2022 SF/romance, first of a trilogy. Octavia Zarola can't afford to
turn down a retrieval mission. Even if it's from the people who were
at war with humanity.
This is more very lightweight SF; I was reading to relax at the
end of a day of boarddaming. There will be very few surprises here for
most readers and the plot is thoroughly predictable. Secrets are kept
(with at least some justification, such as prior promises) and there's
a Big Misunderstanding when the principals would otherwise have no
reason not to fall into bed. Space-bed.
Octavia comes over a bit young and naïve for the war veteran and
cynical survivor she's meant to be. Still, her Torran is meant to be a
veteran of the Imperial Court, and he isn't always super smart either.
There's a kidnapping, and an attempt to prevent a war that it looks as
though factions on both sides are trying to start, but most of it is
backdrop to the romantic story. Which ought perhaps to have engaged me
more than it did; perhaps it's because, even having read the prequel,
I never got much sence of Octavia as a person beyond "will do anything
to prevent her found-family from getting hurt".
Fun, but very lightweight. As with Mihalik's earlier Consortium
Rebellion series, each of the other two volumes deals with a
different romance—though I felt there was more to say about this one.