For those of you for whom September means the kids are
back in school and you have more time to read, here's a selection of sci-fi
romances for you! For everyone else, please help yourself to this selection of sci-fi
romances, whatever the occasion!
New
releases
EDEN (Aurora #5) - Amanda Bridgeman
In the wake of the tragic events in Centralis, Captain Saul Harris stands with the weight of the world on his shoulders. With the truth of UNFASP revealed, he realizes that he must embrace his ancestry if he is to survive the coming onslaught. But how far will Harris go to protect the future? Will he sacrifice life as he knows it and become a Jumbo? Or can he face the future as a common man?
Meanwhile Sergeant Carrie Welles has been left devastated by
what has happened. Uncertain of the future ahead, and with her nemesis,
Sharley, on the brink of control, she struggles to pick herself up. But she is
left surprised when help comes from the unlikeliest of places.
As her
life veers off in a direction she never expected, Carrie soon understands that
she is running a course with a destiny that lies far beyond her control. A
destiny that is strangely aligned with her Captain's.
BLACK ICE HEART (Space Grit #1) - Ella Drake
Condemned and in transit to an asteroid prison, he found
what he'd never had before--a chance to love.
Ensign Joan Holly has
one last mission before transferring to a secretive, elite unit, the Nex. It's
what she's wanted since joining the military as a child. All she has to do is
escort the most reviled prisoner on Geonate to meet his fate. Simple, since
he's immobilized and nobody has ever escaped the Asteroid Pit.
Cenak Bronson never had
it easy. He's never been free and never had a future. He accepts his doomed
fate until he's rescued by a band of half-aliens, the Scoriah. After the chaos
of his breakout, Cenak finds himself reluctantly bound to the only other
survivor, his jailer Joan.
But they aren't the sole
survivors by coincidence and they weren't captured by the Scoriah randomly. To
survive, they join forces, uncovering secrets and lies that change everything.
Including the future of Geonate itself.
Black Ice Heart is a
full-length science fiction romance novel that begins the Space Grit series and
can be read stand-alone.
Warning: This novel is
intended for readers 18 and older. It contains explicit scenes, language,
violence.
Author-supplied
tags: m/f, spicy, aliens, antihero
assassin, heroine soldier, enemies to lovers, military, space opera, genetic
manipulation, pregnancy, laboratory, violent action. For more information,
visit the author's site.
FARING SOUL (Interspace Origins #1) - Tracy Cooper-Posey
Rumors emerge that Catherine Shahrazad, possibly the oldest person in the galaxy, has returned from the fringes and has been seen in Federation space. Wherever she goes, her name and her history cause civil unrest, riots and worse. The Federation Board don’t want her there, neither do the leaders of Cadfael College, the educators and moralists of the galaxy. No one pays any attention to the reticent navigator called Bedivere X, who pilots her ship better than she does.
The truth about Bedivere
threatens the entire Federation.
His feelings for Cat
might just save everyone.
This book is part of the
Interspace Origins space opera romance series:
Book 1: Faring
Soul
Book 2: Varkan
Rise
Book 3: Cat and
Company
5,001
– Tracy Cooper-Posey
Master
Engineer Caelen Williams is the most sought-after contractor aboard the
closed-system marathon-class vessel Endurance, a generation ship at
least four hundred light years away from its destination. Captain
Lakewood, leader of the space-faring city, demands she resolve a
life-threatening issue—the ship is losing water.
Caelen’s former lover, Devar, was wrongly persecuted by Lakewood’s people but for the sake of everyone aboard the Endurance, Caelen tries to solve the riddle of the draining water and learns that Devar is not the only one who may have been manipulated....
This is a short science fiction romance story, for fast reading and enjoyment.
Caelen’s former lover, Devar, was wrongly persecuted by Lakewood’s people but for the sake of everyone aboard the Endurance, Caelen tries to solve the riddle of the draining water and learns that Devar is not the only one who may have been manipulated....
This is a short science fiction romance story, for fast reading and enjoyment.
FARRYN'S WAR (Exiles of the Drift, #1) -
Christie Meierz
A
novel of love, betrayal, and an opening to the stars
The empathic Tolari of
the Beta Hydri system shunned space travel for thousands of years, until one
man, Farryn, the former ruler of Monralar, tried to shake his people from their
isolation—tried and failed, losing his honor in the process. Now an exile, he
puts his past behind him by building his own criminal empire among the colonies
of Earth.
Scholar, political
analyst, and one of the most powerful empathic sensitives on Tolar, Farryn’s
estranged lover Sharana dares to follow him into human space, desperate to find
out what has become of him, hopeful of convincing him that she never betrayed
him.
Unfortunately, Earth
Central Security is watching, and Sharana has no idea what she is getting
herself into.
BAD
KITTY - Teresa
Noelle Roberts
Most of Xia’s early
memories are repressed, thank the Great Cat Mother. But her body remembers how
to kill.
The longer she and her
fellow Malcolm crewmates are holed up on Cibari hiding from assassins,
the twitchier she gets—until the planet’s insanely sexy warlord, Rahal Mizyar,
borrows her skills to take out slavers.
Rahal suspects Xia is
his mate, but the human-raised female never learned the finer points of
felinoid rituals. The solution: make her fall hard and fast for him, even if it
means playing dirty.
Hired to determine if
Xia is the long-missing granddaughter of the felinoid prime minister, Cal
Janssen has finally tracked her down. Getting past Rahal, though, is a
problem—until he’s mistaken for a notorious arms dealer and playboy. And he
finds himself the object of both Rahal’s and Xia’s seduction.
When their first mission
brings Xia’s memories bulleting back to the surface, she realizes she’s fallen
for two men who don’t exist. Running away, however, could be her deadliest
mistake.
Warning:
Contains an assassin with a swiss cheese memory, a badass warlord who’s getting
tired of his own con, and a freelance lawman. Secrets, lies, and hot sex with
no rules.
THIEF OF HEARTS: A Novella of the Purxnae - Lucy Varna
Queen’s Guard Alna Lomig
is on the verge of fulfilling her destiny, until she’s kidnapped by handsome
Pruxnæ Gared ab Einif, who has other plans for his Lady Warrior.
A novella-length prequel to the Pruxnae Series.
Forthcoming
Via Ella
Drake comes news of two forthcoming box sets coming out in October. One is
all SFR and the other features several more. Both include titles by Ms. Drake. She
helped me out with information and a few tags so we could learn more.
(All SFR)
DEEP INTO DARKNESS: ALIENS,
ALPHAS, AND ANTIHEROES (box
set of novels & novellas by Ella Drake,
Kim Knox, Annie Nicholas,
Marguerite Labbe, and Elise Logan)
Five
tantalizing and thrilling science fiction stories from five amazing authors.
PANDORA
by Marguerite Labbe (novel)
Sentenced
to life on board a space salvage cruiser, Riff Korra and Zed Jakobsen find
themselves drawn together out of mutual need. But when an epidemic of violence
and insanity consumes their ship, will their bond give them the strength they
need to escape?
BOARDED
by Annie Nicholas (novella)
Liaison
Sadie Beckit must accompany the mysterious Ambassador Nual to Central Station.
Sounds easy enough, but the lawless void of space holds many dangers. To make
things worse, Nual seems determined to make Sadie lose her professional
control.
FORSAKEN
PLANET by Elise Logan (novella)
Luci
has gone, literally, to the ends of colonized space in order find some peace.
Marooned on a desolate planet with limited supplies, Luci needs to learn to
trust her team leader, Sakir Khyne. Together they must take out hostile forces
and try to survive.
DARK
IMMORTALITY by Kim Knox (novella)
Captain
Andros: pirate, vampire, all-round bastard. When he takes Madelen Ariel as his
own, his crew sees an opportunity. They’re about to find out just how much of a
bastard he really is.
FREEKER
by Ella Drake (novella)
On
the run, convicted murderer Chara stows away on a ship piloted by a big, sexy
alien. Warrant puts the safety of his brothers above all else but the violent
and sensual Chara makes him question the price of risk.
Author-supplied tags: m/f, spicy,
alien pilot hero, unrepentant antiheroine, space opera, genetic manipulation,
rough sex
***
Here are the details on the sci-fi romances from the TAMING THE MONSTER box set (October 13, 2015):
KILT IN SPACE (A Space Grit novella) – Ella Drake
A shy monster accidently scares the
ship engineer. Not exactly the way he wanted to catch her attention. (author
tags: m/f, spicy, alien, heroine engineer, lab-created hero, monster,
space opera, genetic manipulation)
ALIEN DISRUPTION (Captured by Aliens) - Jaide Fox
Sometimes
the boom isn’t thunder—it’s aliens crash landing in your hood.
THE RINGS FIGHTER (Alien Apocalypse) - JC Andrijeski
Although
he is the hottest alien overlord she’s ever seen, he may not be exactly what he
appears.
Anna Hackett's
RETURN TO DARK EARTH (Phoenix Adventures #7) is slated to release
September 9, 2015. The description was unavailable at the time of this post, but here's the cover!
Another
award-winning SFR
Great news: Anna Hackett's BENEATH
A TROJAN MOON won the Romantic Novella of the Year in the RWAus Ella Awards!! I enjoyed
this book and am glad to see it gain such wonderful recognition.
Congratulations, Ms. Hackett!
SFR
Brigade posts
M.A. Grant blogs about the Squad
Mentality in SFR:
What I love about both is that the central romance between main characters isn’t a standalone thread of the plot. Instead, the books are as much about how the pre-established bonds between squadmates or crew members are tested by the burgeoning romance. In the face of sometimes extreme challenges presented in science-fiction worlds, becoming a respected member of a team is a critical element to not only the romantic relationship’s success, but also to survival.
In The
Ground Beneath Our Feet, author T.L. Smith blogs about the evolution of her
story STAR PEOPLE LEGACY.
Starla Huchton blogs about SF and religion in The
Creation Myth: Remixed:
From the ancient Egyptians to today’s fast-paced modern world, religion has been a part of human culture. It’s a concept that comforts us and offers explanations in an existence that so often feels beyond our control or understanding. Humanity has studied the beliefs of our ancestors and come to our own conclusions about what we feel to be true about the universe, and whether that’s praising Odin or discarding the notions of higher mystical powers entirely for science, everyone has faith in something.But what if everything was connected? What if Viking valkyries and Christianity’s angels were one and the same?
Is
SFR doomed to a life of being ignored by SF movie audiences?
At Spacefreighters Lounge, UNCHAINED MEMORY author
Donna S. Frelick ponders why SFR has difficulty capturing the attention of SF
film-loving audiences in Screen
Envy: Why Can't We Capture That SF Movie Audience?
In the SFR community we have long hoped that the trending love for SF on the screen will open a door for us with both readers and the not-so-Invisible-Hand of the market. But that has not happened so far, and I fear it will never happen. The problem is that the science fiction we see onscreen--certainly the SF we see on the big screen, though to a lesser extent the SF we see on TV--has little similarity to the kind of SF we are writing. In general, our stories are much more diverse, female-centered, character-driven and complex than the majority of stories we see in the multiplex. Then, of course, there’s the romance, which is most often only hinted at in the theater.
Turns out I had lots to say about this thought-provoking topic, and you can read my response in the comment section.
Scarlet
Overkill: the saga continues
I thought my
epic post about supervillain Scarlet Overkill from MINIONS would purge all
my feels about this character, but apparently that's not the case. Heh. So I
created a Twitter account called @TheOverkills
to channel all my fangirl squee about Scarlet Overkill and her groovy husband
Herb.
Frankly, it's not just about my love of the
characters, it's also about advocacy for more SFR films and better representation
for women protagonists/action heroines. For example, my Storify on why
Scarlet Overkill is a more accomplished supervillain than Felonius Gru.
Followers are most welcome, but beware spoilers from
MINIONS and the DESPICABLE ME films since I'm tweeting many images and lots of
commentary about the stories. Most new tweets will come in bursts in the late
evening EST after I finish my regular
sci-fi romance rounds. :D
Free
& fun: the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly
It's never too late to catch up with the latest issue
of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. Issue 7
is out, so download your free copy here. No. 8 is on the
way soon!
Now I turn the mike over to you. Hit me up with your
SFR news/links!
Joyfully yours,
Heather