has to break the news to her that his team of rogue treasure hunters accidentally killed her husband. He’s had better days…
It’s not the news that’s delivered to Angela Neko that breaks her apart—it’s the rumbly, Texas drawl delivering it. She can’t believe she’s hearing Kellen’s voice again. But there’s no time for distractions. When Angela’s own life is threatened, yielding up all of her lies and secrets, she and Kellen must figure out how to reverse the geopolitical firestorm she lit to save the world, to save Kellen’s cat…and just maybe to save each other.
Anna Carven’s Dark Planet Warriors series has been expanded with a volume of short stories, Earth Files. I was delighted by this, since the main series is one of my favorites and I was sorry to see it end (although I loved the final book and how all the plot threads were tied up. And author Carven promises a spinoff series soon.) Here’s the teaser for Earth Files the author provided: “As much as Rykal thought she was sheer perfection in that outfit, he wanted to flick out a claw and gently slice the garment from top to bottom…Later. She wouldn’t escape his tender clutches.But he would behave himself for now, because this particular outing was apparently an important event in Human culture.He was about to meet the mother of his mate.” And the official blurb: The Earth Files are short stories (novella-length) set in the world of the Dark Planet Warriors. You can expect sweet, steamy, and offbeat stories about the colorful characters from the main series. They are intended as accompaniments to Dark Planet Warriors, and may contain the occasional spoiler. Book 1 features Arin and Rykal, our protagonists from Forged in Shadow. It’s set after Brilliant Starlight (Book 8), when the Kordolians have returned to Earth.
Another of my favorite authors in the science fiction romance world is Anna Hackett and she released Beast (Galactic Gladiators Book 7), which was a character and a book I’d been waiting for. (Can you tell I sit around and positively devour SFR in between writing my own novels?). I always give author Hackett huge kudos for her take on the galactic gladiators trope. She does it well and has added so many plot elements since the first installment of the series. I also like her strong heroines. The story: Rescued by gladiators on the alien world of Carthago, Mia is working to find other abducted humans who are still lost. But someone else also needs her help—the untamed alien who’s saved her twice. Rescued from vicious fight rings he’s fought in since he was a child, Vek is prone to losing control in aggressive fits of rage…and Mia discovers that she is the only who can calm him. As she finds herself drawn to the man beneath the beast, she knows that with his enhanced senses, Vek can help her find her friends.
For years, all Vek’ker has known is death, darkness, and killing. Despite his newfound freedom, he is struggling to control his rages and withdrawal from the drugs his captors used on him. Only one scent soothes him, one voice calms him, and one woman is his light in the dark. Vek will do anything to protect Mia and make her happy…including vowing to find her friends.
With the gladiators from the House of Galen, Vek and Mia follow mysterious clues into a dangerous part of the desert on the trail of the missing humans. They are drawn closer together but as they enter the deadly Illusion Mountains, they have no idea of the dangers lying in wait for them, or how far they will both be pushed to their limits in order to survive.
Additionally, author Hackett had a new release in her Hell Squad post-apocalyptic series, Ash, which was book #14. I truly enjoy that series, set in Australia, with dinosaurlike aliens and a lot of very hunky, tough heroes and the strong women who love them. The author finds inventive new ways to change up the action and the plot twists for each new book.
Ruby Dixon also had two new releases since I last wrote on the subject. Lauren’s Barbarian (Ice Home Book 1) continued the blue barbarian tradition, although it was a standalone, not directly tied in to the other books. Ms. Dixon also released The Alien’s Mail Order Bride, which seems to be a completely new series for her. Here’s the premise for this novella: Though still carrying the scars of his past as an intergalactic soldier, Emvor doesn’t mind the quiet of his chosen life as a farmer. He doesn’t even mind that most nights are lonely on remote Cassa, but he does need help around his farm. A mail-order bride from his homeworld seems like the perfect solution. She’ll be a tall, sturdy female to help with the chores and bear his children.
Unfortunately, the person that arrives is Nicola. She’s small, delicate…and human. She also knows nothing about farming, and she’s lied and deceived her way across the galaxy to get to Cassa so she can hide from those that would capture her. She’s a problem, and also the most enticing thing he’s ever seen.
Now Emvor has to decide…can he keep the woman who’s nothing like what he asked for but is everything he needs?
Author Charlee Allden has given us the sequel to her 2015 novel Stealing Mercury, book one in the Arena Dogs series, with the newly released Tempting Jupiter. Allden takes a different spin on the interstellar gladiator situation. Here’s her plot: Jupiter and Seneca are Arena Dogs, genetically engineered slaves created to serve at the will of their masters. From the beginning, Jupiter was destined for the gladiator arena where a Dog faces death every day. Seneca became a gladiator only after years of abuse in a pleasure house and he owes his success in the arena to the Dog he secretly loves—Jupiter. Slated for death after a rigged match in the gladiator arena, they’re instead rescued and taken off the planet by the Resistance. When the escape ship is recaptured, their only hope to remain free is a human woman with an agenda and secrets of her own.
Feeona is a thief and a con artist, but that doesn’t make her one of the bad guys. Normally, the Arena Dogs would be safe in her care. Even if she wasn’t crazy attracted to them she’d want to help them, but their presence has interfered with her plans and a cause so close to her soul that nothing can be more important—not even the two men who are rapidly taking up residence in her heart.
Will Feeona find a way to save them all or will she be forced to choose who to save and who to betray?
Time for only a few more quick mentions.
Hunted by Libby Sinclair involves a crash landing on a faroff planet; as her blurb puts it: “…people begin disappearing in the night then all hell breaks loose. As if in a nightmare, vampires attack…” I bet these vampires aren’t deterred by garlic or anything else traditional.
While not romance, I’m intrigued by Red Dust and Dancing Horses and Other Stories by Beth Cato. Here’s the summary of what the book offers: This debut collection from Nebula-nominated author Beth Cato brings together works that span history and space, a showcase of vividly imagined speculative stories that range from introspective and intense to outright whimsical. Here you’ll find the souls of horses bonded into war machines of earth and air, toilet gnomes on the rampage, magical pies, a mad scientist mother, a bitter old man who rages against giant extraterrestrial robots, and a sentient house that longs to be a home. The book features 28 stories and 6 poems, and includes Cato’s acclaimed story “The Souls of Horses.”
And Lindsay Buroker has set up a Kindle World for her very deservedly popular Fallen Empire series. There were three new releases in that KW recently:
Fallen Empire: Space Clan Bugaloo (The Wedding Feud Book 1) by Dylan Keefer , Fallen Empire: Discovery and Flight (Choi and Watson Book 2) by Matthew Quinn and Fallen Empire: A Stand for Freedom by Jeffery H Haskell.
What have you been filling your e reader or your book shelf with lately?
