Niad has controlled herself since returning from the Citadel. She has kept out of the public eye and kept off the Guardians’ radar. Her talent is not encouraged by her people, and she is not legally allowed to participate in a rescue, a natural disaster or any law-enforcement actions.

She keeps her head down and continues her work as a vehicle repair specialist until the day that her careful actions mix with a disaster. She finds a fire where a repair job is supposed to be and takes steps to do the best she can for those trapped inside.

That one act is observed by one of the Guardians and evolves into an arrest, a charge, freedom and a change in position. She is ready to gear up.

Review

What I love about this book is that we have a working class heroine, a mechanic, with a job that is little valued in her culture and that she uses her skills to save people.

Very fun. The romance is nice too and she has great parents.

When Minny’s life changes, a career as a recruiter isn’t half as tempting as the new ambassador to Earth.

Minerva has been acting as Recruiter Norz for years. Her mind can split into eight different directions and propel the bot bodies in areas where the alien might be in danger.

When her daughter was taken from her too soon, she had to split her off time between taking care of herself and monitoring her child growing in the tank. In the battle between her and her child, she was losing herself.

Imbolt has been on his way to Terra for some time. His genetic match had produced a daughter, and five months from now, she would be out in the world. Unfortunately, the woman he had been matched with would not make it if he didn’t take matters into his hands and out of hers.

Review

This is a very good ending to a very long series.

The series is an interesting one in that the enjoyment of the books is a cumulative one. Each short story is rather underdeveloped but as the books grow and grow the narrative becomes rich and engrossing.

The series is an expensive habit though. I try to borrow as well as purchase the books because the cost per book length is often not well balanced. However, I like supporting a writer's livelihood and knowing that the price off the books allows her to write.

A few books in this long running series feel route and like a money making machine rather than fiction which also makes money.

This book is not one of those. We get a full fleshed love story that explores grief and leaning into each other.

This is a very good way to close out this world of which the author was clearly weary but this book doesn't show it.

Keeping calm was Meri’s life, making others feel it was her job. Loving a Negotiator was her destiny.

Meribeth has been the assistant to a few Alliance personnel, but Negotiator Kao is her latest boss. At his insistence, she had gills installed to enable her to accompany him on wet assignments, but his ulterior motive was not clear until he is out of the armour and his own body is finally exposed.

Vehn Kao has spent years encased in armour as a Negotiator, but the moment he comes out and sees Meribeth with his own eyes he knows that she is everything that he has ever wanted in a woman. She is intelligent, witty, attractive and has a tremendous passion just below the surface that he wants to bring out in an explosive release.

Meri wants to be good at her job and Vehn want to take her calm and shake her up

Review

If you like mer people, you should like this science fiction romance short story. There is all a nice exploration of skin hunger in the romance as well.

A lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Harmony suffers regeneration on a world that should not exist and meets a man who defies impossibility to declare himself her match.

Harmony enjoyed her life as a courier for the Alliance, but it all came to a halt when she was sucked into a storm of light and gas that her computer could not see. Agony is her final thought, but when she wakes again, she finds that her body has been recreated because the original…the less said the better.

Nero has been working as a restorer for three hundred years on a world where the only new members of the population fall from the sky. He sees spirit in Harmony, and when she declares that she only wants him for his body, he is smitten.

They face the stars that brought them together and work in their different ways to bring their community into harmony with a world as trapped as they are.

Review

A great romance within a unique world. There are wonderful explorations of questions as well about cloning. The action is well down and romance is one you want to root for. Excellent world building.

llora has been through a lot and is looking forward to a solitary retirement. All she needs to do is to get past the selection process in the Lorahan seralgio for three more days and she is home free.

The Prefect of Lorahan wants Illora and her successful efforts to dodge the selection process has turned him ashen with fury and parts of him blue. He concocts a plan to trap her with her own honesty and the race is on to make her his before the Alliance comes to retrieve her. He must fight his urge to be forthright and deliberately manipulate her into the position as his wife.

Let's hope they both survive the process.

Review

This science fiction romance short story has a unique courtship. The heroine's reasons for resisting are moving and hero's steadfast pursuit is compelling.

Good stuff.