Nightchaser

October 22, 2018
Bouchet (the Kingmaker Chronicles series) artfully weaves romance through this delightful space opera comedy-drama. Tess Bailey is running from her past, her family, and the galactic Overseer’s Dark Watch army. Okay, she stole an entire laboratory, but she did so to help those in need. When she and her crew are stranded, Tess must do everything she can to protect the people she loves. If only Shade Ganavan, the rakishly handsome mechanic and space rogue who offers to fix her ship, weren’t so tempting... or hiding secrets of his own. Bouchet’s storytelling is a bit over the top, describing feelings so intensely that it’s difficult for the emotional stakes to escalate. However, the characters are fun and likable, humor abounds, and the sex scenes are searing as well as sentimental. Bouchet, clearly planning on a series, ends the story on a cliff-hanger, and readers will be eager to know what happens to Tess and her friends. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

Starred review from December 1, 2018
Daredevil Captain Tess Bailey and her crew are on the run after pulling off their biggest heist ever, and Tess is intent on stealing whatever she needs to help the children of the orphanage she grew up in. With her ship in dire disrepair, she and her crew find an out-of-the-way planet to hide out on. While there, she meets mechanic Shade Ganavan, who offers to make the repairs. Their attraction is immediate and intense. Being on the run for years hasn't made it easy for Tess to let anyone in. When she does, she discovers that she isn't the only one with secrets. Their pasts may endanger not just their lives but also the lives of her crew. Tess is a tough-as-nails on the outside heroine who has overcome her pain with the biggest heart on any of the planets in the galaxy. Shade is content to let Tess call the shots, though he isn't afraid to challenge her. Together, they are breathtakingly hot. What Bouchet did for fantasy romance with the Kingmaker Chronicles (A Promise of Fire, 2016; Breath of Fire, 2017; Heart on Fire, 2018), she does here for space romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from December 15, 2018
A space rebel with a price on her head discovers she may have the power to alter the balance of power in a galactic struggle--just as she's falling for a sexy trader with dangerous secrets of his own.When Capt. Tess Bailey and her crew steal an entire lab containing a stash of vaccines she plans to take to an orphanage, she's suddenly on the radar of the brutal Galactic Overseer and his army and realizes the lab must contain something far more valuable than medicine. Rather than surrendering, Tess flies her ship, Endeavor, into a black hole, which turns out to be a wormhole. The crew survives but their ship is damaged, and Tess now has a huge bounty on her head since the lab actually houses a stockpile of superserum which would make whomever takes it--soldiers, for instance--superstrong and impervious to disease. Landing on planet Albion 5 to hide and recharge, Tess is referred to Shade Ganavan, who agrees to fix her ship. Tess has never been more attracted to a man and thinks Ganavan is attracted to her too, yet he rebuffs every overture. In fact, he's a bounty hunter, and turning her in will enable him to win back the birthright he gambled away. Ganavan knows Tess is special, and he might be willing to give up everything to fight by her side, but even he is stunned to discover that not only is Tess Public Enemy No. 1, but she's also Quintessa Novalight, the Galactic Overseer's daughter, long believed dead. Plus she may hold the secret to defeating the evil regime. Bouchet (Heart on Fire, 2018, etc.), who took the romance world by storm with The Kingmaker Chronicles, launches a sci-fi series that is chock full of intrigue, heroism, conflict, and sexual tension, with hints of spiritualism and magic.Bouchet's masterful writing and storytelling meet science-fiction romance, in hyperdrive.

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