It was better than she'd imagined, this thing called a kiss, and she wanted more...
Rogue's Destiny
Michele Callahan
The Ozera Wars, book one
ebook, 82 pages
Published May 13th 2012 by Michele Callahan
First published March 13th 2009
ASIN B0082IZWO6
Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited
Hana is the second daughter of the House of Moons, sister to the Queen, and revered scholar of Anthea. Everything she believes about her people, and about herself, is a lie.
Kiel Lonriev, Prince of Melos, left his home on a rescue mission. Captured by powerful Anthean elders, he knows death is preferable to the torture ahead.
Only she can save him...
Only he can show her the truth...
Their forbidden union will violently alter the course of their planet's future.
I added this to my TBR/Lending Library shelf, only to have it, and the rest of the series, disappear from availability altogether. When it finally reappeared for both lending and purchase (for 99¢), I grabbed it. Though I'm still waiting on books two through four to resurface.
Kiel Lonriev, one of the youngest of the king's many bastard children, finds himself a reluctant prisoner to the women of Anthea after going in search of his sister, Kamara, who was abducted and seemingly lost to the galactic slave trade. His people and that of those of Anthea have long been enemies, ever since the woman of Anthea, once slaves themselves under the reign of Kiel's ancestor, rose up and fled their masters, uniting and eventually creating their own government. The woman thrived. And their technology became formidable. Now, the descendants of those women inflict their own kind of control, bartering tech for a male's seed and utilizing a synthesized drug called Ozera to ensure those men can't, or won't, fight them during a tradition that has been declared a Seeding Ceremony. The very ceremony that Kiel has now become a drugged and chained participant in.
Hana is the sister of the current reigning queen, present at the Seeding Ceremony as a priestess there to give her blessing to those women seeking to conceive, and earn favor for her sister at the same time. Despite not partaking of the drug that would awaken her body to the pleasure of the feel of a male, she can't help being drawn to the man that fights the bindings that he shouldn't even be wearing. The man that telepathically cries out to her in her mind.
This is a story of a mate claiming between a man desperate to keep his people from war and a woman who has been kept blind by her own trusted elders of their crimes of fueling the very slavery they themselves descend from. His is a people of magic. Hers, of technology. It truly has an amazing potential for a great story, if there was another hundred pages or so to break up the rush of imprisonment, escape, bonding, and then Kiel's mildly selfish choice to set her free rather than aid her desire to free her loved ones from the corruption ruling them. What there is, however, feels crammed and, much to my disappointment, such fails to do justice to the premise.
It is, on a positive note, very erotic.
3 out of 5 stars.
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