About Pets in Space 5
The King’s Quest (Dragon Lords of Valdier) by S.E. Smith
A playful trick leads to love for a Goddess, but will the King she falls in love with accept her for who she really is?
Dark Ambitions (Class 5) by Michelle Diener
When a planetary exploration trip takes a dangerous turn, a human woman and her powerful AI friend will need all their skills to come to the rescue.
Star Cruise: Return Voyage (Sectors SF Romance) by Veronica Scott
She survived the worst interstellar shipping disaster in history as a child but can she survive the Return Voyage as an adult?
General’s Holiday (Project Enterprise) by Pauline Baird Jones
A General is ready for another fight—this time for the woman he loves.
Juggernaut (The Inherited Stars) by Laurie A. Green
A security commander must decide if she can trust a mysterious stranger and his bioengineered StarDog when the secret underground site she protects is threatened.
Galactic Search and Rescue (Central Galactic Concordance) by Carol Van Natta
Two military first-responders and an animal team of rescuers are the only hope for saving an entire town when disaster turns deadly.
Reaper (Xian Warriors) by Regine Abel
With time running out, a woman accepts her fate only to find hope in the genetically engineered warrior created by her captors.
Pastfinder (Starways) by Alexis Glynn Latner
A woman’s psychic gift might be the catalyst needed to save the life of the man she loves—in an ancient archaeological site that contains a stupendous discovery.
Mittens Not Included (TriSystems: Smugglers) by JC Hay
He craved order and discipline to help his life make sense. She offered him cats instead.
Finding Mogha (Before The Fall) by Kyndra Hatch
A human’s effort to save a sentient being takes her straight into the path of a Korthan warrior.
Rate of Return (The Department of Homeworld Security) by Cassandra Chandler
Falling for an Earthling sends an alien and his adorable, six-legged pet in a tailspin.
Glitch (Crashland Colony Romance) by Leslie Chase
An alien pirate and a human find love in the shadow of disaster.
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Review of Pets in Space 5
I can’t believe there are 5 Pets in Space collections already. My how time flies when you are enjoying great stories. Pets in Space 5 is the best collection yet!
Many of the stories are a part of series that I am following. Having the qualities of both new and familiar make them favorites in this anthology. However, whether you follow the series or not, all of these stories stand pretty well on their own. For me, there was one exception that seemed a bit disjointed because I had not read any books in the series. Individual results will vary. However, I still enjoyed every tale in this book! Today, I am offering a few short reviews of some of my favorites.
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Dark Ambitions (Class 5) by Michelle Diener
Rose, having lived on a ship for some time, is excited to be able to set foot on a planet. This is where she meets Sweetpea, a small squirrel-like critter. Make that flying squirrel. Daz is off on a mission, but Sazo is still in contact with Rose. Good thing. There will be trouble for Rose and her explorer friends. I am a big fan of the Class 5 series and was especially pleased to go back to the story of Rose, Daz and the original Class 5, Sazo. Sazo has not changed much, so imagine him to be very protective of Rose while not especially concerned about the others. The ongoing education of a superpower ship/AI is one of the things I like about the series. Sweetpea makes a delightful addition to Rose’s family while Daz sweeps in for the assist. But leave it to Rose to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to being the heroine. After all, she is from gravity-rich Earth.
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General’s Holiday (Project Enterprise) by Pauline Baird Jones
I am a long-time fan of the Project Enterprise series. General Halliwell is a recurring semi-major character who really deserved his chance at romance. Halliwell, who likes to wonder WWPD (What would Picard do?) runs into the engaging and lovely Naxe and her friend who happens to be a frog. If you read Ms. Jones’ book, you now that sentience can occur in just about any type of creature. Add some impressive, if scary, plants, a long-deserted ship complex and some bugs that create quite the buzz and you get another Project Enterprise adventure full of plenty of Picard moments.
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Juggernaut (The Inherited Stars) by Laurie A. Green
What you need to know about The Inherited Stars series is that the order the books are released is not an indicator of the time line of the overall story arc. Each new story sheds light on something you may have read about that will happen on a future timeline or something that happened in the past. Either way, it is a unique and entertaining way to read a series.
In Juggernaut, the reason for the threat to the project Dek is providing security for reads as secondary to the immediate situation she finds herself in. That is, Dek is more concerned with the actual attack and with the enigma that is Sno Telon. Dek and Telon are a natural couple once they decide they can trust each other. It should be noted that CaSandra, Telon’s stardog, intuits that Dek is on the right side immediately.
Back to that reason for the threat. It is part of the big story arc picture. It is not critical for taking care of the threat, nor does it play into the romance. However, if you have read the series, when you get done with the story, you might think “Hmmm”. (If you haven’t read the series, you can still enjoy this story very much. You can just skip the “Hmmm”.)
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Reaper (Xian Warriors) by Regine Abel
Dark is the word I would use to describe the beginning of Reaper. Having been imprisoned and stranded in an underground bunker for years, Janelle and her Creckel companions are running out of resources. Death is near. The arrival of genetically engineered soldiers/peacekeepers may be her last hope, but the first one to find her, Reaper, looks too much like her former captors.
After a minor glitch, Reaper and Janelle hit it off just fine. Really it is a major glitch, but I don’t want to worry you too much. Besides the glitch adds humor to what was a very dark situation.
Of all the ‘pets’, I think the Creckels are the least fluffy. I mean that in the sense that they are way too ferocious and deadly to be considered a pet. In fact, companion is probably a better word. Just the kind of companion one would want in a hostile situation.
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Finding Mogha (Before The Fall) by Kyndra Hatch
Ms. Hatch’s After the Fall in Pets in Space 3 blew me away. The two follow up stories, Interrupting Starlight in Pets in Space 4 and Finding Mogha in this anthology have helped to fill in the details of the world(s) of the Korth and a few human women that seem to get in their way. In each story, there is a new planet to test the humans and the Korth as well as an enemies-to-lovers romance that tests the ability of sentients of diverse backgrounds to overcome prejudice.
And there are moghas. Mogha is the term for an alien that forms a bond with a Korth warrior. Every warrior longs to find his own companion mogha. In Finding Mogha, K’vyn is sorely disappointed to find the mogha, C’hase, has already bonded with a human woman, Dani. The odd circumstances of their meeting are just a warm up for the adventure because the mogha homeworld will soon be under attack. Warning: humans are the bad guys in this one (except Dani).
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Even though the anthology is supposed to be about pets, many of the cats, dogs and otherworldy creatures are so much more than pets. Many are sentient companions, have specific purposes and even seem to be as in charge of things as their partners. Pet lovers can relate to this. Not only does my dog appear to understand me, he often seems to direct me to certain actions (fill the water bowl, go for a walk, toss a ball). He would make a great SFR companion-hero!
No two stories are alike! There is enough variety, with 12 original stories, everyone that reads Pets in Space 5 is sure to find their own 5-star story. Probably several stories!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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What if the gods of the Tuatha dé Danann and their foes, the evil Fomorii, hadn’t settled their differences and how can humans make them stop spurs the action in Druid Defiance the final book in my Stewards War series. The series mixes paranormal romance (and in some titles, historical fantasy romance) with Irish mythology, particularly influenced by the tale of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired from the Irish Medieval manuscript the “Book of Invasions”.
About Druid Defiance
