A sweet, sexy story about healing and love.
One of the last remaining unmated human women on an ice planet hopes to stay single.
Tiffany was one of a group of women kidnapped from Earth by evil aliens intending to traffic and enslave them. Their ship crash-landed on a small, icy planet where they were saved by a welcoming community of kind blue aliens consisting mostly of men. In order to survive the unbearably cold temperatures, both blue aliens and humans must implant themselves with a symbiotic creature called the khui, which has a secondary function of “resonating” when two people are a perfect match. It’s now 18 months after the crash, and almost all of the women have found mates and started having babies. Salukh is different from the other men fiercely competing for Tiffany's attention because he treats her like a friend instead of an object to be won. He's patient, kind, and sure that Tiffany is his mate even if they haven’t yet resonated. However, she is terrified of being mated after having been sexually assaulted by the aliens who kidnapped her. For Tiffany, the very thought of resonating and being forced to accept a mate is abhorrent. She’s tired of her choices being taken from her and is determined to learn how to survive on her own. Tiffany’s journey involves letting herself recover at her own pace, which includes slowly trusting Salukh with both her story and her body. Salukh, like most of the aliens in the series, is a perfect fantasy of a romantic partner, willing to patiently provide whatever his lover desires. Dixon’s world continues to evolve, with the newly blended community of human women and alien men struggling with the problems of feeding and housing their growing clan. Tiffany and Salukh’s romance shows how even in a world of fated mates, consent and willingness to enter into a relationship are still important.
A sweet, sexy story about healing and love.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9780593639450
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
This time-travel romance doesn’t live up to its intriguing setting.
While in Japan to learn more about her family history, a young Scottish woman is transported 128 years into the past, finding herself on the brink of the Satsuma Rebellion.
Born and raised in Scotland, Isla MacKenzie has traveled to Japan to learn more about the Japanese branch of her mother’s family. She hopes to discover whether family lore is true and she’s descended from a warrior who served alongside legendary rebel samurai leader Takamori Saigō. When a strangely out-of-season typhoon hits the town of Kagoshima, where she’s staying, Isla gets caught in the blinding rain and wind; she stumbles across a white torii gate, but as she approaches, hoping to find shelter, things begin to feel weird. As the storm subsides and Isla looks around, her surroundings seem foreign—Kagoshima’s busy streets and cafes have been replaced by woodlands. When a woman sees Isla and screams, claiming to have discovered a demon in the forest, samurai Maeda Keiichirō is one of the first to answer the call. He’s the voice of reason, recognizing Isla as a young woman, not a demon, even if she looks bizarre. As Isla figures out that she’s been transported back in time, she comes to realize she’s on the cusp of the deadly Satsuma Rebellion, which lasted nine months and ended in the death of its leader, Saigō. While she adjusts to life in the 19th century and searches for a way to make it back to the 21st, she grows closer to Keiichirō, her de facto protector. Like the protagonists of many time-travel romances, Isla struggles with the lack of modern comforts and with growing close to a man she may have to abandon. Also, of course, she knows how the rebellion ends, and is conflicted about using her knowledge to potentially change the course of history. There are the bones of an interesting romance here, especially given the fascinating time period. Unfortunately, the writing feels unpolished: Nine months doesn’t seem like enough time for our leads to make a meaningful connection, but also, not much happens in that timespan. Balancing historical context with a romance that possesses both cultural differences and an impending deadline is a tall order, and Kuroki doesn’t quite manage it.
This time-travel romance doesn’t live up to its intriguing setting.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063410879
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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