Years ago, Air Force pilot Jas Boswell believed she met the love of her life. She shared a mesmerizing encounter with a stranger after a terrible crash. As soon as rescuers arrived, the mysterious golden-eyed man disappeared. She has spent the last two decades trying to convince herself it was all a dream…
Once heir to a galactic kingdom, Rom B’kah is captain of a starship of derelicts and smugglers. He remains haunted by the memory of the “saving angel” he met during wartime and who vanished without a trace. His loyal crew thinks he has pined for this fantasy woman long enough. Then Jas suddenly returns to him and sets their lives on a collision course with destiny…
Review:
I was hooked early on but as the story developed I lost interest and got more and more annoyed.
The good:
- The world building early on is well done and kept me curious about what this Earth was like and who the aliens who want to visit are. The story is contained and moves at a good pace.
- At the beginning Jas’ development as a character is realistic and interesting. She works hard to learn an alien language from scratch and while she’s a quick study Grant lets her grasp for words and speak awkwardly. As someone who lives and interprets in a second language learned as an adult I can totally relate.
The not-so-good:
- Once the action moves off Earth and into space the tightness of the world and plot fall apart. The setting is expanded tenfold with all kinds of planets and peoples and things to take in, losing what groundedness it had.
- Jas gets an case of being too stupid to live. Rom leaves her to wait in a hotel with all kinds of warnings – keep your hood up so people don’t realize you’re from Earth, don’t stray far, oh and here’s a bodyguard to keep you safe. So of course Jas immediately talks to random people and accepts their invitation to go up to a remote mountain retreat because, something. And when they give her a necklace that freaks the hell out of birds she doesn’t get suspicious, just thinks ‘ah, silly birds, scared of a benign piece of jewelry.’ Gah.
- While early on Jas’ language acquisition is within the realm of suspendable belief later she’s all, ‘I’m picking up this completely different alien tongue just by eavesdropping on conversations for a few days’. Maybe if she was with three year olds or something, but high-level political conversations when you don’t know the grammar or how to read it? I call bull.
- The hero and heroine have sex on the top of a giant snail. For real. It’s the sort of thing that could be amazing in a crazy way if done right but I’m not even sure why the scene is there.
If the second half were as good as the first this would be an amazing read but alas, I don’t even think I’m going to pick up the next in the series.
Advertisements Share this:- More
