"Boy Oh Boy"
When I was asked to preview this book, I jumped at the
chance. I've heard nothing but good things about her first
book, ONCE A PIRATE, and looked forward to her next one.
That Mrs. Grant is/was a pilot is easy to see with her
lingo down pat; hat she's a REALLY good author is as easy
to see! Jasmine Boswell is a retired fighter pilot and mother of
two college aged children -- certainly not your normal
young, virginal heroine! Nineteen years before, when she
was almost shot down by friendly fire, she had a vision of
a man whose life she saved and whose soul she forever
touched. Stars in her eyes after that encounter, she
marries the first man she sees but learns much too late how
tragically wrong that was. No longer believing in dreams,
and thinking she is a failure as a woman, she expresses her
passion on an artist's canvas. Romlijhian B'kah, or just Rom, was rejected by his highborn
family right after his vision-meeting with Jasmine. The
vision prompts him to personally finish off an evil man,
Sharron, but in doing so he was banished from his home
world, which abhorred violence. He made it his life's goal
to shuck off the rigidity of his upbringing, taking on the
role of a smuggler, but underneath it all he felt a burning
shame that he couldn't protect his brother and those whom
Sharron had destroyed. The action begins with one of my favorite plot devices:
Earth finding out it's not alone. Jasmine, for years, has
had recurring dreams about this man with golden eyes. When
she sees him on the television, being introduced to Earth
by astronauts, she sees this as her way to have some
adventure in her life by going with this handsome alien.
She is certain he is the man from her dreams, and that this
will get her access onto his ship, the Quillie, but she's
lost her blind faith in dreams and magic and just can't say
such an impossibility is for certain. There was a lot of oscillating between the hero and heroine
as each struggled to come to grips with his or her
feelings, but I was happily surprised that no Big
Misunderstanding or fight caused them to grow apart at any
time. Each realized they were in love early on, and once
they realized that they never gave up on one another. Rom,
although he loved Jasmine, was afraid she would abandon him
like his family and friends did all those years ago so held
her at arms length a bit, but it didn't take him long to
see the error of his ways. Rom was a charming hero; he was
definitely hardheaded, but Jasmine kept him in line. For
herself, Jasmine was finally breaking out of her comfort
zone, being the one everyone leaned on on Earth and having
adventures for herself since she quit flying planes. And
yes, there is the prerequisite bad guy, the leader of a
cult that wants to overthrow the ruling class and bring
back banned weapons. I really liked this story! One thing that kind of pulled at
me was that at several points in the story the action was
summarized instead of played out, but of course that would
have probably added another 100 pages to the story, which
the publishers try to avoid. Another thing that bothered me
were the small inconsistencies or unwrapped up things; to
say them would give away some of the plot, so I won't, but
these were easily surpassed by the story. I recommend this
to anyone who likes futuristics, or those who simply like
space stories as this could happen in our world tomorrow!
I hope to see more from this author soon, that's for sure,
and will be going out to get her earlier book ONCE A PIRATE Sarah Pearson / July 2000
Copyright © 2000 for PNR Reviews
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 2, 2001
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