We’re edging into summer now and I’ve got some new science fiction romance reads to recommend!
The husband and wife writing duo that is Tiffany Roberts has released volume number 3 in their Kraken Series. Heart of the Deep advances the story of a cutoff colony world, some three hundred years after contact was abruptly broken and the ongoing culture clash between the descendants of the human colonists and the mostly aquatic race living under the ocean…who also happen to be descended from the same colonists, but engineered to possess many octopus-like traits. I’m not normally a fan of tentacles, but I totally love stories set on abandoned colony worlds. Over the course of the three books I’ve grown to really like the Kraken. Here’s the plot: Larkin has spent almost a year hunting the monstrous kraken in the hope that they knew the whereabouts of her missing brother. Her efforts finally come to fruition when she and the other rangers capture three of the beasts — but the reality is nothing like the stories they’ve been told, and the kraken are not the monsters she expected. Dracchus awes her, captivates her, and makes her long for things she’d never dared dream. With tensions between their people escalating, can she jeopardize everything by trusting him? Is a taste of him worth her life?
Dracchus has risked himself countless times for the sake of his people, doing anything and everything to protect and provide for them. Between the vocal, anti-human kraken at home and the hunters prowling the seas, everything is falling apart around him. But when he meets Larkin, he allows himself hope — hope for a mate of his own, for a family of his own. She is his match, unlike any female he’s ever known. To have her, he’ll have to endanger her, along with all those he’s come to care for. After years of selflessness, how much is he willing to gamble to fulfill his own desires?
New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author SE Smith tells a tale of spies and an assassins’ planet in Survivor Skills: Project Gliese 581g Book 3. The blurb for her latest: Two warriors—one mission: Survival….
Sergi Lazaroff is a weapons expert and a member of the Russian FSB, also known as the Federal Security Service Bureau—a nice term for his true profession as a spy. Assigned to the Project Gliese 581g exploration team, his job was supposed to be simple—find out what was in space, retrieve the technology, and return home with it, if possible. When he wakes up on an alien planet, Sergi knows the last part of his mission will be impossible. Instead, he must use his military training and skills to survive in a world where he doesn’t know the rules.
La’Rue Gant’s search for the mysterious occupant of the pod that landed on the assassins’ planet of Turbinta quickly turns into a game of predator versus prey. She found what she was looking for—and discovers that the ancient legends may be true when the tables are unexpectedly turned, and she becomes the hunted. What she doesn’t expect is the powerful reaction she has to this man from another world.
When word reaches them that another member of the Gliese’s crew was found, Sergi and La’Rue embark on a mission to save that crew member at any cost. Caught in the middle of an alien civil war, two fighters from vastly different backgrounds must come together to fight for the survival of the Knights of the Gallant Order, even as the Legion forces close in around them. Can they slip through the traps set up to snare them, or will the Legion Director finally capture not one, but two of the prophesied ancient Knights of the Gallant Order?
Two things few science fiction romance readers ever grow tired of – dragons in any form and author Ruby Dixon’s adventures set on an ice planet. These are not Anne MCcaffrey’s dragons – to be fair, no one else could possibly write those! – but Ruby’s own take on a humanoid-dragon species. I also love the title of this new book: Veronica’s Dragon (Icehome Book 2). Here’s the story: Resonance.
It’s a given on the ice planet, forced upon you by the parasitic symbiont called the ‘khui’. With resonance, a guy and a girl are paired up because they’ll make great babies. It’s a survival mechanism necessary for this sparsely-populated world we’re stranded on…and romantic, in a weird, alien way.
Everyone expects resonance to happen when twenty newcomers are dropped onto the frosty world. I doubt anyone expects the gorgeous, golden god named Ashtar to resonate to someone like me, though. He’s fierce. Flirty. Powerful. Disgustingly handsome.
I’m…not any of those things. I’m bland. Boring. Clumsy.
But resonance seems to think we’d be great together. And Ashtar does, too…
My Fair Captain by J. L. Langley blends a few Regency romance-like tropes into an SFR story for an intriguing mix. Here’s the description: When Intergalactic Navy Captain Nathaniel Hawkins goes undercover to investigate the theft of an IN weapons stash, the mission raises painful memories from his past. Using a title he fled nearly two decades earlier, Nate once again becomes the Earl of Deverell, heir to the Duke of Hawthorne, in order to navigate the ins and outs of a Regency world. But planet Regelence—where young lords are supposed to remain pure until marriage—has a few surprises for Nate, not least of which is his attraction to Prince Aiden.
A talented artist, Prince Aiden Townsend isn’t interested in politics and the machinations of society gentlemen, and he adamantly rejects the idea of marriage and a consort. Aiden wants the freedom to pursue his art and determine his own future. But the arrival of the dashing and mysterious Deverell awakens feelings of passion and longing the young prince can’t deny.
As Nate uncovers a conspiracy reaching far beyond the stolen weapons, his future is irrevocably altered by the temptations of a life he never thought he could have. Drawn into the web of intrigue, Aiden is in danger of losing his life… and his heart.
V. C. Lancaster’s Office Aliens series has been getting good buzz in the SFR circles and The Security Guy is her latest entry. Not quite like any day job office I ever worked in! The plot: Anna has been sent to the San Diego branch of the Department of Extra-Terrestrial Immigration from her London PR company to negotiate a contract. Her job is to help improve the public image of the local Teissian refugee community after it has come under attack from a local politician.
On her first day there, she is invited to the office Christmas party. The next morning, she wakes up beside a tall scaled alien named Khy. Anna just wants to forget it ever happened – not that either of them can actually remember what happened – but Khy is insistent. In his culture, he is now honour-bound to stay by her side, at least until she can prove she’s not pregnant. Anna knows it’s impossible, but she can’t get rid of him, and what’s worse is that she’s due at her brother’s for Christmas in a matter of days.
With no other choice, she and Khy have to pretend to be in love for real so he can join her in New Hampshire for the holidays. When their relationship is suddenly exposed in the worst possible way, and Anna becomes a target for anti-Teissian protesters, Khy has to be her bodyguard as well as her boyfriend.
With everything spiralling out of Anna’s normally tight control, Khy is the only one she can rely on. But what does that mean when the inevitable happens, and they’re forced to admit she’s not pregnant? With nothing keeping them together, they have to make a choice. Was any of it real? Or were they just a drunken mistake from the start?
For my last recommendation I’m going to leave romance and talk hard science fiction (no romance at ALL) because the book was such a great read. Adrift by Rob Boffard was an edge of the seat read for me, with so many plot twists and turns and unexpected developments that it was like a roller coaster ride, or a very good movie. It reminded me of some of the best thrillers from Alastair MacLean back in the day, as far as leading the reader to think they knew what was going on and then changing everything up a level. Although of course Adrift is science fiction. Let’s just say Hannah, the tour guide heroine, has the worst first-day-on-the-new-job ever! The blurb is short: Sigma Station. The ultimate luxury hotel, in the far reaches of space.
For one small group, a tour of the Horsehead Nebula is meant to be a short but stunning highlight in the trip of a lifetime.
But when a mysterious ship destroys Sigma Station and everyone on it, suddenly their tourist shuttle is stranded.
They have no weapons. No food. No water. No one back home knows they’re alive.
And the mysterious ship is hunting them.
What exciting new books will you be reading in the summer sun?
Tiffany Roberts and Ruby Dixon are awesome.