Review: This book is good, but very intense in ways I was not expecting
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 30, 2013
Blurb: ship's pilot Victoria Stark (aka "Victorious Star") is known for saving the sentient ships she flies at the expense of their commanding officers. She likes ships more than she likes people, and when this gets her kicked out of her current position, she soon finds herself press-ganged into service on a mercenary ship, where the captain and XO turn out to be ultraintense BDSM people.Pros: I thought the prose was quite good. Victoria was generally an interesting character. I really liked the passages that describe her interactions with the minds of the ships she pilots, and I would have liked more of those. As far as science-fiction romances go, this does actually have some science fiction, and it does build a spacefaring world to place the plot and romance in, which is a pleasant surprise.Cons: The romance/sex in this is super hardcore. I mean, this is not just a lady getting spanked by the hot captain- IN SPACE. This is full of really intense physical stuff, but more than that, it had emotional and mental themes I found hard to read. I'm talking themes of non-consent, slavery and depersonalization in addition to serious physical violence. Now, those things were well-written, and I think they related to other things the author was writing about the minds of ships, and voluntary vs. involuntary service, but I still found them really tough to read. And as far as love stories go, this is a love story about three people with a lot of what I would consider to be grievous emotional problems.Bottom line: I think it would be wrong of me to say "this book isn't good". It IS good. It's well-written. It has a (not very complex) adventure plot in addition to the romance. It has some snappy dialogue and a lot of good scenes. But the sexuality portrayed in here is fairly edgy, and I found it to be a challenging read because of it. So I ultimately had kind of mixed feelings, but mostly because the romance/sex went into areas that are just too dark for me. However, I can imagine that for people who are into that sort of thing, this book would be just the ticket.