Catapult (Cat Ship, #2) by Jody Wallace – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, cats, humor, Jody Wallace, pets, romance, scifi romance, series, talking cats

About Catapult by Jody Wallace

Lincoln doesn’t want trouble. Briar is trouble personified.

Lincoln Caster owes everything he has to the Trash Planet recycling plant that hired him, allowing him to lead an uneventful life for a change. When he’s asked to plan a heist from a less than savory rival factory, he wonders if his checkered past is the only reason he got the job. That is, until he realizes the priceless item he’s been asked to steal will save a top-secret generation ship full of cryopreserved humans…and freakishly intelligent cats.

But first Lincoln has to seduce—or at least fool—the rival factory’s sales agent, cool, competent Briar Pandora, who may or may not be leading a double life as a corporate mole. He’ll have to trust her with the truth…unless her own agenda results in them becoming targets of a vicious intergalactic corporation that will stop at nothing in its quest to hijack generation ships and sell off their parts—and their passengers, be they human or feline.

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Review of Catapult

The combination of scifi, romance and cats is irresistible. And if the cats are, as the book blurb says, “freakishly intelligent”…..well, it is impossible not to open this book.

Lincoln Caster knows the generation ship Catamaran is in dire need of maintenance. Parts needed to keep the ship’s cryo-sleeping human and feline inhabitants alive are nearly impossible to find. So when fortune puts the needed part within reach (well, more of a very long and dangerous stretch), Lincoln will do what he can for the good of the ship. When an attempt to purchase the part fails, Lincoln will have to turn to illegal means.

Lincoln likes to live by the rules (Yay for Lincoln!). To him, the thought of stealing causes discomfort. However, he is joined by the talking cat Mighty Mighty and Briar, the former saleswoman from whom he tried to buy the part. They think stealing is the only way. There is a plan you see. Every time I read that some one (human or feline) had a plan, I braced my self. Further fiascos, running, danger and humor always ensued.

The company that has the needed part has a board member (Briar’s arch-enemy) who is trying to sell the very part under the table. So add treachery to desperation and you get one mess after another.

And while all this is going on, Lincoln and Briar are – guess what? Yep, falling for each other. Opposites attract. Lincoln is reserved and straight-laced. Briar is bold and outrageous. They complement each other perfectly.

Mighty Mighty (or just one Mighty for short) is ever entertaining. Full of ‘good’ ideas that are naturally superior to any human ideas, Mighty takes charge. Sort of. Granted, Mighty can read and influence human minds,and spontaneously teleport. But truly, there is only so much a 5-kilogram (in case you are wondering, that’s about 11 pounds) 4-legged creature with no opposable thumbs can do. Since most of the galaxy is unaware of the existence of sentient cats (and it is best to keep it that way), Mighty needs his human friends to succeed. There is one particular hilarious scene where Mighty accidentally ‘inhales’ and forgets that he is supposed to remain unseen. Oops!

Catapult stands alone, but if you have read Catalyst, you will be familiar with some of the characters. This is the perfect book for cat-loving, sci-fi romance readers who appreciate a good laugh!

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Purple Reign (Chikara Revolution, #2) by Evangeline Rain – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, Evangeline Rain, interplanetary conflict, scifi romance, series

About Purple Reign by Evangeline Rain

She was a researcher forced into being a doctor by the war.  Would it change her?

Raev was a genius but being deaf made her lonely. She did her job better than anyone. Saving lives gave her purpose. It wasn’t enough.

The soldier was in disguise.  He was badly hurt.

She never thought twice about saving him, even though he was fighting for the other side and might try to kill her. Were the enemy as bad as everyone said?

There were two things she didn’t know about him.  Dominion fell for her the moment he saw Raev and his father was the tyrant trying to take over the world.  Could they survive what came next?

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Review of Purple Reign

It has been a while since I read Fatal Extraction, book 1, but I remembered enough of it to recall the basics, especially with the Hayashi family.  I was a little shaky on Ranoff, which I am assuming is a country, and it’s place in the war.  At any rate, it is a geo-political territory warring with the Hayashi.

As soon as I started reading, I wondered why Raev was secretly helping the enemy (see book blurb), moving the patient from the hospital to her home.  Emphasis on the word ‘secretly’.  Yes, she wanted to save lives, but she could have done that in her own hospital.  Later I realized that Raev was ambivalent about which side was the better side.  More likely, she might have been choosing the lesser of two evils.  

Only it turned out that maybe Dominion is not evil.  Still, it will take a while for Raev to figure out which side she should be supporting, which adds a little good perplexity to the plot. Dominion, his family, and her family all pull at her to do the right thing.  Whatever that is.

Raev cannot hear.  It is not often the heroine of a story is deaf and I was pleased to see that Raev did not act as though this was a handicap.  And the fact that Dominion did not see this as a handicap also made him a great hero. 

Purple Reign can be read as a standalone or as part of the Chikara Revolution series.  It is short, less than 200 pages, so I found it the perfect distraction between longer books.  I am enjoying this series and hope to see what happens next. Dominion has brothers.  I’m just saying….  

Thanks to the author who sent me a copy of her book.

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Taken (Arcadia, #2) by Mary Brock Jones – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, Eco Scifi, Mary Brock Jones, romance, scifi, scifi romance, series

About Taken by Mary Brock Jones

Fix your planet or we’ll do it for you, warns the Alliance—and then we’ll take it from you.

Ethan Winter wants nothing more from life than to run his family’s solar energy business. But that business has been attacked, he’s been imprisoned and brutalised, his planet threatened, and to protect his company he must work with a woman set on fighting him every step of the way. The planet Arcadia’s environment is dangerously unbalanced and the Alliance is demanding they fix it or lose their home world. The Alliance of Human Worlds doesn’t make empty threats.

Union organiser, daughter of a workshop supervisor and a fiery politician, Sarwenna Beren is prepared for a fight from the moment Ethan Winter arrives at her remote desert town surrounded by rumours of change. He’s rich, powerful and heir to the family that owns the town’s main business, a massive solar field stretching deep into the desert. His arrival threatens the jobs of all those who have put their trust in her. Sar isn’t about to let him shut down the one place keeping her town alive.

Then a boy goes missing in the desert and they are thrown together in the search for him—only to come under attack from a strange beam and an unknown flyer that nearly kills them both. Ethan and Sarwenna must find out who is behind the mysterious attacks and why. It doesn’t help that both have their own suspicions about who is helping their attackers. Suspicions that must be kept secret, especially from each other.

You don’t betray family.

Review of Taken

Taken is not merely a great sci-fi adventure. It combines a futuristic setting with strong characters, romance, danger and a surprisingly contemporary theme.

In a time when environmental change is ever in the news, this timely Eco-SciFi novel (and it’s predecessor Torn) is a microcosm of the bigger picture that we are currently experiencing on earth.  Man’s use of the world’s natural resources is endangering the environment.  

The bulk of this story takes place in Sulwith, a desert community that runs and supports a huge solar farm.  The technology of the farm is destroying the environment. As the temperature rises, the desert grows, sandstorms worsen and the local flora and fauna are endangered. In another part of the world, the over production of a particular commercially profitable tree species is having opposite but strangely similar consequences.  Increased rain, stronger storms, landslides and the endangerment of the local indigenous species.

While the Alliance of Human Worlds has dicated that the planet must be fixed or there will be a penalty to pay, the families that run the two major corporations are digging in because they believe their livelihoods are threatened.  Yet some see the wisdom of perserving the planet even if the path to that effect is both unclear and difficult.

In Taken, Solaris heir Ethan Winter really wants to effect change, but he is up against his father, the corporation and possibly other foes.  Sarwenna Beren represents the corporate employees, the innocents whose lives and livelihoods stand to be drastically changed if the corporation is forced to changed.  As they work, sometimes together and sometimes at odds, Ethan and Sarwenna come to an understanding that working together may be the only way to win this unwinnable war.

The author has created a richly detailed setting that depicts a world on the brink – of change or ruin.  Both the natural enviroment and the people that inhabit it are in peril.  The very long story (about 600 pages) is perfectly paced, alternating between the overall environmental conflict, the conflicting efforts of the interested parties and the personal relationships of Ethan, Sarwenna and their families. Those who have read Torn, will appreciate the appearance of Fee and Caleb.  However, Taken can be read as a standalone.  Both books were phenomenal!

Thanks to the author who provided a copy of her book in exchange for my honest review.

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