Unwrapping: Review of HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2, an anthology by Erin Kellison, KC Klein, & Jessa Slade

I love science fiction! Blend it with romance and I’m in Seventh Heaven – well, that’s what you get when you dip into the anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2 with three fabulous stories by Erin Kellison, KC Klein, and Jessa Slade. This is a continuation of the stories introduced to us in their first anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE, which I reviewed over three days in February 2012. If you’re interested in reading my reviews, simple click on the author’s name above to go to the review of her story. Since I have limited time on the blog lately, I’m going to review all three today. I loved them all and don’t want to skimp on my thoughts so it might be longer than usual. By the way, the lovely Jessa Slade created this awesome cover.

***eCopy provided by authors in exchange for honest and unscripted reviews.

GOLD LIKE THE SUN by Erin Kellison

Blurb for GOLD LIKE THE SUN:

It’s the wedding of the millennium! Princess Pilar Sol and Hakan Frust are celebrating their union with sector fetes full of celebrity and pomp. Theirs is an arranged marriage to preserve the vital commerce of the Nyer Transit Hub, and yet Pilar is madly, unreservedly, passionately in love. She has all the excitement she has long dreamed of—and a little more than she bargained for when she discovers that Hakan’s grasping family wants her dead.

Hakan has done everything in his power to save his inheritance—the bustling but impoverished Hub—including marrying a wealthy princess for her dowry. His heart isn’t supposed to be part of the deal, but Pilar has all the beauty and joy his life lacks. When Hakan runs afoul of his uncle’s associates—criminal in nature, violent in approach—he refuses to risk Pilar, not for money, not even for his life.

But Pilar is not so easily cast aside, and negotiations turn into a gamble with the future of the sector in the balance. Hakan is about to learn about the high stakes his bride will hazard, as he now has far more to lose—and win—than he ever believed possible: a future brighter than gold.

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Pilar married Hakan because she loves him and believes he loves her not just because it’s a political union that will benefit both sides, yet Hakan has put her on a ship heading home to Sol in the midst of their wedding celebration. Not willing to just leave without giving Hakan a piece of her mind after his family tried to kill her, she and her trusted companion and protector, Reina, return to the Nyer Transit Hub and discover that Hakan has become the victim of his power hungry uncle, Victor. Now on the run, looking for aid from even Hakan’s less than trustful cousin, Barton, they are determined to learn exactly who is pulling the strings on Victor and why.

GOLD LIKE THE SUN by Erin Kellison is an action-packed adventure through the back streets of Nyer as Pilar and Hakan try to figure out how to save themselves, two worlds, and figure out whom they can truly trust. Their love for each other, their families, and their home worlds drive this story of forgiveness, discovery, and a future greater and safer than either expected for the innocent.

I highly recommend this exceptional scifi romance, filled with danger, and a bit of unexpected violence. It is a wonderful sequel to Erin’s story, ALL THAT GLITTERS, her original story in the first anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE.  It’s not an absolute necessity to read the first story, but I greatly suggest you do.

TO KEEP A WIFE by KC Klein

Blurb for TO KEEP A WIFE:

In the shards of civilization ruined by a global war, Lake has gotten the life she never dared dreamed of—a safe haven, and the love of a good man, her husband, Hudson Black Creek. But Lake’s hard-won happiness doesn’t last long when powerful Elders lay siege on Black Creek Manor in retaliation for a past defiance. As Lake watches everything she loves go up in flames, she sacrifices herself for the chance to keep Hudson and her brother alive. Syon, a diabolic Elder with his own agenda, will push Lake to her breaking point, forcing her to compromise—heart and soul— in order to survive.
Hudson wakes from a head wound to find that his whole world is reduced to ashes. With no memory of why he’s sacrificed everything for a woman whose name is tattooed on his chest, Hudson is determined to make his heart match the emptiness of his mind, and wipe out everything except the hatred for those who are to blame—the Elders and the wife he sought to protect.

As evil and fear spread across a war-torn land, Lake and Hudson are tested like never before, and both will have to forgive betrayals and risk greater heartbreak if they want a chance at saving their lives… and their love.

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We met Lake and Hudson in KC’s story in the first anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE, in TO BUY A WIFE. A man who has a wife is revered with respect, envy, and believed to have great prestige in this war-torn society. We catch up with Lake, Hudson, and Lake’s little brother, Vonn, in the midst of an attack on the farm. Lake realizes that the Elders want her and will stop at nothing, and will spare no one, to get her in their clutches. She convinces a wounded Hudson to protect her brother, let the Elders take her, and come for her later. Things don’t work out exactly how Lake had hoped. Now a prisoner of the maniacal Syon, too much time has passed for her to believe that Hudson is ever coming for her. It’s just her again, alone to fend for herself, and her unborn child.

This story covers so much in so short a time that you will almost feel like you’re watching a film in your head. Whereas I bullied KC about Lake being on her own too much in TO BUY A WIFE, in TO KEEP A WIFE, KC Klein weaves a wonderful story about the fear of loss, fear of abandonment, and the wonder of how love can pull back loving memories from the darkness and bring a family back together. TO KEEP A WIFE by KC Klein is a the perfect finish to a story that began with a match not exactly made in heaven but ends with a happy ending that will lead us on even more adventures. I hope.

I highly recommend the short story, TO KEEP A WIFE by KC Klein but only if you’ve read TO BUY A WIFE, without that lead-in, the fast paced action of this one might confuse and sully the wonderful intricacy of this tale. Please read TO BUY A WIFE in the first anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE. (It's only 99¢.)

PRINCE OF PASSION by Jessa Slade

Blurb for PRINCE OF PASSION:

When mercenary raiders targeted the empathic crystals that imbue the legendary l’auraly lovers with extraordinary sensual prowess, Icere, the last male l’auralyo, helped destroy the crystals. Rather than let the source of uninhibited pleasure be corrupted into a mind-controlling drug, he allowed his passionate destiny to remain forever unfulfilled. Now, Icere channels his fury into revenge. Tracking the raiders through the interstellar sheerways to a watery world infamous for its aphrodisiac liqueur, he finds a queen—as adrift and alone as he—forced for years into a fate she never desired.

Saya-Rynn inherited duty, command and control from her cruel grandfather and fought to transform her dangerous planet into a paradise for her people—but the price was literally a poison that runs through her veins. Though she feels as ancient as the seas, she finds herself awash in the hot male potency of the young Icere. Still, she resists the chance for indulgence she thinks has passed by her. But when the raiders strike again, Rynn must embrace her troubled legacy, and Icere will find his place as a lover and a fighter. Together, the reluctant ruler and the deposed prince of passion find common purpose, combating the mysterious entity seeking to rule the sheerways, and claim a love as bright as the infinite stars.

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Jessa Slade blew me away with the imagery and science elements in this story about a May/December romance that develops between a Queen and an outworlder friend of her son when he comes to her water world fraught with all kinds of natural dangers.

Icere is the last remaining l’aurylo – a being born, sculpted, and infused with the purest of passions through the l’auraly crystal. He has come to Saya-Terce because he suspects the mercenary raiders, who tried to steal the l’auraly crystals from his home planet resulting in their destruction and the end of life as he knew it to be, were now after the Malac liqueur. There is no end to the dangers of what the aphrodisiac liqueur might be used for in altered forms.

Rynn, the Saya of Saya-Terce is suspicious of anyone wishing to get too close to her, or her children, after her own husband betrayed her home world and so her instincts tell her to question this beautiful young man’s reasons for being in the midst of the Malac Festival, and so close to her son. What she doesn’t expect is how sexually charged she would feel in his presence. Nor the need to which they would succumb to, after an accident during the harvest places them together and under the influence of the Malac liqueur.

PRINCE OF PASSION by Jessa Slade is an amazing sequel to ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT from the first anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE. It’s even more illuminated than the first, with amazing imagery, incredible characters  and creature creations, and the danger that makes Icere and Rynn band together to save Saya-Terce. Their romance is powerful, insightful, and naturally believable. Rynn is a beautiful and powerful ruler with unusual abilities that make her more than just a queen but rather a part of her world. Icere understands her, even if she doesn't understand herself. Two of a kind, both more connected to their home worlds than to others, Icere embraces her, and her talents, in the same way he relates to his own home world and the crystal that is so much a part of him.

I highly recommend reading PRINCE OF PASSION by Jessa Slade, working well as a stand alone, I still recommend you read this entire anthology. For the greatest reading pleasure, I also suggest you start with HOTTER ON THE EDGE, the first anthology, but if you only read the second – HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2 – be sure to read this beautiful, imaginative, and incredible story by Jessa. 

HOTTER ON THE EDGE and HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2 - awesome reading at low prices. Go for it. If you love exciting romance, these are exceptional. 

Happy Reading Everyone!

HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2, an anthology by Erin Kellison, KC Klein, and Jessa Slade, available in ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobobooks, and Smashwords.

***click on links or covers for purchasing information. Awesome prices!

                                              

Unwrapping: 3rd Review of HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology

This past week's reading has been such a delight that I wish there had been more than three stories in HOTTER ON THE EDGE. This science fiction romance anthology is a wonderful compilation of three talented authors' writing abilities. Science Fiction is not an easy genre to write, it takes not only imagination and skill but knowledge of scientific workings to pull it off convincingly. These three authors did it and did it well.  Ladies, thank you for that.


The last story in the anthology is ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT by Jessa Slade.


Blurb for ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT:

Transformed by empathic crystals into the perfect paramour, Benedetta Galil is the last treasure of her fading world. When raiders attack—seeking to corrupt the crystals and conquer all of charted space—she gives herself as a prize to the one man in the universe who values freedom over power. Mercenary sheership Captain Corso Deynah left oppression behind him on a burning planet and has no use for a sex slave, even one as seductive as Benedetta. But while he stubbornly resists her body, her fierce spirit tempts him, and he will risk everything—his ship, his seclusion, the very stars—to win not just her passion but her love.

Crystals that infuse into your body and make you sensual beyond sensual - where do I get me some of that?

The blurb for ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT is one of the best I've ever read. It summarizes this story in a few lines just as Jessa Slade has taken a full-length story and condensed it into about 117 pages. ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT is capturing, it's imaginative, it's so well written that by the time I finished reading it, I really had felt like I had read a full-length novel instead of a novella.

Qv'arratz is a planet on the edge of destruction and Corso Deynah knows the destruction of whole planets all too well, he bears the scars to prove it. When he gets a call for assistance from the last keyed l'auralya of Qv'arratz pleading with him to give them protection from possible Universal Union raiders  who are determined to steal their planet's greatest treasure, the crystal qva'avaq, Corso immediately refuses. He's fought too many lost wars and his freedom to roam the universe is too important to him to risk losing. But the l'auralya, Benedetta, is already two steps ahead of him and threatens to have his ship, Asphodel taken away from him. He now has a choice, risk losing his ship to battle with payment being only a not big enough sum of credits and the offer of owning a l'auralya or risk losing it to a conniving pleasure slave who holds the threat of decommissioning it over his head.

Through the two-way visual comm, Benedetta and Corso have seen each (in the case of Corso, Benedetta has seen more than she expected but it was well appreciated) but neither expected the intense physical attraction that bounced between them upon meeting in person. Once the decommissioning edict is voided, Corso agrees to hear what Benedetta and two other elder l'auraly have to tell him. Not really knowing why, Corso agrees to at least learn who the raiders are that intend to attack the vulnerable population of Qv'arratz until they give up and surrender the stunning crystals that infuse a person's nervous system leaving them capable of being enslaved. The crystals cannot fall into the hands of those who will make a weapon out of it. Corso understands that freedom is the last treasure of the universe and anyone who holds such a weapon would enslave anyone who gets in their way, including Corso.

Corso and the crew of the Asphodel soon discover that they are not alone in the battle. Benedetta and the other l'aurlya have skills and abilities that aid them in a way that their weapons don't. Working as a team and facing danger rocketing from the sky, the crew of the Asphodel and the people of Qv'arratz don't give up. Corso learns that freedom isn't what he thought it was and Benedetta discovers that freedom truly is the greatest cost.

ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT is a truly wonderful reading experience. Jessa Slade has brought to life an imaginative world with triple moons, thin planetary rings of icy dust and caves of sharp dangerous crystals of intense beauty that can kill. These crystals, when blended or keyed with a person who can survive it, create a being so sensually sensitive that sex literally becomes an out of this world experience. Jessa packed more story into this novella than I've read in some full-length novels. Brava, Jessa, for taking this reader on a trip to a far off world wrought with danger, intrigue, and passion. I highly recommend this novella for anyone who has enjoyed science fiction romance in the past or would like to experience it for the first time now. Oh, and Jessa, your plot bunnies can come live at my house any time.

HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology of novellas by Erin Kellison, KC Klein, and Jessa Slade is packed full with action, danger, intrigue, and passion. These three authors have pooled together to create an adventure into science fiction romance that I hope will be repeated again and again.

Happy Reading!

HOTTER ON THE EDGE, a science fiction romance anthology featuring novellas by Erin Kellison, KC KLEIN, and JESSA SLADE. Published by Hotter Edge, released on February 2, 2012, ASIN: B00757WOT6. Ebook format. Available at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. Limited time: you can get it for $.99.

                                                     

Unwrapping: 2nd Review of HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology

On Monday, I began a three-part review of HOTTER ON THE EDGE, a science fiction romance anthology. Today's review is for the second novella in the anthology,  TO BUY A WIFE by KC Klein.

Blurb for TO BUY A WIFE:

In a harsh land where corruption rules and women are few, cold realist Hudson Land must purchase a wife to save his farm. Instead of an auction, he witnesses the start of an execution. With his first look at a beautiful woman in years, Hudson knows he has to have her—no matter the cost. Lake, a chemist and a rebel fighter, is resigned to her death, but when some back-hill farmer rescues her from the chopping block she has no intention of simply becoming his wife. She’s pledged her life to the Rebellion and being bought for some stranger’s bed doesn’t change a thing, though his soft caresses have her longing for more. As lies and secrets build between them, are the quiet moments during the nights they’ve shared enough to stand against two warring factions in a world where only the strong survive?

Let me say this right off the bat, the blurb is misleading.

We meet Hudson first. He's just arrived in town to purchase a wife to save his land from being confiscated by the Elders as an unmarried man is not allowed to own land. He's desperate to buy a wife and is willing to give forth his life savings to get one to save his land, land that has been in his family for generations. Having missed the wife auction, Hudson's last resort is to purchase a wife by saving her from execution. It's a dangerous thought taking a criminal for a wife but he's running out of time.

Lake is so close to death, she can taste it but has resigned herself to it. Knowing her life isn't worth any of the Rebels coming to save, she is surprised when a big man wielding an axe claims she is carrying his child. Simple words that save her life. Women and children are a precious commodity and cannot be squandered. With no other choice, shackled both physically and legally to this man, Lake must go with him. It doesn't, however, stop her from trying to kill him on the way to his farm.

The misleading line in the blurb is:  are the quiet moments during the nights they’ve shared enough to stand against two warring factions in a world where only the strong survive?

The reader doesn't really witness these quiet moments during the nights they've shared.

As it is written, TO BUY A WIFE is Lake's story. We meet Hudson first, we learn what he needs from Lake - protection for his farm, his men, future children, and companionship. I think we even get a hint of his wanting love. After Hudson brings Lake to his farm, he makes a deal with her that she may have twenty-four hours to do what she needs - something she won't tell him - but that she return willingly to him as a wife and eventual mother to his children. Lake agrees but has no intention of keeping her promise. It's at this point that I feel Hudson becomes a secondary character. It becomes Lake's story, her journey, her mission, and eventually her fight. Hudson comes across as nothing more than a second thought and bodyguard. When he does go after her and makes a deal with the Rebels to retrieve Lake's brother, Vonn, I felt it before he declared it that he would easily accept Vonn into his family - I like Hudson.

Lake is a strong character, a strong female character - KC is good at writing strong female characters - but I get the feeling of Lake resigning herself to being Hudson's wife more than desiring it, at least until literally the very end of the story. The romance wasn't evident in this science fiction romance novella. The scene where Lake is being Marked and Hudson brings her to orgasm while she is being brutally tattooed was more sexually sadistic than romantically tender on Hudson's part since this was supposedly Lake's first real sexual encounter. I would think she would forever link sex with pain after that, not tenderness.

You're probably saying to yourself, uh oh, she didn't like TO BUY A WIFE ... not at all, I liked it but I feel it was short changed by being a novella instead of a full-length novel. The premise of the story is intriguing. I got a scifi western-esk feel from it, reminiscent of some Firefly episodes and I liked that. The problem I had with TO BUY A WIFE is that I wanted more. I wanted to see more interaction between Lake and Hudson. I wanted to know more about the world in which they lived, how it came to be and why there was such a shortage of women. I wanted to see Hudson play a greater role in the story and to see him meet Vonn and interact with the boy who he was willing to call his family merely to please Lake. I wanted to feel that Lake really was falling in love with Hudson.

In short, as it was written, TO BUY A WIFE didn't present itself as a romance - a science fiction novella, yes, but a science fiction romance, no. Perhaps some day, KC will take this story and expand it into the really wonderful full-length science fiction romance that I think it can be.  HOTTER ON THE EDGE is an anthology still worth reading!

Happy Reading!

HOTTER ON THE EDGE, a science fiction romance anthology featuring novellas by Erin Kellison, KC KLEIN, and JESSA SLADE. Published by Hotter Edge, released on February 2, 2012, ASIN: B00757WOT6. Ebook format. Available at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. Limited time: you can get it for $.99.

                                                               

Unwrapping: Review of HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology

The other day, I received a request from KC Klein (author of DARK FUTURE) asking me if I had time to read and review an anthology that she, Erin Kellison and Jessa Slade had come together to create. As soon as I read the blurbs on Amazon, I couldn't say yes fast enough. Three stories of sci-fi romance, oh yes! Since I'm still reading them, I decided to give each author the credit due them. I am going to treat each novella as an individual work, which they are of course, and will review each one as I finish reading it.

The first novella in the anthology belongs to Erin Kellison, ALL THAT GLITTERS.

Cheated out of a fortune by the Sol royal family, lowborn Simon Miner will do anything to get his revenge, no matter how ruthless. When Princess Mica Sol, a terraforming expert, is shot out of the sky on the way to her sister’s lavish wedding, she fears the worst—scavengers—and flees into an alien jungle to avoid capture. But the man who pursues and captures her is none other than Simon, her former lover. Passions reignite as violence rocks Sol City, and Simon and Mica must fight for love, family, and their world… or lose everything.

ALL THAT GLITTERS starts out fast and never slows down. In the true tradition of science fiction, Sol is a well imagined, believable place with environmental dangers that put our heroine into a precarious position from the very beginning. If the fear of scavengers (those who live on the outskirts of the dome protected city and who are willing to do anything including kill a Sol Princess to regain control of their planet) aren't enough to worry about as she flees her disabled ship but she also has to worry about the planet itself trying to kill this determined daughter of Sol, Mica.

Simon isn't with the scavengers, he's on a mission of his own - to regain the riches that were stolen from him and the families of the men of whom he feels responsible for being killed while mining the precious red mica. His mission - steal it back during the extravaganza that is Mica's sister, Pilar Sol's wedding event. Unknown to him, the one woman he'll always love is on the ship that he and his men choose to shoot down and steal to use to get into the highly protected domed city. Once he realizes the ship belongs to his beautiful, headstrong Mica, he has a new mission - keep her alive even as his two partners would just as easily execute the daughter of Drummond Sol, the head of the Sol family.

Mica hadn't expected to meet up with Simon, the only man who had a claim on her heart, but there he was and now she had not only a need to know what had happened in his life since she left Sol five years earlier but she had an even greater need to be his once more.  Unsure of what he has planned and not fully trusting him, she decides to free herself by aiding his cause and turning the tables on him. After getting the three would-be thieves into the city, she allows Simon's partners to disappear into the crowds knowing they wouldn't stay out of trouble long enough to worry about and claims Simon as her consort thereby forcing him to remain at her side with the hope of protecting him from her father's wrath. So begins their journey together to right the wrongs done to those in need, protect the Sol family from attacks by the scavengers, all the while reigniting the love that had survived a five year separation.

As someone who enjoys science fiction as easily as any other kind of fiction, I am always thrilled when an author mixes romance with one of my favorite genres. ALL THAT GLITTERS is all that and more. It snatches up and deposits the reader on a new and strange world. The setting, different than anything we normally expect in a romance, abounds with dangers and wildlife that make it most hostile toward Humans. Erin Kellison paints a story using a pallet of colorful images that brings the world of Sol to life and endears us to Mica and Simon immediately. Star-crossed lovers torn apart by a vengeful father but reunited stronger than ever to overcome all obstacles before finally coming together as an even more loyal pair in love.

Even if you're not a science fiction fan or a romance fan, for that matter, I think everyone who ever enjoyed a sexy conflict struck romance with a HEA ending or a Robert Heinlein novel will thoroughly enjoy ALL THAT GLITTERS. My only question to Erin is, what happened to the injury to Mica's shoulder? By the time she is discovered by Simon, it's gone. Just a little nitpick. That aside, ALL THAT GLITTERS by Erin Kellison is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it ... it's a wonderful way to introduce yourself to science fiction romance, if you're not already acquainted. 

Now, on to reading the next two novellas, next up - TO BUY A WIFE by KC Klein.  Even if I were to not like the next two as much as ALL THAT GLITTERS, this anthology would be worth getting just for this novella.

Happy Reading!

HOTTER ON THE EDGE, a science fiction romance anthology featuring novellas by Erin Kellison, KC KLEIN, and JESSA SLADE. Published by Hotter Edge, released on February 2, 2012, ASIN: B00757WOT6. Ebook format. Available at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. Limited time: you can get it for $.99.  A great Valentine's Day treat for yourself or someone you know loves science fiction romance!