Review: Starbreaker

Starbreaker by Amanda Bouchet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars maybe?

A quick recap on the first book in this series. Captain (Quin)Tessa Bailey is a rebel fighting the Galactical Overseer Simon Novalight, stealing food from convoys to feed the rebels and survivors from the Overseer's drastic and draconian ways of stamping out rebellion. Tess also has some kind of super blood which acts as a cure-all and which the Overseer wants to use to create Super Soldiers. Oh, and did I forget? Tess is also the Overseer's daughter.

Shade Ganavan was once the best bounty hunter for General Nate Bridgebane. Bridgebane is captain of the DW12 (the Overseer's most feared warship), the Overseer's best friend, and Tessa's uncle, who abandoned her to an orphanage when she was eight years old. After wrestling with his conscience in the last book Shade has followed his heart, given up the bounty-hunting and joined Tess' crew.

In this latest instalment Tess and her crew are on a mission to the Overseer's most guarded prison to rescue a rebel scientist. Along the way our duo battle other bounty-hunters, encounter General Bridgebane and learn more about Tess' childhood and how she came to have this strange blood. The book culminates in a shocking climax that leaves the reader on the edge of their seats.

Sounds great right? You'd want to read that book, I know I would. Unfortunately for me, and this is a criticism that I have levelled at probably the last four Amanda Bouchet novels that I have read so maybe I should cut my losses and stop reading her novels, the balance between tweenage-style gazing adoringly at Shade's big hands with the scarred knuckles (I kid you not), steamy, yet somehow unerotic sex scenes and 'I love her, does she love me' internal monologues and the real space rebel action was woefully misaligned. You want an example? Tess and her crew meet up with another rebel crew unloading supplies on a moon of a planet decimated by the Overseer. We get a few pages of banter and moving supplies then page, after page, after page of Tess and Shade's sexual experimentation and YA angsty conversations. I've said it before but Tess is supposed to be a 26 year old rebel captain, a leader, the galaxy's Most Wanted, and yet most of the time she comes across as someone a decade younger. Anyway, in my head I feel that the novel was 60% YA/NA romance and 40% space opera whereas I really want the balance to go the other way. I can't help but compare this to Star Nomad which in my opinion gets the balance right.

This is where I am supposed to say I realise it's me not Amanda Bouchet and that I am just not going to read any more of her books because it's just the way she writes her books. However, I do love the space opera and so I'm sure I'm going to read the next one with exactly the same mixed feelings. Also I just need to know what is going to happen to all the other members of Tess' crew, there seem to be a lot of budding romances there, and what about the Overseer's latest dastardly plan? OMG I have to read the next book!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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