Submitted by Nina M. Osier 
(Mar 09, 2009)Teah - Commander Teahalandra Valtamise - is a soldier, and a good one, until she's forced to make an impossible choice. Ordered to kill two unarmed civilians, she protects them instead; and while doing so, she accidentally kills her partner. Eight years and a lot of running later, her former comrade and old classmate Ryker apprehends her and loads her into his ship for the long trip back to Calypso. At first Teah only wants to escape, and she's willing to use whatever comradeship remains between them to gain Ryker's trust for that purpose. Until she learns that her younger sister, married and living on Calypso, has been arrested there on a murder charge. After that, Teah can't get to Calypso fast enough despite knowing what awaits her there.
This book cost me a night's sleep. That's not a complaint; it's a high compliment. I began reading it an hour before bedtime, certain I'd be able to put it down and get some rest after reading its opening chapters. I tried my best to do that, and wound up going after the ARC and taking it to bed with me to finish. Because I had to know what happened, and there was no sleep for me until I'd found out!
Dehanna Bailee's heroine is utterly real, both woman and soldier, and her story ends in a manner that's anything else but cliched. That happens after a lot of heart-pounding excitement, some surprising plot twists, and a few hours of just plain good reading. Romantic speculative fiction that refuses to follow the conventions of either genre, romance or SF, and charts its own course instead. Highly original and loads of fun!
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