Book Review and Giveaway: Kicking Ashe by Pauline Baird Jones

If you followed my reviews from last week you know that I love this series.
I had to sort of re-read the books to do a fair job on the reviews. (A good reason NOT to wait a year to write a review!) Fortunately, re-reading them was a pleasure and reminded me why I liked them so much with the first read. I reviewed the short story Steam Time last summer.
Now I am glad, but sad, to come to the final “chapter”, so to speak.

Thank you to Pauline for allowing me to enjoy the whole series!!

Kicking Ashe

by Pauline Baird Jones 

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 369 KB
• Publisher: L&L Dreamspell (February 19, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007BGZL8C

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
My Rating: 5.0 of 5.0

Product Description

With hearts and lives on the line, a kiss may be all they have time for...

Time has dumped Ashe on a dying planet and she needs to figure out why before she ceases to exist. Or gets vivisected by some Keltinarian scientists. Or worse.

Vidor Shan might help—since someone somewhere is trying to hose him, too—if she can convince him to trust her. Probably shouldn’t have told him that only someone he trusts can betray him. Also wouldn’t mind if he kissed her on the mouth.

Vid would love to kiss the girl, but his brother is lost, he’s got hostile aliens on his tail, and the stench of betrayal all around him. Can he trust the woman who told him to trust no one?

Then a time quake hurls them to a nasty somewhere and some when...

Review:  “Expect the Unexpected.”

The author introduced Ashe and her sentient, internal, ‘side-kick’, nanite, Lurch, in Steamrolled.  Ashe is clearly a ‘kicking’ Time Space cadet who usually manages to handle trouble with some help from Lurch. At the end of Steamrolled she is tumbling from a tsunami like time wave as time, which “is persistent”, tries to right itself from the improper time interference and alternate time realities. She finds the unexpected as she returns to consciousness: she is still alive and she looks up into the familiar face of Vidor Shan.

Vidor has shown up as a slightly different version of his barbarian, roguish self, depending on the time-space continuum when he appears. Ashe briefly met Vidor before getting thrown through time (Steamrolled) and knows that he had some connection to her not-so-great grandma, Doc (Girl Gone Nova). Each version has his own sexy allure and arrogance. There is something wrong about him and his timeline that has drawn Ashe in order to get it fixed once and for all and hopefully give her a chance to get home to the Time Base.

Vidor’s society is a strange mix of archaic living style and extraordinary ships and weapon technology. Someone has betrayed Vidor and has tried to destroy him in several time scenarios.  It has to be someone very close to him that knows him really well.  Ashe is inclined to think it is his missing brother, Timrick, whose scent has appeared with an attacking troop of Zelk, a human like creature with reptilian skin.

Ashe and Vidor stumble through shifting time waves trying to solve the puzzle while fighting off Zelk attacks and giant cockroaches that eat anything in their path, including the hull of their craft. Although Vidor doesn’t want to trust her, he begins to realize that she may be his only chance to survive to a life he can enjoy. 

Although the evil overlord was exposed and hopefully quashed in Steamrolled, I am glad that there is this story for Ashe and Vidor to wrap up the series.  This story seems more about the girl getting the guy, but there is still plenty of action and storyline to move it along quickly. The giant cockroaches are a stretch but sometimes our small fears become huge problems so it fits in this topsy turvy timeline.

I love that the heroines in these books are strong, scientific, skilled and smart women who have been too busy with their careers or lives to have had much social involvement with the opposite sex. Each of them gets to have a first kiss with their sexy heroes and then a HEA.

I also enjoy the use of what I think of as “cliches in cheek.” They may be cliche phrases but they are clearly used with a tongue in cheek sense of humor.  This book provides fun with Ashe’s family line of wonderful strong mantras, many passed on from Doc, like:  The impossible just takes longer; What doesn’t kill us makes us strong; Trouble is an opportunity to excel.  And I agree with Ashe that there should be one about not getting eaten by bugs.

This is a series of stories that I can see myself revisiting again in the future when I want something fast paced and fun with strong heroines and hunky heros, even if some of them are completely alien!

Ashe’s reaction to getting up close to Vidor:

...too close to escape the slam of power he radiated like a solar event. Caught between wanting to move in and move away, Ashe froze–though cold was not the direction her internal temperature was trending. Location 94.

Vidor learns that Ashe is intergalactic in her travels:

“I...” she paused again, “trail trouble.”  He would have said she was trouble. Location 925.

I will add this to my ARC challenge list.
TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY for the Winner's Choice of Print or eBook (International would get eBook): 

1. I sent you to visit the author's website for the giveaway of THE KEY. Today please comment on this review.   This is required for entry..  For bonus comment on the other reviews in the series that don't have a direct giveaway;  one entry for each review (up to three available here and at Girl Gone Nova and/or Tangled in Time.

2.  For two extra entries Comment on the Author interview and answer her Question at #11.

3.  For an extra entry, become a follower (GFC, Twitter, FB, email) or tell me if you are already a follower.

4. For two more entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Eight total entries possible.)

THERE WILL BE ONE WINNER.

* This contest is only open to residents of US and Canada.

* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on March 23, 2012.
The winner will be randomly selected from all entries and announced on March 24 with 72 hours to complete the winners form.

Interview with Pauline Baird Jones, Author of the Project Enterprise Series

I am so pleased to welcome Pauline Baird Jones for an interview visit. You can't help but catch her humor in these answers.

1Q       You have written several mysteries before writing in the science fiction romance genre. How does writing a mystery compare with writing sci-fi romance? What are the main differences, and what do these forms of writing have in common?

P:  When I wrote mysteries, they trended suspense/action type mysteries. Then they trended more and more into action adventure. I finally noticed that and decided that I really liked action adventure because it has less graphic violence. I like the high adventure as opposed to the blood soaked. LOL! So I think I was heading toward space for a while before I noticed. In the past, it was probably easier to write contemporary action adventure because we had “big” enemies, such as the Soviet Union. Alastair Maclean made his a/a chops writing World War II, then cold war type fiction, but I didn’t want to write about terrorists. It hits too close to home. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. (wry grin)

My first wholly action adventure novel was Out of Time, a time travel to World War II. While there is lots of peril and yes, bad guys and such, it’s lacks the graphic gore that I see in so much romantic suspense being written now. I know it works very well for many authors, but for me, I just wanted to go a different direction. After the past, all that was left was outer space. And let’s face it, it has almost unlimited scope for action and adventure.

You did a wonderful job of creating new alien worlds and peoples so I am thrilled you went to outer space.

2Q       Is your writing from your own experiences or is it completely your imagination?

P:  I was going to say, I wish my books came from personal experience, then I thought about what happens to my characters (nasty killers and space battles) and yeah, no, like my life the way it is. So my answer would be: my books are totally and completely made up (including the “science.”)

I wondered about that time theory perception being spouted by Lurch... it sounded good even if it was made up. :-)

3Q       Where did the inspiration for the Project Universe series (THE KEY, GIRL GONE NOVA, STEAMROLLED, Steam Time, KICKING ASHE) come from?

P:  I have a highly technical process for obtaining inspiration and plotting. It’s called “pulling it out of my tush.”
I learned this technique from my daughter who is a graphic designer and often under the gun to create.

Okay, I will try to be serious for a moment, but it is hard to be serious about a process that often results in my head wanting to explode. I really wish I knew how and where I got ideas, because then I could go there without the painful thinking and pacing and eating chocolate part (okay, maybe I’d still eat the chocolate). I just start with a character or situation and think, I wonder how I can hose this person? And then, “How can I make everything worse for this character?” And then I make things so bad, I don’t know how to fix it, which brings me to the pulling-it-out-of-my -tush part. (grin)

 I think this is the first time I have heard of this particular technique. LOL
4Q       What type of research went into creating your science fiction romance novels?

Since my science is totally and completely made up, it’s tough to research. I did do a lot of researching of Victorian stuff when I was mixing steampunk into my science fiction. That was pretty fun and interesting. I learned a lot of cool (and rather disturbing) stuff about the Victorians. I blogged a bit about that here: (http://paulinebairdjones.blogspot.com/2012/02/victorian-quirky-and-book-blurb.html) and plan to blog more it because it is very interesting. And weird. Did I mention they were pretty weird?

 I will have to go check out that weird stuff in your blog post.
5Q       Please share one surprising thing about your experience writing the Project Universe series, or about something else related to your career as a writer.

P:  My biggest surprise came when I realized I’d written something with science in it. I really didn’t think it WAS science fiction and then someone called it science fiction and I was like, I don’t write science fiction. I almost flunked science in high school! I thought about it some more and realized that mixing fiction in my science might be why I almost flunked. Oops.

Ha - Oops - Yes... Science wasn't my top class either.
6Q       When you started The Key did you intend the series and did you have each book plotted out before you started the first one or did the subsequent books flow from the first book?

P:  I did not. Sara, the heroine of The Key, just strolled into my head one day and wouldn’t leave until I told her story. I had amazing fun writing that book and was sad when it ended. When it released readers asked for more and one of the characters was really ticked he didn’t get the girl and demanded a happy ending and so I wrote Girl Gone Nova and another reader pointed out that I had an unresolved story arc and suddenly I had a series. Now I am sad that is had come to an end (for now at least). Though I plan to return to space soon.

Well - considering how volatile time is... who knows?!
7Q       Is there an ancillary character you had the most fun with?

P:  Helfron Giddioni. When he first appeared in The Key, he was supposed to be a villain of sorts, or at least an antagonist, and he is, but he surprised me over and over. He was so bad, but fun, too. He had such an awful name because he was never supposed to be a hero. (Memo to self: don’t EVER give characters awful names just in case.)

Hel did turn out to be a wonderful character even if he was a little scary in the first book. Who knew there was a good guy under that mean attitude?

8Q       How do your work career/hobbies/interests influence your writing?

P:  My career is wife/mom/sister/daughter/friend, so not sure how that affects the writing, though it does give me more time to write now that the nest is empty. And I get wonderful support from my family and friends. My hobbies are reading, knitting dish cloths (yeah, I knit large) and jigsaw puzzles. I do think the puzzle thing influences my plotting. I like the disorder/creating order part and that’s what plotting action adventure is all about.

I can see the puzzle solving at work in this series and it would work for mysteries too. 
9Q       Do you have a favorite mentor or author that you have learned from?

P:  Oh wow, this question could be a whole blog post, but I will limit myself to just one. When I was a young girl, I had a major girl/fan crush on Haley Mills. I wanted to be her. She had adventures and did cool stuff and could sing, too. She did a movie called The Moonspinners and I saw that it was based on a novel. I looked that book up and discovered Mary Stewart. I still love to pull out her books and browse through them, like chatting with an old friend. From her I learned about plotting, satisfying endings and characterization. And she writes great dialog, too.

Oh Wow! That movie started me reading Mary Stewart too and moved me from childhood reads into the suspense/gothic romance genre.

10Q     What do you have planned for your next project?

P:  I’m actually mulling a steampunk novel, set around 1899-1900. I’m a little nervous, because I’ve dabbled a bit in writing history (Out of Time, Tangled in Time), but never wrote an all history novel. Though technically it still won’t be, because it will be made-up-steampunk-alternate-history.

11Q      If you could have readers finish a sentence what would it be?

P:  What I love most in a book is…._________________________???

THANK YOU for sharing!

Project Enterprise (connected) books:

(1) The Key; Bronze IPPY and Dream Realm Award winner; 2007

(2) Girl Gone Nova, EPIC Book Award Winner

(3) Tangled in Time

(4) Steamrolled

(5) Steam Time, short story, Dreamspell Steampunk, Volume 1, 2011

(6) Kicking Ashe, 2012

Some additional Titles:

Comedy/Suspense Fiction:

Do Wah Diddy Die; Eppie nominee; 2001 (reissued in 2010)

The Spy Who Kissed Me (also known as Pig in a Park), 1999. reissued in 2010

Dead and Breakfast Anthology; Do Wah Diddy Die Already, 2007 (free short story now available at All Romance eBooks)

Mysteries from the Green Mist Anthology;  Deleting Dennis, 2010

Ghostly Dreamspell Anthology; Do Wah Diddy Dead

And more ... see Bibliography at this link. 

Book Review and Giveaway: Steamrolled by Pauline Baird Jones

Go for a rolling ride in another delightful, action packed novel in the Project Enterprise Series.

Steamrolled

by Pauline Baird Jones

• Paperback: 454 pages
• Publisher: L & L Dreamspell (April 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603184074
• ISBN-13: 978-1603184076

Genre:  Science Fiction Romance
My Rating 5.0 of 5.0

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2011

With all of time at risk, it's a bad time to fall in love...unless it's the only time... Robert Clementyne is going on a transmogrification machine hunt. He fears finding the machine will be as difficult as pronouncing the name. How can the steam-powered device perform as advertised, and how useful can any information be, coming from a steampunk themed bowling alley/museum? It's pretty crazy, but he's been there, done that, and thinks he can handle it. And then he meets the proprietor/curator...Emily Babcock. Emily grew up in crazy, still lives in it-hey, it's her freaking zip code. So no worries when Robert and his team walk into her bowling alley. The first visitors ever to her museum. But neither of them is prepared for what happens when they open the door to the past...and the future. With a side trip through Roswell...and a face-to-face meeting with an evil genius/wannabe-who is on his way to becoming evil overlord-of-everything...

Review:

This book highlights Robert Clementyne, the brother of Doc from Girl Gone Nova. Robert had been in a mental health facility on earth until Doc pulled him out and introduced some nanites to help his brain organize all the genius that he had been unable to control and express before.  Here we get to enjoy the mental conversational additions of nanites Wynken, Blynken and Nod. :-) Robert and a team from Kikk have been sent to earth to locate the transmogrification machine (from Tangled in Time.)  The team includes characters from prior books in the series: Fyn (The Key) and Carey (Tangled in Time).

We are also introduced to new characters, Ashe and Emily.  Ashe, with her sentient nanite, Lurch (once a nanite with Doc aka Morticia, resulting in Lurch’s name), is a fairly new cadet with the Time Service, designed to keep time ‘on track.’  Ashe and Lurch return from a time trip to discover the base and time seriously out of whack. Ashe is the primary hero of the final book, Kicking Ashe.

Emily is a very unusual young woman, a persona of “modified Goth mixed with Steampunk.”  She is the isolated proprietor of the museum designed around the transmogrification machine inventor’s workshop.  As a descendant of the inventor’s sister, Emily has steadfastly taken care of the museum even though there have been no visitors... until now.

But Robert’s team isn’t the only one after the machine. Dr. Smith, on orders of his ‘master’, has been sent to find the machine too. As they battle over the machine, Ashe and Lurch have their own struggles with fluctuating time.

This is another wonderful story with lots of action, intrigue, and a really evil overlord fighting with patrols of robotic-like automatrons. The author has created an imaginative, unique world and wonderfully warm, quirky characters. Once again the dialog is fun and it is delightful how Emily starts mentally thinking of Robert as “oh my darling!” (Check his last name if you don’t get this right away.)  The plot moves around a lot - past, future and time streams in between. Although this could be read alone, I think it would be much easier to follow (and more to enjoy) if you have read the prior books.

Some quotes to enjoy:

Emily had questions, but questions led to answers. Answers were a mixed bag–a baggie better kept zipped when your family inheritance could be boiled down to one word: crazy. P 41

She twisted in his hold–though not out of it he was thankful to note–bringing her mouth into a better position for kissing. ... And then she kissed him, splattering his thoughts, rather like the anomaly had tried to splatter them, but with a much better outcome. P 370.

Thank you to the author for providing another great read!

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY for the signed Review copy: 

1. I sent you to visit the author's website for the giveaway of THE KEY. So for this giveaway tell me why you think you would like to read this book and or series. :-) This is required for entry.

2.  For an extra entry, become a follower (GFC, Twitter, FB, email) or tell me if you are already a follower.

3. For two more entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Four total entries possible.)

THERE WILL BE ONE WINNER.

* This contest is only open to residents of US and Canada.

* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on March 23, 2012.
The winner will be randomly selected from all entries and announced on March 24 with 72 hours to complete the winners form.
 

Book Review: Tangled in Time by Pauline Baird Jones

When I read this Sci Fi/Steampunk Romance Novella and I couldn't put it down. It was wonderful with great gentle humor!

Tangled in Time

by Pauline Baird Jones

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 213 KB

Publisher: L&L Dreamspell (November 19, 2010)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Language: English

ASIN: B004D4YL18

Genre: Science Fiction Romance 
My Rating: 5.0 of 5.0

Product Description

Colonel Carey (from The Key and Girl Gone Nova) takes a test "flight" through the Garradian time-space portal, but an unexpected impact lands him somewhere and some when. As he attempts to get to Area 51, he crosses paths with Miss Olivia Carstairs, who could be Mary Poppins' twin sister. Or maybe her cousin. Olivia's got a transmogrification machine powered by steam and a mouth he'd like to kiss like it was his job. Can he convince her to join forces before she shoots him with her derringer?

Review:
This is a quick, fun novella in the Project Enterprise series.
Colonel Carey is a sharp soldier who appeared in the first two books as an officer on The Doolittle, the Earth ship hovering off the planet Kikk. During a test "flight" through the time-space portal at the outpost he has a rough ride ending up someplace other than where he is supposed to be.  As he checks out the area he spots a strange submarine shaped space ship. Outside the ship he spots a Mary Poppins' twin with an umbrella ... and a derringer aimed at him.

Olivia is a prim and proper young lady who chose to be a scientist's assistant rather than marry a boringly proper beau. Which is a bit unconventional for a woman from 1894. Olivia has arrived in the wrong place, and time, in a steam powered transmogrification machine. Now they have to figure a way to get back to where they came from. Things get sticky when an army patrol picks them up and then Dr. Tobias Smith steps in trying to convince Olivia to go with him.

This story moves quickly with warm characters, sweet interaction and quirky dialogue between a1894 bluestocking girl and a 2010 soldier guy. There is a bit of suspense and mystery that kept me wondering. Again, this story could be read alone but has more meaning and connection with the past characters and situations when read in order in the series. I was sorry this one was so short and looked forward to the next book!

Some humorous quotes:
Carey thinking about Olivia:

Seriously, he could kiss this girl like it was his job. P36.

Olivia thinking about Carey:

If a woman of science could not figure how to get a man to kiss her, she did not deserve the label. P.67.

Olivia's response to crashing in a chopper:

“I rode in a flying machine and crashed. Everything is better than all right. It is bodacious.” P68.

Thank you to the author for another wonderful book to enjoy and review.

Book Review: Girl Gone Nova by Pauline Baird Jones

This is a book with a great science/black ops heroine; a sexy alien leader; danger; time traveling bad guys and impossible situations.

Girl Gone Nova 

by Pauline Baird Jones

Paperback: 434 pages

Publisher: L & L Dreamspell (April 29, 2010)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1603182047

ISBN-13: 978-1603182041

Genre:  Science Fiction Romance
My Rating: 5.0

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2010

Doc-Delilah Oliver Clementyne's-orders are simple: do the impossible and do it yesterday. A genius/bad ass, she does the impossible on a regular basis. But this time the impossible is complicated by an imminent war between the Earth expedition to the Garradian Galaxy and the Gadi, an encounter with some wife-hunting aliens, and not one but two bands of time travelers. The only way it could get worse? If the heart she didn't know she had starts beating for the wrong guy...

Review:  This has great imagination and characterization. I love the characters and love the story even more. 

This is book Two of the Project Enterprise series and is set two years after The Key. Doc, Delilah Oliver Clementyne, has been transferred to the Earth expedition ship, the Doolittle.  Doc is sometimes called “Morticia” due to her dark hair, white face and cool demeanor. What no one realizes is that she is also“the Chameleon.” She is a super spy, portrayed as a Doctor, but so much more.  Doc has always had a brain that manages multiple tasks at super speed. She is accustomed to accomplishing the impossible although she knows the odds on continuing to do so are against her. She has never had time for romance or met anyone who sparked her libido...until now.

Helfron Giddioni is the leader of the Gadi people.  The Gadi and Dusan leaders had tried to capture “the Key” two years before until the Gadi and Earth forces joined to defeat the brutal Dusan. The Gadi still want control of the Kikk outpost which has some remarkable technology including travel portals. General Halliwell is the Earth commander who is negotiating with the Gadi leader, a man he doesn’t like or trust from prior experience, in a delicate dance of diplomacy.

Shortly into this story an assassination attempt is made against the two leaders, General Halliwell and Helfron.  Doc’s hidden talents help her to survive the bomb attack, eliminate the “clean-up” crew and thwart a second bombing. Hel had already noticed Doc and now suspects there is more to her than meets the eye.  A fragile agreement has to be made to work with Hel to uncover the espionage and protect their position and future negotiations.

Doc heads off to the outpost to study the technology and try to retrieve a team that went through the portals two years before. On her way she is captured by “Conan”, Vidor Shan, the leader of a barbarian looking group of men out to capture women to replenish their race. Now both Hel and General Halliwell are desperate to locate her.

As if dealing with hostile races isn’t enough, Doc has to try to figure out why Dr. Tobias Smith is messing with time. Yet her efforts to go back in time may cause a paradox and a change to current time.

There is plenty of intrigue and action as well as puzzling time travel issues. The friendly, sentient nanites are added fun companions to Doc, as they were with Sara in The Key.  There is immediate attraction and interest that draws Hel and Doc, even though they are an unlikely pair. But their new found emotion and love is torn by a time shift leaving Doc alone once more unless she can reach Hel and convince him to help them again.

I love the adventure, the alien setting, the action and the humor of these stories. Pauline sets up a believable time travel scenario with all the paradoxes that should be expected. The characters are rich and likeable; even the pirate, bad boy Vidor, has engaging qualities. The writing has a wonderful fast pace that fits the tale. This can be read alone but it works much better if you read The Key first.

~~~~~~

 A taste of action:

Doc studied the timer on the bomb as her brain kicked into a predictable kaleidoscope of higher gears. Despite the surge of data, there was a precision to it, as if her brain were a Swiss clock on steroids. EOD—Explosive Ordinance Detail—wouldn’t make it. She had maybe a minute to defuse it. The good news, a “Doc minute” was more than enough. P. 24-25

A touch of romance:

“Just don’t be surprised by what we find on the other side.” His smile was both wry and tender. “I have been surprised almost every minute since your people arrived in this galaxy, Delilah.” P. 348

Thank you to the author for providing the ebook to read and review.

Check out my review and giveaway for The Key.

Book Review and Giveaway: The Key by Pauline Baird Jones

This is one of my FAVORITE series!! I am highlighting the series this week with reviews, giveaways and an author interview. If you love action, snarky humor and clean romance, don't miss the Enterprise Project series! (My followers know that I don't gush...so this is me gushing in case you don't recognize it.)

THE KEY

by Pauline Baird Jones

• Perfect Paperback: 476 pages
• Publisher: L & L Dreamspell; 1st edition (August 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603180109
• ISBN-13: 978-1603180108

Genre: "A science fiction/action adventure romance novel"
My Rating: 5.0.

Book Description
Publication Date: July 15, 2009
When Sara Donovan joins Project Enterprise she finds out that what doesn't kill her makes her stronger. An Air Force pilot - the best of the best to be assigned to this mission - Sara isn't afraid to travel far beyond the Milky Way on an assignment that takes her into a galaxy torn apart by a long and bitter warfare between the Dusan and the Gadi. After she's shot down and manages to land safely on an inhospitable planet, Sara encounters Kiernan Fyn - a seriously hot alien with a few secrets of his own - he's a member of a resistance group called the Ojemba, lead by the mysterious and ruthless Kalian. Together they must avoid capture, but can they avoid their growing attraction to each other? A mysterious, hidden city on the planet brings Sara closer to the answers she seeks - about her baffling abilities and her mother's past. She has no idea she's being pulled into the same danger her mother fled - the key to a secret left behind by a lost civilization, the Garradians. The Dusan and the Gadi want the key. So do the Ojemba. They think Sara has it. They are willing to do anything to get it. Sara will have to do anything to stop them.

Review:

Captain Sara Donovan is a top military pilot with the secret Enterprise Project.  She is sent on special assignment to a warfare battle in another galaxy. The opposing armies are searching for a “key” to a lost civilization. Sara ends up in the middle of the action when it becomes apparent that she holds some secret to the key. 

Sara is shot down on an alien planet, Kikk, where she is rescued by Fyn, a big, muscled alien, wearing leather armament and with a full head of dreads. Fyn (dubbed "Chewie" for his size - he's not that hairy) is strong and fierce but kind and ultimately protective when it comes to Sara. Sara’s team picks them up and Fyn’s apparent warrior skills are soon put to use.  As they begin to get to know each other, though keeping secrets, the battles rage around them.

Sara’s craft is pulled by a strange force into a hidden city on the Kikk planet. As she explores the buildings she touches a panel and receives some “hitchhiker” nanites. They are little sentient, computer companions to their hosts and add other (fun) characters to the stories.

I was drawn into and invested emotionally in Sara’s character. As such I was impressed with Fyn as a hero, dreads and all.  Pauline does a great job with the action scenes so you feel you are right there facing the enemies or dodging the shots around you.  She also provides humorous, snarky dialogue. There are fun military euphemisms that take the place of most of the swearing.  Sara’s usual expletive is “Dang!”

I read this two years ago but never did my review. I have to say I enjoyed remembering the story as I skimmed through to prepare this review. I think reading the series closer together would help the reader keep track of the personalities, the time stream and the enemy force. This is a series that is a keeper for me and I will enjoy reading them all again.

I did get The Key on Audible.  I wasn't crazy about the narrator at first but she grew on me.  Or better... the story became so engrossing I didn't notice any more!  That is a sign of a really good story! This is a great series for anyone who likes sci fi action, like Star Trek or Galaxy Quest (funny movie!), with a clean, warm, intergalactic romance.

Examples of fun dialogue:
Colonel Carey:
“Looks like we have another furball, playmates,” Carey said.  “Fangs out and form up on me. Let’s teach these gomers their second lesson in intergalactic etiquette.” P 83.

Sara and Fyn:
“It didn’t seem right being there without you on my six.”
.....
“I do...like your...six,” he said, his voice husky. P 387.

 Thank you to the Author for the book to enjoy and share!  

I had to add these notes from the author's website as it will give you a taste of her humor!

Author's note: Following the release of The Key realized that some readers didn't know that my series is set in the present day, in a kind of alternate reality, I guess. Unless there IS a secret project taking our people to the stars on beyond. If that's the case, it is accidentally true.

Tags: space opera; science fiction romance; alternate universe; no sex; sexual tension; mild swearing

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY for the signed Review copy: 

1. Visit the author's website and tell me something that interests you there. This is required for entry.

2.  For an extra entry, become a follower (GFC, Twitter, FB, email) or tell me if you are already a follower.

3. For two more entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Four total entries possible.)

THERE WILL BE ONE WINNER.

* This contest is only open to residents of US and Canada.

* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on March 16, 2012.
The winners will be randomly selected from all entries and announced on March 17 with 72 hours to complete the winners form.