A titillating opening to a space-opera romance series, with enough unique elements to overcome its flaws.
In her first volume of the Sea-anan romance saga, debut author Kong introduces a war-torn galaxy populated by strange aliens with mystical abilities.
When a traitor allows a growing tyrannical empire to destroy Sea Base Ten, half-human Seacat John McCall and his siblings, the royal family of the Sea-anan Empire, fight against the conquerors, the Dominion, until the civilians can fly to safety. Sending their own ships in opposite directions to lead the enemy astray, the siblings are separated, and John is stranded in an unrecognizable part of space, where’s he unable to contact his people. When a group of Surrealans offer him a lift on the condition they stop at their planet first, John is suspicious but desperate. He agrees, not realizing that the Surrealans have ulterior motives: In order to revive their own people from a ghostlike state, the Surrealans must find the soul mates of their people. John is the soul mate of Jasira, a schoolteacher and midwife’s assistant with a fiery temper and a stubborn streak well-suited to challenging the Seacat warrior. But a war against her people left Jasira and many other Surrealans as mist, invisible and silent to non-Surrealans, only able to reform as solid people by borrowing energy from their soul mates. In a series of erotic encounters, she seduces John, who believes he’s hopelessly in love with a ghost. Their peculiar relationship, formed by communicating only through sex and yes-or-no questions, strengthens as they realize they both want the same thing out of life: a family they can keep safe from tyranny and prejudice. Combining elements of sci-fi and fantasy in a space-opera style, Kong has created a strange new universe peopled with interesting alien races. The physical romance between John and Jasira is steamy, though their interactions are necessarily confined, and John has a tendency to scold his ghostly love. The prose is occasionally awkward, too, and the expression of alien dialects is often more confusing than atmospheric. Still, the setup is intriguing, and given the number of John’s siblings, the Sea-anan saga has the potential to keep readers entertained for several installments.
A titillating opening to a space-opera romance series, with enough unique elements to overcome its flaws.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475143409
Page Count: 282
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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