Jennifer Estep writes nice speculative fiction, mixed with romance. And I need a mystery or action element to make romance palatable. She has done a good job of creating two main characters who don't expect to find a partner in life or love and then set them on the path toward both.
Vesper knows that she and Kyrion share a true bond, but he has hostile associations with the whole concept. His parents had a true bond and were used as a power source and eventually killed by Callus Holloway, Imperial leader. Holloway is a siphon, sucking magical energy from the environment and people around him. True bonds stimulate his greed for power, offering a rich source. Vesper has kept her distance, tried to run her life and her company on her own terms without troubling either man, but politics get in her way.
Estep sets things up neatly, with Vesper conditioned by her mother and her ex-boyfriend, among others, who have abandoned her in the past. Now she expects to go it alone. Kyrion also has parental issues, having been shut out of his own family by the strength of his parents' true bond. Naturally, these two are suspicious of the nature of the bond and of each other.
As in her Elemental Assassin series, Estep seems to enjoy writing about food. The main characters enjoy preparing and eating good food. Indeed, she writes food scenes much more deftly than sex scenes. Nevertheless, she has set up an interesting twist to lead us to the third installment of <i>Galactic Bonds</i>. Plotting is one of her strong suits, with a hook at the end of each book to encourage you to seek out the next one. I only hope that my library ponies up and purchases Zane Zimmer's book.
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