Thursday, November 27, 2014

Death Defying (Dark Desires #3) by Nina Croft and Temporal Shift (Dark Desires #4) by Nina Croft

Death Defying by Nina Croft

Space Opera/Science Fiction Romance

From Goodreads:

Part snake, part human, and—some would say all bitch—Captain Tannis of the starship El Cazador has one goal in life—to earn enough credits to pay for the Meridian treatment to achieve the immortality she craves. And one last job will get her there. The assignment: protecting the most powerful man in the Universe.

Being leader of the known universe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it sucks big time. And after five hundred years, Callum Meridian, founding member of the Collective, is bored out of his mind. But as things are changing, he’s changing—into what, though, he isn’t sure. Callum is determined to discover the truth, and he’s employed the crew of El Cazador to help him do it.

Not everyone agrees with his plan, though. His own people will stop at nothing to prevent the truth coming out, the Church is taking advantage of the confusion and attempting a coup, and even the crew of El Cazador seem close to tossing him out the airlock without a space suit. But defying death has never been more dangerous, sexier, or more fun.

I loved the first two Blood Hunter novels. They were the kind of Science Fiction Romance and Space Opera that I love. I Put Death Defying on pre-order as soon as I saw it. It appeared on my kindle several days ago and went to the top of by TBR list. I expected the same level of enjoyment I got from reading the first two books and I was not disappointed.

Death Defying did several things. The prologue goes back 15 years and tells how Rico and Tannis met. I got to catch up with the crew of El Cazador again. There was additional world building as I learned more about the Collective, the Church and the Rebels. Death Defying has one very important new main character, Callum Meridian. He was a side character in previous books but moves to center stage here. Tannis get her own chance for a HEA but not without a lot of problems. 

The plot starts out simple and becomes more complex as the story progresses. Callum hires the El Cazador and its crew to take him on a journey of discovery. For Callum it is more of a journey then he expected. He starts out as an arrogant spoiled man who has to face some hard facts about the man he has become. How the mission plays out depends on how much he can change.

This is book three in the series but it does a good job standing alone. For maximum enjoyment read Break Out, book one, and Deadly Pursuit, book two first. When you finish all three then read Temporal Shift Book Four.   Blood and Metal, book five is coming out sometime soon.




Temporal Shift by Nina Croft

Space Opera/Science Fiction Romance

From Goodreads:

Select Otherworld presents an all-new romance that's out of this world...

Caught between destiny and desire...

After diving into a black hole in search of the source of Meridian, the key to immortality, the crew of the Blood Hunter finds themselves stranded in an alternate universe.

Engineer Devlin Stark doesn't want immortality. He just wants to live long enough to get his revenge on the man who murdered his brother. Now, he's trapped in a strange world with a crazy woman who claims he's fated to be her lover.

Saffira Lourdes has a destiny: to save humanity and lead her exiled people to the Promised Land. Haunted by visions of the past and future, she's been sustained through the years by a dream lover. Unfortunately, Devlin doesn't believe in fate. But it's obvious there's a connection between them, one that will soon be tested by the limits of time and space. Saffira is about to make the crew of the Blood Hunter an offer they'll find impossible to refuse.

They're heading back to Earth, and they're going back in time.

Temporal Shift features the crew of the Blood Hunter (we get to see Rico and his snarly remarks again –he just gets some of the best lines) in a new adventure.  This one features Devlin Stark and Saffira Lourdes.  Devlin was a side character in Death Defying (see the review above) and Saffira is one of the people we meet when the Blood Hunter goes through the black hole.  Saffira has visions and many of them have been about Devlin. Devlin does not care about anything except revenge.  Don’t look for love at first site here.  Instead look for another great adventure.

Temporal Shift adds more world building details as well as additional back story to the Dark Desires world.  Croft takes time travel and gives it a new twist while spinning another great space opera story.  There are secrets, again, romance, again, and a great many twists and turns.  All of which make a really fun Science Fiction Romance packaged in an exhilarating Space Opera.

I would not start the series with Temporal Shift.  At the very least read Break Out, book one in the series.  I started Temporal Shift before I read Death Defying and was lost enough that I put it down until I had read Death Defying.  Just my recommendation is to start this series from the beginning.  Croft keeps each book fresh by introducing new SciFi elements and characters.

There are several hooks for new stories as Temporal Shift ends.  Croft stated that she was writing book six so hopefully book five will be out soon.

Entangled Publishing released Temporal Shift by Nina Croft in 2014.

I received a free ARC of Temporal Shift in return for an honest review.




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