To See the Sun by Kelly Jensen
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: August 13, 2018
Length: Print – 243 pages. Ebook – 295 pages.
Subgenre: Science fiction, western
Reader warnings: past and present violence, and references to past
abuse.
Links:
Book Synopsis:
Survival
is hard enough in the outer colonies—what chance does love have?
Life can be harsh and lonely in the
outer colonies, but miner-turned-farmer Abraham Bauer is living his dream,
cultivating crops that will one day turn the unforgiving world of Alkirak into
paradise. He wants more, though. A companion—someone quiet like him. Someone to
share his days, his bed, and his heart.
Gael Sonnen has never seen the sky,
let alone the sun. He’s spent his whole life locked in the undercity beneath
Zhemosen, running from one desperate situation to another. For a chance to get
out, he’ll do just about anything—even travel to the far end of the galaxy as a
mail-order husband. But no plan of Gael’s has ever gone smoothly, and his new
start on Alkirak is no exception. Things go wrong from the moment he steps off
the shuttle.
Although Gael arrives with
unexpected complications, Abraham is prepared to make their relationship
work—until Gael’s past catches up with them, threatening Abraham’s livelihood,
the freedom Gael gave everything for, and the love neither man ever hoped to
find.
Guest Post
Top Five Sci-Fi Romances
Being a fan of both science fiction and romance, I’m always
on the lookout for really great combinations of the two. Here, in no particular
order, are my top five!
Let me sum it up for you: psychic detectives in space. I
know, right? If there is a genre I like more than science fiction romance, it’d
be detectives in space. Toss in a love story, and I’m pretty much set. I mean,
what else do you need besides a good reading snack? (I recommend Peanut
M&Ms.)
What makes Peripheral
People unique is the combination of science fiction and paranormal
elements. The Ylendrian Empire is a world with a sense of scope and history,
but though this is the fourth book in the series, new readers won’t be lost.
The authors include enough detail for you to settle in without being
overwhelmed. Besides, this is a character driven story. The setting is
important and is woven seamlessly into their backstories, but it’s Westley
Tavera and Corwin Menivie who will keep you reading. Their relationship begins
as a reaction to the sexual escapades of their respective partners and develops
into a war between West’s needs and Corwin’s discomfort with intimacy. Oh, so
prickly!
The case they have to solve is as interesting and twisty as
it gets. And then there’s the cover. It’s pretty and purple. I’m a sucker for a
great cover.
I came across this book at my local library while looking
for the next book in Sherilyn Kenyon’s endlessly fascinating Dark Hunter
series. One shelf down stood a row of books with pretty covers and the word
ALIEN on nearly all of them. What’s this, what’s this! I found the first one,
read the back cover, and was sold.
Katherine "Kitty" Katt witnesses a fight between a
couple that looks like it’s about to turn ugly. Then it does, when one of them
transforms into an alien and goes on a killing spree. Panicking and running
would make sense for most of us, but Kitty takes on the alien and kills it.
Then a guy in an Armani suit appears beside her, introduces himself as Jeff
Martini from The Agency, and takes her to meet his boss. Next day, Kitty has a
new job fighting aliens.
List of favourite things:
1. Jeff Martini
2. Jeff Martini
3. Christopher
4. Reader
5. Kitty
6. Kitty's parents
7. Aliens
8. Sexy aliens
9. Guys who are sweet with their sexy
10. Jeff Martini
Most of my reading buddies know that I have a thing for
tentacles. It’s not a super, um, sexy thing (though I’m totally here for the
sexy things), it’s more a fascination. One of the ideas in my Big Book of Ideas
is to write the book that doesn’t go there. To write a shy alien with tentacles
who is actually horrified by the notion he might use them, um, sexily. (But,
knowing me, his love interest will probably end up teaching him a few tricks. I
mean, c’mon. Tentacles.)
In the meantime, I’m happy to read books like The Klockwerk Kraken. Aidee Ladnier has
a wonderful sense of humor and writes really sweet characters. The story also
combines my favorite elements: science fiction, a mystery, and romance. And
tentacles. There’s great world building with lots of detail and believable
settings. Teo is so sweet. Jimenez's past is explored with a compassionate show
of restraint. And the love scenes are smokin'.
The Prince and the
Program is a very strange book. The strange is what turns every page, however, as you’re never
quite sure what will happen next. Mordred ‘Mori’ Pendragon is exiled to Canada
(oh, the horror!) for unspecified crimes. Broke and powerless, he interviews
for a job as a software engineer and takes a position with a tech startup in
Toronto. It’s pretty clear from the outset that his lack of programming
experience isn’t the biggest issue the company has. There are gremlins in the
network, another company is trying to steal their data, and the chief technical
officer lives in a MacBook. He might be the ghost of Alan Turing or a bloody
smart AI or one of the aforementioned gremlins.
Mori develops a thing for Alan. This thing,
this crush, is an amusing, gentle, surprisingly emotional and riveting
undercurrent to the story. While Alan and Mori debate questions of what makes a
soul, and if a soul makes one capable of love, someone else at the company is
experimenting with magic that could suck the souls out of everyone, thus ending
the world as we know it.
The Prince and the Program is
one of those books you need to get a fair way into before asking too many
questions. Also, this book is definitely one for those who like to think, and
like think about thinking. There is a lot of philosophy and poetry, computer
language, geek speak, concepts, otherworldly landscapes, and humor. There is
also a rousing good adventure story, including a trip through the realms of
death where, luckily, Mori always knows a guy.
A book that captures the reader on the first page is
rare. Fortune’s Pawn, the first
in the Paradox series by Rachel Bach, had me pretty much at the first
sentence. The voice of Deviana Morris, Paradoxian mercenary, is personable and
compelling. I fell immediately into her world and eagerly followed her
adventures. Thankfully, a reader is only a bystander, because Devi gets beaten
up a lot.
I didn’t start reading this series for the romance, and to
be fair, some might call this science fiction first, romance second. That’s
okay with me as the story here is bigger than three books. It extends before
and after as Rachel Bach does what she does best—building a world that is so
totally believable, she could return to it at any time to tell another story.
Bach always introduces a hero with such a compelling arc, though, that the
reader’s focus remains there, with them. And there is always a love story,
which in this series, is actually more central than it appears.
Devi is going to sacrifice a lot for her lover, making the
third book in the series, Heaven’s Queen
a hugely emotional read.
Excerpt
Bram pushed up from the table. “I’m
going to make tea. Want some?”
“I can make it.”
“Sit. I didn’t ship you all the way
out here to wait on me.”
“What did you ship me out here
for?”
Bram didn’t answer, and the
question burned the back of his neck as he performed the mundane task of making
the tea. He selected an herbal blend, his favorite, and spooned desiccated
leaves, fruit peel, and flower heads into the diffusing chamber at the center
of a battered metal pot. He could program the beverage machine, but he
preferred to make tea the old-fashioned way. Leaves and hot water. Sometimes
the process of a thing was as important as the result.
He reached toward the shelf of mugs
and stopped as a hand touched his shoulder. Warm breath ghosted across the
cooling skin at the back of his neck, reigniting his blush. Bram let his
fingers catch on the edge of the shelf and rest there, and tipped his head
forward. Gael moved closer, the heat of his body evident now as he leaned in.
Lips met the back of his neck in a
soft kiss. A small quake shifted the muscles beneath Bram’s skin, his body
making ready to turn. He held still a moment longer before following another
long-held urge, turning slowly—so slowly—until they were face to face. Well,
until his mouth was level with Gael’s forehead. Bram pressed a kiss there, one
as gentle as the touch of lips to the back of his neck.
“I didn’t bring you out here for
this, either,” he murmured.
“Yes, you did.”
Bram took hold of Gael’s slim
shoulders. “Not just this.” And not like this.
In answer, Gael lifted his face,
offering up his mouth. Bram’s resolve lasted about a second longer than he
thought it might before he bent to taste those lips. They’d been interrupted
twice now. No longer.
Gael’s lips were so soft, melting
beneath his, opening—though Bram didn’t take the invitation right away. He
kissed both lips, together and separately. He tasted them, the scent of Gael
mingling with the bitter tang of the outside air. Gael made a small sound: a
whimper or a moan. Bram deepened the kiss, still resisting the temptation of
Gael’s tongue. He didn’t want to fall all in, lose himself.
Then he was there, falling, his
lips and hands operating independently of thought. He craved the warmth of
Gael’s skin and wanted to compare it to the feel of his tongue. See if he moved
the same way—gently, teasingly. Gael seemed as wrapped up in the kiss as Bram.
He shifted, constantly, swaying into Bram, hooking his hands into the back
pockets of Bram’s work pants.
Blood shot south to pulse in his
cock, leaving Bram in that almost-forgotten state of arousal—somewhere between
thought and thoughtlessness. He teetered there, reveling in the anticipation,
and let his imagination roam. Oh, to touch Gael’s skin, to taste him. To hear
the sounds he’d make when aroused, when brought to climax, when drifting in the
aftermath. Would he be loud? Would he be shy and sweet?
A soft click sounded behind him.
The tea. Blinking as though roused from a dream, Bram pulled back. Gael leaned
in immediately, following him. He kissed Bram’s neck and ground his hips
forward. Bram tugged Gael’s hands from his pockets, regret making his movements
clumsy.
Gael tipped his head back. “What
are you doing?”
“The tea is ready.”
One long, slow blink. “What?”
“The tea.” Bram was still holding
Gael’s hands, and stupidly, he didn’t want to let go. But he did so he could
turn and collect the mugs. Pick up the pot.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
“Then why did we stop?”
Bram had to consider his answer
because he didn’t really know, not in a way he could express in words. It would
have been so easy to keep going. To have had something fast and dirty in the
kitchen, or to have picked Gael up and carried him to the bedroom.
Gael followed him into the HV room
and sat beside him on the couch. Waited quietly while Bram poured the tea and
handed over one of the mugs. Picking up the other mug, Bram thought a little
more. Wrapped his fingers around the warm composite of ceramic and plastic and
searched for just the right words.
“We’ve got time.” Bram raised the mug to his
lips, but decided the tea was still too hot to take a sip. “Doesn’t all have to
happen in one night.”
About Kelly Jensen:
If aliens ever do land on Earth,
Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the
apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them
with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.
Kelly is the author of a number of
novels, novellas and short stories, including the Chaos
Station series, co-written with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes
is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks
and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain
peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.
Enter the Giveaway
Prize: Enter to win any back catalog Chaos Station ebook by Kelly
Jensen and Jenn Burke or paperback of Always
and Forever: A Chaos Station Collection by Kelly Jensen and Jenn Burke.
Open internationally.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/88d45f0364/
