So what have you been reading?

Phex is a refugee working in a coffee shop and singing along to the entertainment vids when he is overheard and recruited to audition for new bands forming. Bands are the main export for one world, and they are set up to make the best of the talented beings that want to be worshiped as idols. Phex doesn’t trust anyone, but he needs to trust his bandmates to reach the top. The start of an interesting SF series that draws heavily on K-pop and modern stars.

Temper is a captain of a ship doing planet scouting jobs but can’t outfly her reputation as a banished member of one of the Fifteen Families.  When a job comes up from one of the most prominent families it is almost impossible to refuse. The catch is she must take one of the family’s sons with her.  Quickly things are not what they appear to be on the mission they were given and now sparks are flying between Temperance and Arcadio as they agree to complete the secret mission and maybe come to an understanding between the two of them.  A fun read and now I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in the series.

Digital copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

Chaos Terminal is a great title to explain what happens in this story.  Mallory is tasked by Mrs. Brown to watch over the station while she leaves for a short but necessary trip to learn more about being linked to the station.  Mallory gets sick right before a shuttle from Earth is to arrive with the new ambassador.  What she doesn’t expect when she joins everyone at the arrival reception directly from a fevered coma in sickbay is to see her high school friend and her friend’s twin brother that she had a crush on.   The other big surprise is the law enforcement office who was convinced that Mallory was behind all the murders that happened around her on Earth.   When one of the new arrivals falls out of closet dead from a stab wound everyone is a suspect but the problem is Mallory’s talent to put the pieces together isn’t working since her fever.  No spoilers on why that happens but it does allow for the murder case to drag on a bit.  The rock like alien Tina is having issues as well and this is a large secondary plot to the storyline.  Overall, this is a great story and I hope to see more in this setting.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

The premise of this sounded so good but it ended up feeling more like a slog to get through.  AI run large mechas that are worshiped and have many followers and priests. But when the city that the AI protects is destroyed these Ais go insane. By the end of the book I just didn’t care that much about what was happening even as it felt a bit rushed. This series isn’t for me and I will not be picking up the next one until I see how other people feel about it. 

Digital audio book provided by the publisher through NetGalley

After getting away from the space pirates and allowed to stay on You Sexy Thing, Niko wants to find Petalia to make sure they are safe, and the rest of crew is now trying to go about their lives after some major changes.  Thorn is despondent following the death of his twin and allows himself to be manipulated by Niko’s old captain that conveniently bumps into him at a market.  The market is a temp setup since the gates that everyone uses for travel have stopped working.  They set up their restaurant in the ship for something to do and conduct some trade as well.  When a known scam artist comes around saying they know how to reset the gates everyone is very interested to see how they pull this off.  Farren is a sometime con artist and sometime archaeologist who very well may also hold the key to keep Niko and her crew forever out of the clutches of the king of the space pirates. The story was good but definitely ended with more questions than answers for the crew.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

The third book in this SF based enemies to lovers’ series is a good wrap up to the overall story arc between the characters and a good chemistry between the two. 

Digital review copy provided by the published through Netgalley

Set in a future where humans are fighting a slowly losing battle against AI that want to upload to our bodies. Sergeant Valero has died time and time again only to be reborn in a cloned body and put back into battle against the Mechan.  Then one day she gets transferred to a new ship and things are different, she isn’t put through a meat grinder of endless death and starts forming a relationship with a doctor on the ship and also working with the man behind the science of her chip that allows for people to be reborn even though he has never been.   With the help of a next gen AI chip that she gets, things really start going her team’s way when they are on missions, but things are not adding up.  I will say the ending had me yell.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

The third book in the series is just as good as the previous one.  Tony is working in a hospital thanks to Covid and a new law allowing for dispatching of people suffering from Covid to let them reset and hopefully recover from the virus.  But when an old acquaintance shows up in the ER after being hit by a car and asking for him, Tony is dragged into Mason’s shady dealings.  Tony is quickly contacted by his friend from the police dept that he had worked with in the past and asked about what he discussed with Mason.  Tony quickly gets dragged into Mason’s dealings with hedge funds and cryptocurrencies.   The plot hangs together quite believably and comes to a satisfying conclusion. The story can be read without having read the others, but you do miss on the backstory that Tony has with several characters. 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Prince Kiem has been told he will marry the widower Jainan in order to keep a treaty between their two planets active.  They know nothing of one another other than Jainan was married to a cousin of Kiem’s that he wasn’t close to.  They need to show a happy treaty marriage to the world in order to keep politics going. Since this is a political alliance that must be seen as a love match there is a lot of miscommunications between them both due to the abusive details of the previous marriage.  And there is a subplot that has Jainan believe that Prince Taam was murdered and not just died in a work accident.  But Prince Taam worked on a secret project and kept the details from him, and no one trusts Jainan since he is an outsider.  This is a bit of a romance with both parties being attracted to one another but each believing the other isn’t interested and being respectful of each other.