I know we’re all voracious readers here at Amazing Stories and fortunately science fiction romance authors keep releasing new books to feed our new content appetites!
Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series is probably one of my all-time favorites – I reread some of the stories at least once a year. Her new book Ocean Light (Psy-Changeling Trinity) was an excellent addition to, and extension of the story. I particularly enjoyed the up close view of the BlackSea pack, which is comprised of all ocean dwelling changelings. Here’s the plot: Security specialist Bowen Knight has come back from the dead. But there’s a ticking time bomb in his head: a chip implanted to block telepathic interference that could fail at any moment–taking his brain along with it. With no time to waste, he should be back on land helping the Human Alliance. Instead, he’s at the bottom of the ocean, consumed with an enigmatic changeling…
Kaia Luna may have traded in science for being a chef, but she won’t hide the facts of Bo’s condition from him or herself. She’s suffered too much loss in her life to fall prey to the dangerous charm of a human who is a dead man walking. And she carries a devastating secret Bo could never imagine…
But when Kaia is taken by those who mean her deadly harm, all bets are off. Bo will do anything to get her back–even if it means striking a devil’s bargain and giving up his mind to the enemy…
If you enjoy cyborgs, you must go get Unit 77: Broken (CyBrg Files Book 1) by Mina Carter and Evangeline Anderson. This duo are top of their game SFR authors and writing together they’ve woven quite a tale. I turned around and re-read it as soon as I was done the first time because I loved the hero and heroine so much! I can’t wait for the next book. Here’s the blurb: Unit 77 is a cyborg…but he used to be so much more. Tortured by glimpses of his past, former Captain Andrew Fischer goes through his days in a metallic nightmare, feeling broken inside though he doesn’t know why.
Doctor Claudia Chambers is distraught. After a land mine blew up Drew Fischer and his unit of elite Space Corps Marines, she was forced to implant the CyBRG device in all of them which turned the men into machines. But she keeps catching glimpses of humanity from the supposedly inhuman Captain…could it be that part of Drew is still in there, longing to get out? Claudia is almost afraid to hope–she loved Drew once and thought he might return the feelings. But how can a woman love a machine?
And can the machine ever love her back?
Cynthia Sax is back with the next book in her Refuge series, Dark Fire (Refuge Book 4). Lots of twists and turns and literally hot sex (since the hero is an alien dragon shifter of sorts), plus a very ‘Oliver Twist’ like subplot with its own alien version of Fagin. The blurb: What the Beast wants, the Beast gets.
Dare’s savage nature has made him an outcast among his kind. The silver-scaled Dracheon warrior can’t control his inner beast. It’s too strong. When his primitive instincts told him his destined mate was on Carinae E, he had no choice. He had to travel to the outlaw planet. There, he hoped to meet a female powerful enough to survive his Drache.
He finds Faylee, a delicate little human.
Faylee is the best thief on the planet. Everyone she encounters mistakes her for a young boy…except for a tall, shiny warrior from off-planet. When she gazes into Dare’s flame-filled eyes, he makes her feel, for the first time, like a desirable female. The fire-breathing male has her yearning for hot kisses, fierce embraces, and a future filled with love. She doesn’t realize mating with him might be the last thing she ever does.
Dare’s beast isn’t the only danger on the planet. An enemy from the past has returned and he’s determined to stop Dare and Faylee…permanently. They’ll need luck and the assistance of every warrior in the Refuge to stay alive.
Michelle Diener is one of the most respected science fiction romance authors, who weaves politics, advanced technology and love through her novels. Her three book Class 5 series a few years ago was amazing and another one on my list of trusted re-reads. She’s just released the first book in a completely new series – Breakaway (Verdant String Book 1). I very much enjoyed the book and can’t wait for more. I’m also deeply jealous of the heroine for all the cool secrets she knows about the amazing structures her late father built. No spoilers though! The storyline: Sofie lives in the shadow of Felicitos–the tethered way station built to funnel Garmen’s mineral wealth to the top of the atmosphere, where it’s loaded onto space ships. Because Garmen is a breakaway planet, not part of the Verdant String Coalition, the companies that control it are free to run things as they see fit, and Sofie is part of the resistance that wants to end their rule.
Her main goal, though, is to get away from Garmen altogether, and leave the drudgery and violence behind her. That goal is complicated by her involvement with Leo Gaudier, a shadowy crime lord whose ability to cheat the companies that own Garmen is something she admires. And when she stumbles on a terrible new direction the companies are taking, a secret alliance that will endanger everyone she cares about, she sees her chances of escape slipping away.
Leo is all too aware he doesn’t know enough about Sofie, something his own security detail is not slow to point out, but he can’t keep away. When Sofie reveals her links to the resistance, and shows him those in control of Garmen have begun swimming in dangerous waters, he realizes his plan to overthrown them in a careful operation of a thousand cuts is no longer workable.
The time has come for a single, lethal strike–and that will not be without consequences . . .
Donna S. Frelick has released the long awaited fourth book in her Interstellar Rescue Series, entitled Not Fade Away. There’s been a lot of anticipation among SFR readers, waiting for this novel and here’s the blurb: Earth shielded his secrets–
Until her love unlocked his heart.
Rescue agent Rafe Gordon is human, though Earth has never been his home. But when his legendary father Del becomes the target of alien assassins, Rafe must hide the dementia-debilitated hero in the small mountain town where the old man was born—Masey, North Carolina, USA, Earth.
Home care nurse Charlie McIntyre and her therapy dog, Happy, have never had such challenging clients before. Del’s otherworldly “episodes” are not explained by his diagnosis, making Charlie question everything about her mysterious charge and his dangerously attractive son. Rafe has the answers she needs, but Charlie will have to break through his wall of secrets to get them.
As the heat rises between Charlie and Rafe, the deadly alien hunters circle closer. The light they seek to extinguish flickers in the gloom of Del’s fading mind—the memory of a planet-killer that threatens to enslave the galaxy.
Marie Dry’s Alien Captured (Zyrgin Warriors Book 5) mixes dry humor in with the SFR action and tense situation. The plot: In a bleak future, where government systems are breaking down and poverty and violence reign, on an abandoned farm in Montana, Susannah had a simple plan. She’d capture an alien, sell him to the resistance, and use the money to save her son.
Instead, Susannah had an arrogant alien trapped in a pit who acted as if she was the prisoner. He wanted to kill her dog and insisted she should care for the wound he sustained when he fell into the pit she dug to trap him. On top of that, she had no way to know if the resistance got her message. Every day that passed, she doubted her decision to hand Azagor over to the resistance.
But her son, her baby, was being held by people who considered him unclean because he was conceived out of wedlock—and time was running out.
I’ll leave you with Reverse Abduction (Alien Abduction Book 8) from Eve Langlais, featuring purple aliens and a fun role reversal. The blurb: It’s not fair that only males get to go out and pillage the universe. Being born a female automatically means staying home and birthing the next generation of warriors.
Azteriya has other plans.
She has a dream of traveling the galaxy and exploring strange new worlds. Fighting fierce foes. Of clubbing a viable male to bring home to her mother so that her transgression is forgiven.
When a chance to escape arises, she takes it, but what will Azteriya do when she not only finds the adventure she’s been seeking but love too?
Happy reading and don’t forget your sunscreen, no matter which planet’s sun you’re under!
Woot! Thank you so much for mentioning Dark Fire!