Collision Course (8th Wing #1)

You devastate me.

Available at Amazon.com

Collision Course
Zoe Archer
8th Wing, book one
ebook, 141 pages
Published April 4th 2011 by Carina Press
ISBN 9781426891458

In a galaxy torn apart by war...

Mara Skiren is a scavenger, a black-market dealer. Blackmailed into helping Commander Kell Frayne infiltrate a treacherous corner of the galaxy, Mara learns that her biggest danger is from her sexy, by-the-book partner. She's a loner with more than a few battle scars on her heart, but something about Commander Frayne stirs up her long-buried need for an intimate connection.

An ace pilot for the elite Black Wraith Squadron, Kell's mission is to rescue a lost pilot and ship. Unable to deny his attraction to the beautiful, rebellious Mara, he decides bedding her would cool his ardor. But one taste is not nearly enough, and he finds himself sharing more of his real self with her than he has with anyone.

With deadly criminals on their heels and an increasingly dangerous assignment to complete, he's starting to wonder...if they survived, could he let her go? And will Mara want to stay?

This is a tale of an outcast princess and a former street rat brawler. ツ

Mara is a woman determined to live life on her own by her own rules and Kell, a soldier inside and out, is hell bent on saving the world. Neither of them leave a job unfinished. When the military loses a prized ship and its pilot, their master plan to retrieve them becomes arresting Mara and blackmailing her to go get them. That part, she can handle. Especially if it means a pardon for all crimes at the end of the mission. What she doesn't accept nearly so well is the partner they force her to accept. In bed? Sure. On her ship? Hell no.

This wasn't my first of Archer's, but this particular story was written for readers like me. I almost didn't review it; I could never do it justice. Mara and Kell are two totally independent souls who manage to find completion in one another. It's not sappy or illogical either. It's a base attraction turned romance told at its finest. With everything I, myself, and me respond to. An instant need to claim. A not so instant demand to possess. And a mate marking... by humans... in space... and it all makes perfect, logical, un-sappy sense. Love it!

4 out of 5 stars. A must read.

Wherever you are, I'll find a way to you.