A satisfying, sexy, and fast-paced alien romance.
A human woman is kidnapped by an alien who believes she's his mate.
Liz has had a pretty bad week—she was stolen from her Oklahoma farm by little green aliens and transported millions of miles from Earth. After something goes wrong on the ship, the green aliens abandon Liz and the rest of the human women on a cold ice planet with two distant suns. The planet’s local inhabitants, the sa-khui, are a small tribe of large blue aliens that have developed a symbiotic relationship with the khui, a glowing space worm that helps their bodies withstand the bitter climate. The tribe has suffered devastating population losses from hunting accidents and sickness, leaving them fewer than 30 members, only 4 of whom are women. Raahosh is a hunter who resigned himself to a life of loneliness, but when his khui resonates for Liz, he knows she is his mate. Rather than chance being separated from her, he spirits her away to his hidden cave, hoping to prove himself worthy of her. Liz is furious at being kidnapped again and is determined to make as many choices as she can for herself. She demands to hunt with Raahosh, making her own bow and arrows to prove her worth. Raahosh and Liz have explosive chemistry and learn to respect each other’s strengths. Liz is an especially appealing character: feisty, brave, and stubborn. She’s the perfect match for the taciturn Raahosh, who wants to be loved for who he is and valued as an equal partner. In the background of their romance, Dixon shows how the sa-khui and humans are beginning the hard work of building a new culture together.
A satisfying, sexy, and fast-paced alien romance.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-54603-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
Sloppy worldbuilding undermines a high-concept romance.
A teenage time traveler is stuck in the past.
Magnolia Brown’s parents invent personal time-travel suits in the 2070s. When Magnolia is 16, the three travel back to 2024, hoping to warn people about the coming ravages of climate change. Her parents don’t realize their suit design is stolen while they’re there, and the resulting flood of time travelers causes massive societal unrest. Magnolia’s parents are arrested and executed for these crimes, but Magnolia is adopted by a pastor and his family, including two sons, in Aubrey, Kansas. Two years later, Magnolia has fallen in love with one brother, Fallon, while the older brother, Ramsey, is on the front lines, fighting the wave of time travelers. As Fallon’s girlfriend, Magnolia is protected from the disdain and hatred of the townspeople who see her as the poster child for the evils of time travel. After a fire at the high school, Magnolia is determined to repair a time-travel suit and go back in time to prevent the tragedy. In the process, she grows closer to Ramsey and discovers that she may have been in love with the wrong brother all along. Unfortunately, Bailey’s first foray into SF romance is not a success, with both the worldbuilding and the plot underdeveloped. The mechanics of time travel are inconsistent, as are its effects in the story. Based on what any scene requires, supplies are either scarce or readily available, technology is either advanced or it backfires, and laws are either ignored or rigidly enforced. Magnolia thinks, acts, and operates like a 2026 teenager even though she grew up 50 years in the future. Bailey brings her characteristic heat to the romance between Magnolia and Ramsey, but he’s barely a character in his own right. Readers are unlikely to understand his devotion toward Magnolia or the dramatic sacrifices he makes on her behalf.
Sloppy worldbuilding undermines a high-concept romance.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780063381018
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
A disarmingly heartfelt space adventure that dares to suggest genocide might be a bad business.
When a bunch of corporate assholes mark their planet for destruction, a garage band of colonists must defend their home world with the power of rock.
Slightly sidestepping his frenetic litRPG—literary role-playing game—doorstoppers, here Dinniman takes on capitalism, propaganda, xenophobia, and violence as entertainment. Thankfully for readers, it’s all wrapped in the usual profane, adolescent humor, and SF readers will have a ball. A couple of hundred years after they left Earth, the inhabitants of the interstellar colony of New Sonora weren’t expecting much in the way of new threats, especially after a mysterious illness killed almost everyone between the ages of 30 and 60. That disaster left only the young and the old on the populated planet, where farming is enabled by highly accelerated AI and people are generally cool with each other. But when drummer Oliver Lewis stumbles across a foul-mouthed killer mech piloted by a child, he realizes that something’s definitely fishy. Earth, it seems, has classified the New Sonorans as non-human and scheduled their destruction as a paid, five-day combat game. Apex Industries, led by lead mercenary Eli Opel, has reverse-engineered Ender’s Game and is turning loose its players with real bullets and bombs on the population of New Sonora. The resistance is a weird bunch, led by proto-slacker Oliver; his little sister, Lulu; and his ex-girlfriend, documentary filmmaker and burgeoning revolutionary Rosita Zapatero, as well as the other members of Oliver’s band, the Rhythm Mafia. Thankfully, they also have Roger, the last functioning AI on the planet, though Oliver’s grandfather permanently programmed it to nannybot mode as a dying joke. Call the book overlong—the battle scenes often feel like watching someone play a videogame—but the humor and the execution are cutting without being mean and there’s almost always a point.
A disarmingly heartfelt space adventure that dares to suggest genocide might be a bad business.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780593820308
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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