If you are looking for a romantic adventure set in outer space, you don’t want to miss this book, which delivers an exciting blend of eroticism and suspense through the popular theme of captor-and-captive falling in love. I especially enjoyed the stoic, everyman quality of the first-person narrator.
Tristan, a soldier who serves a corrupt empire, knows he is just a cog in the machine, and it grounds the story in realism. In glimpses, we readers can piece together the effects of colonization, which force people like his captors to become space pirates. Both Tristan (who is resourceful and disciplined) and his captor Valero (compassionate and principled) are likable.
The eroticism comes in three layers. First, Tristan, who is temporarily blind (a common side effect of the weapons used by the boarding pirates), experiences Valero’s seduction through his other senses. Second, is his slow surrender. Third, is an unusual kink on his part that Valero discovers and indulges. This sexy space opera is a treat.
Tristan’s adventure begins when pirates board his ship and take the temporarily blind crew members and passengers prisoner to hold them for ransom. He is a soldier acting as a bodyguard (and sex toy) for a spoiled prince, whom he dislikes. His captor Valero seems principled and charismatic. However, he feels duty-bound to resist Valero’s persistent, yet courtly, seductions. As he struggles with his guilt and desire, he wonders what future can be possible for an outlaw pirate and a servant of the empire. Meanwhile, he knows there must be a traitor among the prisoners who gave the pirates the boarding code they initially needed. Whom can he trust?
Filed Under: Books, Recommended Reads
Tagged: gay romance, science fiction
