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"Wonderful world to visit! Can understanding bridge the gap between duty and love?"

I enjoyed this story enough to read twice. Once when I ordered it at the advice of another PNR member who knew I love Futuristics, and again several months later to write a review. When a book is labeled a "futuristic" it sometimes reads like a historical loosely set in outer space. You won't find that with this story. The world established is believably futuristic but not in a sci-fi style.

Lord Ruel Shatar, Cadish of the 7th House of the Alliance must produce an heir. Unfortunately he has just found that he has been bitten by a bug that will make him infertile to women of his own race and must choose an alien bride. He keeps this a secret and has his advisor find him a bride -- an Earthling named Christa.

As governor, he used his position to force their marriage by tricking her into believing she had to marry him or be exiled. Neither want to admit that the attraction they feel for each other is more than just physical. Neither believe it can be love, but can attraction grow into true love?

Being raised as the future Cadish, he knows his duty and expects her to fill the requirements of a proper wife. Christa's response to his controlling ways inevitably reminds him that he is not married to an Adarian. Reuel blames the "little rebel" for distracting him from his duties and making him feel things he does not understand.  Christa finds the true reason he married her and how he tricked her with false threats but before they can resolve their differences, he is called away for a council meeting. While he is gone disaster strikes and Christa find the true meaning of duty and what it takes to be Lady Shatar, wife of the governor. Can her full understanding bridge the gap between duty and love? 

I am looking forward to other stories by this author. I believe she has a historical romance available also.

Courtesy: eBOOKISLE

Reviewed by Cy Korte
Posted November 4, 2001

Reuel Shatar, the handsome Governor of Pyrali and its three moons, is noble to his galactic core and duty bound to produce the next ruler of the Alliance. His choice is to blackmail a beautiful dissident into his mating chamber or have the House of Shatar fall into disgrace.

Christa Kirklan is as stubborn as her Earthling heritage and as unpredictable as a cosmic storm. Faced with exile to a frigid asteroid for her treasonous dialogue, or marriage to the man who represents everything she hates, Christa reluctantly chooses marriage.

What better arena to voice her discontentment with the empires prejudice and archaic social culture than the Alliance's own dais? What better way to raise her people from outcasts to noble citizens than to put an Earthling on the future throne of the galaxy?

Pyrali watches as Lord Shatar pledges his allegiance to an alien, while Christa vows to find the real reason behind Reuel's seductive scheme. United in a political union, forged by a man's hidden shame and a woman's quest for freedom, the Alliance trembles under the final test of their love.