Lauren Dane
Undercover (Federation Chronicles, Book 1)
Penguin Berkley Heat (US & CA: 2nd December 2008)
Cover design by Rita Frangie
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The Federation Military Corps is sending a team undercover to Nondal, to find out who’s leaking information to the Imperialists. Sera Ayres and Ash Walker had a mega falling-out ten years ago, but the sexual tension is still there…and it also blossoms between Sera and the third member of their team, Brandt Pela.
Sera starts off as a total bitch, but as the story progresses we learn why. She calms down a bit, but only in regards to Brandt and Ash. Otherwise…Nah, she’s all right She even makes a friend – Rina, of whom I’d love to read more, to find out what she did after the events in Nondal. With three more Federation novels following (Relentless has already been published, but I haven’t read it yet), hopefully she’ll show up. Meanwhile, Kira Pela-Walker is a stereotypical rich bitch who never seems to come out of her cardboard cut-out – she could’ve done with more shades of grey.
The triad of Ash, Sera and Brandt is definitely more interesting than if this had just been an m/f, but I felt like it wasn’t quite complete. Ash and Brandt clearly love Sera more than they love each other, and Sera loves them both equally. Whilst Sera definitely expresses her fantasy (and readers’) of watching the two men shag each other, they don’t. There’s some hot stuff, but not full-on shagging. Kind of a disappointment. The explanation of the men both being Dominant seems reasonable, but I’m not sure.
The Family laws of the Known Universes are completely fecking annoying, and thus totally understandable why Sera is so pissed off that people treat her as if below them because she’s unranked. But the ‘Verses themselves are rather fascinating. Nondal has some kind of artificial environment, being under a dome…kind of reminds me of the Diamondillium in one of those multi-part Futurama specials. Only there’s no genticles here But despite Nondal being mentioned as a tourist haven for its space light phenomenon, that event doesn’t actually occur during the novel. Which is a damn shame, because I wanna see it! Or, in this case, read about it. (Hey, I’ve never even seen Aurora Borealis – I live below the equator.)
I very much so understand why this won the 2008 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice for Best Futuristic Erotic Romance – it’s pretty darn good.
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