Short and Sweet Book Reviews #22 – Honour Bound by M.A. Grand, Shades of Treason by Sandy Williams

I just got an email naming the Prism Award finalist for Futuristic books for 2016.  As I had read and loved Dark Horse and Echo 8 I decided to give the other two a try.  See my short and sweet review of Honour Bound and Shades of Treason below.  I loved three of the books and liked the other one.  I will be watching to see which one receives the Prism.

You can see my review of Dark Horse and Echo 8 by following the links below to my Goodreads  reviews.

Dark Horse by Michelle Diener https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1315756443?book_show_action=false

Echo 8 by Sharon Fisher https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1191828500?book_show_action=false

Honor Bound (Lawmen #1)  by M.A. Grant

Science Fiction Romance

Honour Bound is an exciting story that sets the stage for future books in the series.  In it we meet Cade and Lailian and follow them from their first brief meeting until they start to work together.  I liked the story.  Cade, Lailian and the other characters did a great job holding the story line in place.  I did feel that some of the world building was spotty.  The back-story for the characters was OK but the back-story for the world itself was not as well done.  I hope that the next book adds what I found missing in Honour Bound.  The danger, tension and characters made up for most of the missing information.  I will be looking for the next book in the series.

Shades of Treason (Anomaly #1) by Sandy Williams

Science Fiction Romance

Shades of Treason is first rate space opera with a slowly building 

romance woven into the story line.  Ash is an anomaly.  She is smarter and stronger than the average human.  The Coalition wants and needs anomalies to serve as soldiers but it does not trust them.  Their solution is to wire their brains with a loyalty training that demands allegiance to the Coalition.

 

Commander Rhys Rykus is Ash’s fair safe, the person who can make her answer questions and follow orders.  When Ash is the only survivor of an important mission and she refuses to answer any questions Rhys is called in to get answers.

This is a great premise for the story that follows.  Ash is one of those great characters that light up the page.  Rhys is an honor bound follow the book officer who always tries to do right.  Ash loves to get under Rhys’ skin while Rhys is attracted to Ash but does not admit it even to himself.

Ash’s silence both hides a big threat to the Coalition and at the same time triggers her loyalty training to protect the Coalition.  It looks like Ash is a traitor but Rhys does not believe it. What follows is a tightly written exciting story that kept me reading.  This is book one in a series and I can’t wait to see what happens to Ash and Rhys next.