Tundra 37 (A New Dawn Book #2) by Aubrie Dionne

Published By: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: February 2012 (available now)
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
ISBN: 978-1-937044-49-7
Received From: Entangled Publishing, LLC via NetGalley


The Blurb:


Gemme is a hi-tech matchmaker who pairs the next generation of Lifers aboard The Expedition, a deep space transport vessel destined for Paradise 18. When the identity of her lifemate pops up on her screen, she’s shocked that he’s the achingly gorgeous and highly sought after Lieutenant Miles Brentwood—a man oblivious to her existence. Believing everyone will think she contrived the match, she erases it from the computer’s memory.

Just as comets pummel the ship and destroy the pairing system forever.

With The Expedition disabled, the colonists must crash land on the barren ice world of Tundra 37 where Gemme is reassigned to an exploratory mission, led by Lieutenant Brentwood. Only in the frozen tundra does she understand the shape of his heart and why the computer has entwined their destinies.


My Take:


I had the opportunity to read this novel thank to NetGalley. I very much enjoyed it, but while there were parts I did like, there were also parts I didn't. However, the author has intrigued me enough that not only do I want to read the first book in this series, but I also can't wait to read book three in the series.


Aubrie Dionne does a great job with her world-building, creating a science fiction novel that is easily believable is hard work and I found myself really feeling as though this place could exist. Taking place far in the future (and I mean far as in the 2700's) the population of the human species has lived aboard a space shuttle of sorts (think Xenon, Girl of the 21st Century) for centuries as they leave behind the destruction of Earth and attempt to make their way to a new planet Paradise 18. And while most of the people on this very large ship The Expedition won't live to see this planet because of the fact that it takes centuries to get there, they set off in hope of a better future for their offsprings offspring. On the way to Paradise 18, The Expedition is hit by a comet shower and the ship is forced to land on the first available planet capable of occupying life, unfortunately, said planet is currently experiencing an ice age, but with no choice they land and now a team must gather together in search of the proper supplies in this unknown world to keep the ship and it's inhabitant alive so that they can start building a future on this planet. Tundra 37.


Enter Gemme, she was The Expedition's matchmaker, attempting to pair mates together to create the best offspring possible, until she finds her own name matched to the one man she thought she'd only ever be able to dream about being matched to. Afraid that the entire ship will think that she altered the computer system so that she was paired with the ships most eligible bachelor, she deletes the matching and not minutes later, her entire computer system is destroyed in the shower. Without a job, she is placed on a research and exploration team to hunt down minerals that are needed to keep everyone alive on the crashed ship. On his trip she is paired with none other than Lieutenant Brentwood, the very person who she was to be paired with according to the matchmaking system.


Lieutenant Brentwood has never met Gemme before the comet shower but he instantly knows that she is the person he is meant to be with at all costs. However, Gemme's arch rival wants Miles Brentwood for himself and she's also one of the four members of the exploration team. Drama ensues.


What did I like about this story? A lot of things really. The world building was great, and I particularly liked that the story had several different story lines in it concerning other members of the ship and their own personal journey during the crash and subsequent landing. The pacing was great, though at times I did find the constant back and forth of story lines was annoying as I kept wanting Gemme and Miles to have more screen time so to speak, but regardless, the story had me turning the pages.


What problems did I have? I feel that due to the other story lines, the romance between Miles and Gemme was more a secondary plot, than the main focus of the story and also I feel that said romance was a little rushed. I know and love stories of destined lovers, but these two didn't know each other, there was more romance between them when they were recalling their past lives and dreams and I feel the I Love You's came too fast for the development of the relationship. Also, I tend to like my stories on the steamier side, though this is more a personal preference and didn't reflect negatively on the story overall, I just would have preferred to see more than a few kisses etc. and would have liked the sexual tension to be amped up more.


The story end with enough closure that I feel it worked, but it left enough open regarding the future of this group of people to invite the next book in the series so I can't wait for it to come out so I can see what happens.


Even though this is book 2 in the series, the story stood on it own perfectly well and I had no issues following it. I very much enjoyed the story despite my feeling of the romance storyline taking a backseat to the others stories within.


My Rating: 3.5/5 Lattes (*Note: this lower rating is not entirely based on the story itself but rather the fact that this is a romance review site and that the story, while sold as a romance between Gemme and Miles, wasn't enough of a romance in my opinion. If I base my rating on the story being strictly a science fiction with romantic elements then I would likely give this story 4/5 lattes instead.)






All My Best,


Kayla

Review: Gentlemen Prefer Nerds by Joan Kilby

Publisher: Carina Press

Publication Date: March 12, 2012

ISBN: 9781426893377

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Blurb:

Self-professed nerd Maddie Maloney is an expert on jewels. Jewel thieves are another matter entirely! So when a mysterious Englishman warns her that a thief known as The Chameleon is after the rare pink diamond on display in her aunt's shop, she tells herself it's just a joke. Even if she can't get Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome out of her mind...

But Fabian Montgomery doesn't give up easily. He's everywhere she goes, convinced the thief will strike. And when the diamond does go missing-and Maddie is suspected of stealing it-he whisks her away from the police and together they pursue The Chameleon.

Fabian plunges her into a glamorous world far from her humble workshop and transforms geeky Maddie into a sophisticated siren capable of espionage. Her mission: to seduce The Chameleon and steal back the diamond.

But Fabian isn't telling her everything-like who he works for, and why he's so interested in The Chameleon...

My Take:

Gentlemen Prefer Nerds, a cute catchy title that is obviously a play on the Marilyn Monroe film, Gentle Prefer Blondes, and this story has diamonds to boot, though if you ask me, the Rose diamond is far greater than anything I could want from Harry Winston or ever Cartier. Grin.

The story was cute and fun and the pacing was awesome. Maddie, a self-proclaimed nerd, is a well-respected Gemologist who discovered a large and extremely rare pink diamond. Soon after obtaining it and getting it ready for display at her aunt’s jewelry store, a mysterious man warns her that the diamond is in danger of being stolen from right under Maddie’s nose. Convinced the man is doing nothing other than trying to startle her, she dismisses him. That is until the diamond does indeed get stolen from right under her nose and discovers she is the main suspect. She’s thrust into a whirlwind escape and an adventure with the mysterious man as the two of them try to recover the stolen diamond and clear her name.

Even though Maddie considers herself a nerd, and while she is definitely book smart in this story, I personally at least, wouldn’t classify her as a nerd per say. She’s definitely a rule follower and definitely smart, but not a nerd, except when it comes to gems and her style of dress. I particularly enjoyed watching Maddie come out of her shell and grow as a person in this story, she was sort of a late bloomer in life, who even after blooming, doesn’t mind reverting back to her old self, but keeps hints of her new self regardless and knows what she is now capable of

Also, the sexual tension between Maddie and Fabian (the mysterious man) was a little on the flat side for me, especially given that at the beginning of the story it seems Fabian is still hung up on somebody else. Even toward the end when he realizes he’s in love with Maddie, I still felt like he wasn’t completely over this other woman and that he simply thrust his feelings for said woman aside. It could just be me who feels this way and, after all, a review is simply an opinion, but that is how it came across for me.

The main thing I disliked about this entire story was the ending. Sure they get their HEA/HFN, but I didn’t feel as though it was really going to happen for them. I like to have a sense of closure when I’m finished and to me, it felt as though the story was cut off before I got that closure, so unless the author has plans for a sequel or something of the sort which gives good reason for the cut off, I was rather disappointed with the ending, especially considering how much I enjoyed the rest of the story.

For me, this story was good, and I believe it could have been great had I really believed the romance between Maddie and Fabian, but even though it didn’t cross over into my great reads column I still enjoyed it. Quirky characters, I particularly liked Maddie’s father, a fun, light tone that is very different from much of the darker toned books out there of late. Thanks to this book I’ve discovered a new author, who’s writing I very much enjoyed and I look forward to reading some of her backlist, maybe one of those will be shelved in my Great Reads column.

My Rating:

3.5/5 “Pink” Lattes

All My Best,

Kayla

Review: Chain Reaction by Zoe Archer

Title: Chain Reaction Publisher: Carina Press Publication Date: January 9, 2012
ISBN: 9781426893032 Length: 43,000 words Science-Fiction Romance
Blurb:

Elite 8th Wing pilot Celene Jur was taken captive after a mysterious device temporarily disabled her ship's controls. Three solar months later, when Celene receives intel on the man who built the device, she's ready to get the bastard. Only problem is, the higher-ups think her mission partner should be Nils Calder, a tech-head who can understand the disabling device.  The attraction between them is electric, but Celene needs a soldier who can watch her back as she exacts her revenge.


Nils knows his department is nicknamed NerdWorks. Pilots like Celene think the closest tech geeks come to combat is all-night Nifalian chess tournaments. But behind the NerdWorks insignia on his sleeve Nils is an able fighter, ready to prove himself and gain Celene's trust.


The desire between them is unexpected, but with the fate of thousands hanging in the balance, the hotshot pilot and the tech genius must succeed in their mission-no matter the cost.


Thanks to Carina Press and NetGalley.com I had the opportunity to review this novella. I had picked it because I am a fan of Zoe Archer's Blades of the Rose series and thought it might be interesting to try a different book by the author. I am very glad I did. Chain Reaction is book 2 in Zoe Archer's 8th Wing series, and I'm definitely going to grab myself a copy of book 1 and look forward to the release of book 3.

Zoe Archer writes with a talent for grabbing your attention and not letting you stop until the story is finished. The story was fast paced, adventurous, and all around exciting. I especially liked the world building. The author did a great job in that aspect, she created a world that I truly believed, while reading it, could exist. The only down side to this I thought was that because she delved so deep into the world, the names of plants and animals etc were stated, but I had nothing to compare a description to so I had no idea what things really looked like and was left to my own imagination there. Overall, not too bad of a complaint and it was easy to over look for the most part and allow myself to enjoy the story. A glossary of terms either before or after the story would have been helpful.

The characters are very strong, I love myself a strong, kick-ass heroine, and generally I do prefer the hero to still be stronger if not her equal. In this novella, Celene was definitely and extremely strong heroine and the hero, Nils, acknowledged and accepted the fact that she in fact, is stronger than him. I think this is one of the reasons I didn't mind the hero being a tad under the heroine and in fact, they did treat each other as equals despite the knowledge that Celene is the stronger of the two and this really worked for me. The hero accepted the heroine for who she was, which in was extremely important in the relationship arc of this story. And though Nils is the Beta to Celene's Alpha, he is still strong in his own right (and yummy to boot) the two of them meshed extremely well together in my opinion.

Together, they helped to make a big dent in taking down a corporate giant set on universal domination and they didn't let their relationship get in the way when it came to their job duties, this shows the strength of their character, at least to me.

Overall this was a great read and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction/futuristic romance.

4/5 lattes

All My Best,

Kayla

Review: Under Her Brass Corset by Brenda Williamson

Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: February 27, 2012
ISBN: 9781426893292
E-Book


This review was interesting to write, and I must say, truthfully, that I really did enjoy the novel, but there were just some parts I feel as though I couldn't help but shake by head on. Overall though, it was an enjoyable read.

I encountered this novel on NetGalley and was very excited to start reading it right away. This story seems to have it all: romance, adventure, steampunk, paranormal, I mean how could I go wrong when so many of my favorite romance sub-genres were included in the story. Oddly, enough, despite how much I enjoy steampunk, I haven't read too many stories in this sub-genre, and this particular novel, though categorized as steampunk, fell a little flat on that front in my opinion.

From the blurb:  Since the loss of her father, Abigail Thatch's life has been in turmoil. Her social status is in shambles, her finances depleted, and she's on the verge of losing her beloved home. But everything changes when she meets the dashing flying machine captain, Jasper Blackthorn. Not only does he introduce her to a world she though only existed in myth and legend, he awakens sensual feelings deep within her...

Jasper may be immortal, but he hasn't truly lived in years. Having secretly watched over Abigail as  favor to her notorious grandfather, he can't resist arranging a "chance" meeting with the beauty. But he has an ulterior motive: to retrieve the mystical Crystal Compass hidden in her house before it falls into the wrong hands. He never imagines he'll be tempted to love again...

When Abigail learns the truth, she and Jasper embark on a journey that will change both of their lives and possibly the world...

Abigail fell a a little short on the heroine front for me, particularly with how easily she gives in to Jasper even though she truly believes he is lying to her during the course of well, almost the entire story. She believes he is with her only for the Crystal Compass and that he is lying to her about his immortality and about, well, almost everything else for that matter which kind of got annoying to me. I mean, why would a woman with a strong mind such as her, willingly concede to the hero sexually over and over again when she believes he is constantly lying to her? It baffled me really. But she's been alone for a while now, with her father gone, her mother gone, her fiancé gone and despite her belief that Jasper is always lying to her, she truly believes that he does at least care for her, and this for me, is what allowed me to continue reading on despite Abigail's wishy-washy ways.

Jasper is well...yummy, to say the least. An immortal and just over four hundred years old, he's had adventure after adventure in his life, including finding one of the Springs of Avalon, and has befriended many, including Abigail's grandfather, Blackbeard. However, after a tragedy he had been unable to stop one hundred and fifty years ago, he did his best not to befriend too many mortals. That is until, he met Abigail's father, and in turn met Abigail. I liked Jasper a lot. I liked that he tells Abigail the truth about everything, (even though she refuses to believe him) and I love how much he really cares about and loves Abigail.  And what a clever man he is to have spent his life creating steam powered inventions including his ship, which can also fly. One of the things I love about the steampunk genre are all the cool contraptions that go into making the world come alive.

Speaking of steampunk, the story lacked a lot of description other than the flying machine and one or two other contraptions for me to really feel that this was an actual steampunk romance, the world itself appeared normal aside from the flying machine, so normal in fact, that despite the style of dress, and the mention of the civil war having ended some time ago, and the fact that Juan Ponce De Leon is four hundred years old, I didn't feel as though we were in the past. The dialogue for the most part as well as the setting, in my opinion, could just as easily have taken place in a contemporary setting and as such I had a hard time pinning down what time period this took place in.

The love scenes were great, aside from a few comments in terms of the authors word choices which did at times, pull me out of the story. The chemistry between Jasper and Abigail was through the roof. And I loved Abigail's little encounter with Jasper's jacuzzi tub. Also, I have no problem with the mention of birth control in a love scene, but when the author does so like this:

"The next time she'd prepare herself with a sponge dipped in vinegar and inserted into her vagina."

I have a problem. This was a little much for me, a little too detailed, not to mention, right in the middle of a love scene. The author's word choices during the love scenes were causes for some head shakes and giggles on my part, I say the love scenes are hot because they are, but I had to insert my own words for female parts etc. to help with it as some of the common phrases the author uses come out funny or scientific. IE: vagina, penis, and nether lips. At one point, she even describes the oral sex as :"Relentless, he persisted in torturing the hard bud harboring a million nerves." To me, this sounds as though Abigail is not enjoying the sexual relationship, but rather hates it. However, her actions speak otherwise.

The dialogue is fun and witty and rather than me describing it I'll post a small tidbit that I particularly enjoyed in which they are deciding which bunks they can each sleep on.

“You can have the bottom.” He smiled.

The mischievousness twinkle in his eyes offered a new chance. Quickly accessing the situation, she said, “I’d prefer on top.”

“On t-top?” The words sputtered from his lips.

To hide her smile, she turned her back to him and pretended to access the condition of the upper bunk.

“Is that a problem?” She stroked the wrinkles from the coverlet.

“Not at all. You’ll find I can be very accommodating. Although I would think you’d prefer lying on the bottom. It doesn’t require as much effort.” He tapped the rungs of the ladder as if suggesting he meant climbing to the upper level.

The little game of innuendoes fascinated Abigail, encouraging her to continue to play along. “Maybe so, but I’m young and agile. I don’t think I’ll have regrets getting on top or dismounting. The workout helps keep me fit.”

“And I appreciate your endeavors.” He tilted his head to the side and looked her up and down as if assessing her shape. “Some women aren’t as aggressive.”

“Some women aren’t me, Captain. I’m aware of all the benefits to my position on top.”

I never really understood the purpose of Jasper wearing an eye patch when they first meet, or the purpose of the brass corset aside from the fact that Abigail found it and enjoyed wearing it and Jasper enjoyed taking it off of her. And it felt like some things were just thrown in for the heck of it without any real purpose such as the troll, the sorcerer trapped in an animal's body, etc. These things didn't seem to serve a purpose at all.

At the beginning of this review when I said it was an interesting one to write, I wasn't lying, despite all these mixed feelings I seem to have, the story was light hearted, enjoyable and an easy read and I will definitely be looking forward to another of Brenda Williamson's titles. 

My grade: 3/5 lattes



All my best,

Kayla