Review: An Amazing Science Fiction Romance Anthology by Three Creative Authors
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 18, 2013
An Amazing Science Fiction Romance Anthology that will keep you glued to each page and begging for more.ALL THAT GLITTERS by Erin Kellison starts out fast and never slows down. In the true tradition of science fiction, Sol is a well imagined, believable place with environmental dangers that put our heroine into a precarious position from the very beginning. If the fear of scavengers (those who live on the outskirts of the dome protected city and who are willing to do anything including kill a Sol Princess to regain control of their planet) aren't enough to worry about as she flees her disabled ship but she also has to worry about the planet itself trying to kill this determined daughter of Sol, Mica.Mica hadn't expected to meet up with Simon, the only man who had a claim on her heart, but there he was and now she had not only a need to know what had happened in his life since she left Sol five years earlier but she had an even greater need to be his once more.  Unsure of what he has planned and not fully trusting him, she decides to free herself by aiding his cause and turning the tables on him. After getting the three would-be thieves into the city, she allows Simon's partners to disappear into the crowds knowing they wouldn't stay out of trouble long enough to worry about and claims Simon as her consort thereby forcing him to remain at her side with the hope of protecting him from her father's wrath. So begins their journey together to right the wrongs done to those in need, protect the Sol family from attacks by the scavengers, all the while reigniting the love that had survived a five year separation.As someone who enjoys science fiction as easily as any other kind of fiction, I am always thrilled when an author mixes romance with one of my favorite genres. ALL THAT GLITTERS is all that and more. It snatches up and deposits the reader on a new and strange world. The setting, different than anything we normally expect in a romance, abounds with dangers and wildlife that make it most hostile toward Humans. Erin Kellison paints a story using a pallet of colorful images that brings the world of Sol to life and endears us to Mica and Simon immediately. Star-crossed lovers torn apart by a vengeful father but reunited stronger than ever to overcome all obstacles before finally coming together as an even more loyal pair in love.TO BUY A WIFE by KC Klein is Lake's story. We meet Hudson first, we learn what he needs from Lake - protection for his farm, his men, future children, and companionship. I think we even get a hint of his wanting love. After Hudson brings Lake to his farm, he makes a deal with her that she may have twenty-four hours to do what she needs - something she won't tell him - but that she return willingly to him as a wife and eventual mother to his children. Lake agrees but has no intention of keeping her promise. It's at this point that I feel Hudson becomes a secondary character. It becomes Lake's story, her journey, her mission, and eventually her fight. Hudson comes across as nothing more than a second thought and bodyguard. When he does go after her and makes a deal with the Rebels to retrieve Lake's brother, Vonn, I felt it before he declared it that he would easily accept Vonn into his family - I like Hudson very much.The premise of the story is intriguing. I got a scifi western-esk feel from it, reminiscent of some Firefly episodes and I liked that. The problem I had with TO BUY A WIFE is that I wanted more. I wanted to see more interaction between Lake and Hudson. I wanted to know more about the world in which they lived, how it came to be and why there was such a shortage of women. I wanted to see Hudson play a greater role in the story and to see him meet Vonn and interact with the boy who he was willing to call his family merely to please Lake. I wanted to feel that Lake really was falling in love with Hudson. Fortunately, this story gets continued in the next anthology, HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2, and so many things get answered, so much comes together that this story becomes very worth reading. It's a definite to be read novella.ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT by Jessa Slade is capturing, it's imaginative, it's so well written that by the time I finished reading it, I really had felt like I had read a full-length novel instead of a novella.ENSLAVED BY STARLIGHT is a truly wonderful reading experience. Jessa Slade has brought to life an imaginative world with triple moons, thin planetary rings of icy dust and caves of sharp dangerous crystals of intense beauty that can kill. These crystals, when blended or keyed with a person who can survive it, create a being so sensually sensitive that sex literally becomes an out of this world experience. Jessa packed more story into this novella than I've read in some full-length novels. Brava, Jessa, for taking this reader on a trip to a far off world wrought with danger, intrigue, and passion. I highly recommend this novella for anyone who has enjoyed science fiction romance in the past or would like to experience it for the first time now.HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology of novellas by Erin Kellison, KC Klein, and Jessa Slade is packed full with action, danger, intrigue, and passion. These three authors have pooled together to create an adventure into science fiction romance that I hope will be repeated again and again. Be sure to follow it up with HOTTER ON THE EDGE 2 where all three stories continue and keep you coming back for more.