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Fragile Bond (2013)

by Rhi Etzweiler(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1937551911 (ISBN13: 9781937551919)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Riptide Publishing

review 1: As part of an advance team on the dessert planet of Horace Deuce-Niner, Sniper Sergeant Marc Staille and his trusty rifle Mat patiently lie in wait for any glimpse of the planet’s inhabitants. Intel shows there are no civilized indigenous, just the tawnies, large hairy creatures with claws and razor sharp teeth that hunt in packs with highly developed attack skills. When Marc spots one, then another and another, he and Mat do what they do best, take them all out.Marc and Mat didn’t get them all, and the biggest, baddest of them all Commander Hamm Orsonna is about to show them that not only does he possess highly developed attack skills but he has a hidden bio-weapon, his own pheromones. Easily overpowered and with no defense against Hamm’s heady pheromones, Marc is t... moreaken prisoner.Prisoner and captor will soon find themselves caught up in a fight to not only achieve peace for Hamm’s planet but to claim happiness for them both.What an interesting world author Rhi Etzweiler has given us, a planet inhabited by intelligent non-human beings who speak a language of grunts and growls and who use not only physical strength but smell and pheromones to fight with. A stark desolate planet so well described that I actually had to get a glass of water to sooth my parched throat. Full of interesting characters, human and non, the author manages to make them all come to life.Marc talks to Mat as if it were not a weapon but a lover; he is connected to it and feels bereft when separated. Like all snipers, he’s a loner, able to spend hours at a time still and silent, one with his environment. He is a man of action and taken totally out of his element when he realizes what he thought were creatures are actually intelligent beings and that he is now on a diplomatic mission instead of search and destroy.Hamm is a good commander, those under his command are important to him and he will do whatever it takes to protect them. His species has a highly developed sense of smell and Marc not only smells of honesty but of nip as well. He will find himself torn between defending his prisoner and defending his comrades.We meet a number of Hamm and Marc’s fellow soldiers but the two that stand out are Sergeant Dehna – a translator under Hamm’s command and Reccin, Hamm’s second in command. Though secondary characters, both were interesting in their own right and pivotal to the plot.This is a great action/sci-fi/romance story, yes I said romance. The romance brings in my one issue, while not the author’s fault; every time I pictured Hamm in my mind he looked like Chewbacca. I just couldn’t get around his and Marc’s attraction. I tried making him the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, but Chewie he remained, and I just couldn’t get my head around it. Chewie aside, I enjoyed this book.This story was so well written that I found myself forgetting I was in another time and place. This is an M/M romance but there really aren’t that many actual sexual scenes in it and the few there are brief and not very explicit, just steamy. If the reader isn’t careful, they may even learn a lesson in tolerance. They will most definitely get a good story told to them. Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Dual Review Team
review 2: I read Fragile Bond last night and wanted to write the review while it was fresh in my mind. I read, A LOT, but this book caught my eye and went on to my wishlist when it came out. I finally got a chance to read it, uninterrupted, and it kept me interested start to finish.The synopsis of the book actually sums up the story quite well, in my opinion, without giving too much away. Several of the plot elements have been used in science fiction books I've read before, like the pheromones, mistaken status of non-sentient creatures for sentient beings, and a first contact/military character. Still, I enjoyed this ebook quite a bit. I felt the tawnies, aka furrs, were amazing characters. We got several glimpses into their society and social structure throughout the story, enough to get a detailed picture of their culture. The sensory perceptions of the world, or Soma as Hamm named the planet, were amazing and it was nearly visible to my mind's eye. Hamm and Marc's bonding was confusing and arousing and not neat and tidily wrapped up in a bow-which I fully appreciated. However, I did still have a few issues with the story. The human culture made ZIP sense. We didn't get much explanation of the 'Mother Commander', or their ship, or their evolution. I'd have loved it if the author had seen fit to share more of that since to me, the reader, both cultures were foreign, not just the 'aliens'. It was integral part of the story that I felt was missing. I also disliked the rapid head hopping between multiple characters, though that was more the 'style' not any sort of mistake, and while I'm not alone in my aversion to it, it's a style preference more than anything.Overall, a good story, but one that I had to really focus on to understand-especially at the end with the large cast of characters-to follow and understand. It was an intriguing plot, and I loved the poignancy at the end which really capped off the story well. Even with my quibbles I completely enjoyed this eBook. A definite recommendation with a 4 out of 5 star rating. less

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