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.

Amaryllis by Jayne Castle

Futuristic/Paranormal Romance

The first time I read Amaryllis I checked it out from the public library. I loved the book so I checked and found that there were two other books in the series. I purchased those two (Zinnia and Orchid) as they were not available in the library. Not long after that I decided I wanted to own Amaryllis but found it was not available. In fact I think it was listed as out of print. Imagine my surprise when on a recent visit to Barnes and Noble I found Amaryllis with a brand new cover on display at the front of the store.

Amaryllis is set on the planet of St Helen’s. Like her later books about Harmony, St Helen’s was settled when the curtain allowed easy travel between worlds. When the curtain closed the colonist were cut off and had to adapt to their new world. No Earth manufactured products lasted long after being on St Helen’s. The colonist had to learn to manufacture everything out to native materials. During this time the colonist started to develop new physic powers that could only be used when paired with someone who was a prism. When Lucas Trent hires Amaryllis Lark to act as his prism they find that both have off the chart talents that match perfectly. As they work together they uncover a physic plot sends them into danger and an attraction that is hard to ignore.

This series is not quite as intense as the later series set on Harmony. However, it is still an exciting and satisfying read.

Pocket Books published Amaryllis by Jayne Castle in1996. Jayne Castle is a pen name for Jayne Ann Krentz.

How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days by Susan Grant.

How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days is the third book in Susan Grant’s Otherworldly series and it is one of my favorites. It takes an unlikely hero, Reef, and a suburban housewife, Evie, on a series of desperate adventures. Reef stands for Robotically Engineered Enemy Fighter. Reef is the villain in the first book in this series. He is a cyberpowered assassin who has been programmed and sent to Earth to kill Earth’s connections to one of the extraterrestrial powers. He was not successful and found himself with his internal computers turned off and his programming no longer working. It turns out he was not anything like his programming. Enter, Evie, as divorced suburban housewife with family connections to that same representatives Reef was sent to kill. Evie has her own set of problems. Someone thinks her chocolate business is laundering money for the mob, and her ex-husband want to take their two children. What Evie needs is a bodyguard and Reef ends up with the job. Evie gives Reef 10 day to prove he can do the job and thus the title; How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days. Evie and Reef both have issues and the solution for both makes this an exciting read. I recommend you read How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days. This book is a recent Prism Award winner.