I received this book for free from Netgalley, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Eclipse the Moon by Jessie MihalikPublished by HarperCollins on July 12, 2022
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Pages: 448
Format: ARC, eBook, Paperback
Source: Netgalley, Publisher
Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with an exciting new novel about a rainbow-haired female bounty hunter tasked with preventing an interstellar war.
Kee Ildez has been many things: hacker, soldier, bounty hunter. She never expected to be a hero, but when a shadowy group of traitors starts trying to goad the galaxy’s two superpowers into instigating an interstellar war, Kee throws herself into the search to find out who is responsible—and stop them.
Digging up hidden information is her job, so hunting traitors should be a piece of cake, but the primary suspect spent years in the military, and someone powerful is still covering his tracks. Disrupting their plans will require the help of her entire team, including Varro Runkow, a Valovian weapons expert who makes her pulse race.
Quiet, grumpy, and incredibly handsome, Varro watches her with hot eyes but ignores all of her flirting, so Kee silently vows to keep her feelings strictly platonic. But that vow will be put to the test when she and Varro are forced to leave the safety of their ship and venture into enemy territory alone.
Cut off from the rest of their team, they must figure out how to work together—and fast—because a single misstep will cost thousands of lives.
This book is part of a series, and I haven’t, unfortunately, read the rest. But this book has me looking to get the rest from the library, because I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
The mystery and action aspects of this book are top notch. The romance is sweet, resolved without a lot of will-they-won’t-they angst, and the pair are able to hold a conversation that isn’t about their relationship, and can handle their work despite their feelings. These are all aspects of a very good story, where romance and sex doesn’t overwhelm the plot.
I’m glad that we’ve progressed to the point where we can have science fiction stories where the science doesn’t overwhelm. I’m not fond of long-winded explanations of how the science might work, purely for the sake of science. The fact that the choices make sense for the narrative and are consistent is really all that I need to know. This book doesn’t let the science get in the way. We get what we need for the story to progress, and nothing extraneous.
I’m giving it 4 stars and putting the rest of the series on my TBR shelf.
