I actually liked the plot and the world better than the romance, so, not my fave there. (Alphaholes are not my thing at all.) But I still liked it!
This series takes place in the future, an unspecified amount of time from now, in which the Earth was rendered uninhabitable, and the governing of human society has evolved into a Consortium of three powerful families who rule absolutely (and have retaken Earth for rich people, by invitation only). There are spaceships and faster-than-light travel, advanced weaponry, and colonization of many worlds. Our main character is Ada von Hasenberg, the fifth child of Lord von Hasenberg, who went on the run two years before to avoid an arranged marriage her father was trying to broker between their house and that of their rivals, the Rockhursts. Ada would have been expected to enter this loveless marriage with a man she disrespects, in order to spy on his family for her house. She decided fuck that, and ran off.
We pick up with her as her luck has run out, and she’s captured by mercenaries intent on collecting the bounty her father has promised. She’s thrown in a cell with infamous outlaw, Marcus Loch, and ends up paying him to help her escape. From there, the book is mostly a space action/adventure with some romance thrown in. Something weird is going on with the Rockhursts, and war is looming, and it all weirdly has to do with her arranged marriage.
This wasn’t a perfect read for me. Liking the setting and plot more than the characters isn’t really a great sign. Part of this is because the book is told in first person from Ada’s POV, and Mihalik didn’t really pull it off in my opinion. I mean, it works well enough, but I think it would have been better in third person. I didn’t necessarily mind that we don’t get POV from Loch, because it’s not his story. But I did mind that the sex scenes weren’t sexy for me. Look, tongues plundering mouths is never going to do it for me. Also, stubborn domineering alphas don’t really do it for me, either. Loch was about as emotionally vulnerable as a sea urchin.
I liked this enough, though, to definitely finish out the series, and check out more from this author in the future.
3.5 stars, rounding up.
Thanks to teresaelectro for my copy of the book. It was a gift in the last CBR book exchange 🙂