2022 Free Range Reading
A book chosen for fun, not part of any project, plan, or list. And oh so worth it!
I have evolved over the last number of years, from someone who sneered at romance novels, to tolerating romance elements in a story, to enjoying a mystery or fantasy novel with a strong romance element, to a woman who actually has a favourite romance trope. Yup, I am a fan of the enemies-to-lovers scenario, so this novel was ideal for my taste. Octavia Zarola is human, Torran Fletcher is Valovian and they were both well known on their respective sides of an interstellar war, currently at peace.
The book was recommended by one of my favourite authors (Ilona Andrews), who use this set up a lot and I adore their books. And there are a lot of similarities to the Andrews' writing. Torran Fletcher is an extremely powerful telekinetic, much like a certain Mad Rogan from the Hidden Legacy series. He has similar intimate talents too, and the couple find themselves very tempted to hit the sheets before they have established a fully trusting working relationship. Like Nevada Baylor and Mad Rogan, Tavi and Torran are trying to work together platonically, with varying degrees of success. If you're familiar with the Andrews' Kate Daniels series, you will also identify a certain hot tub scene as another overlap.
What is different here is that Mihalik doesn't keep the tension going for more than one book. For me, things moved along much more quickly than I would have chosen. I very much believe in delayed gratification in order to maintain plot tension. But I note that the next book concentrates on another woman, Kee, the information specialist on Tavi's crew. Naturally, it is a Valovian man on Fletcher's team who will be her opposite number. Their friendship gets a rocky start here in book one, but I don't think there's any doubt where they are heading. I think that's one of the most frustrating thing about romance novels for me: there's no question of what the end point will be, even though they will concurrently be trying to avert another war.
So don't go into this book expecting the romance to take a back seat to the political plot—it doesn't. The relationships overwhelm all other concerns like a tsunami. If you can live with that, you will enjoy this novel as much as I did. For the record, I want to read book two.
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