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annathepiperFinders Keepers, by Linnea Sinclair, is the love child of a romance novel and an SF one. It's set in space, sure--but at heart, it's really a romance. You don't get much more romance-novelly than Scrappy Young Trader Chick From Wrong Side of the Galaxy finds Crashlanded and Unconscious Tall Dark Handsome Stranger Who is More Than He Appears. The only way this could have been even more romance-novelly a start would have been if she'd been a pregnant runaway bride, and the guy had had amnesia and crashlanded during a snowstorm. Whoops, wait, this is supposed to be an SF setting. Let's say ion storm. ;)
And, unfortunately, the plot's a bit thin on the ground. There's an alien species that's supposedly trying to take over the galaxy, but we never get an idea of what this species actually looks like, and mostly we get the overall idea that they're evil because... um... they're evil! And we get hints dropped that the government under whom our heroine is a citizen is corrupt, yet we only have the word of a questionable character to begin with to back this up--and a character who's part of a rival government to begin with. There are a few side characters introduced that have the potential to be interesting, though I was personally vaguely vexed that the two side female characters seem to be primarily there to either commiserate with the heroine about her relationship with the hero, or to whack some sense into the head of the hero who is of course being Obtuse about his relationship with the heroine (since this is, after all, a romance novel at heart). There's the obligatory swarmy former boyfriend, too, but he winds up having hardly any camera time at all and is only long enough around for the heroine to punch him out before he gets diced.
Balanced against all of these things, I will admit that the chemistry between hero and heroine was enjoyable enough, and it was kind of neat to see a spacefaring situation where there were at least hints of multiple languages scattered around the dialogue. So overall I'll give this 'un two and a half stars.
And, unfortunately, the plot's a bit thin on the ground. There's an alien species that's supposedly trying to take over the galaxy, but we never get an idea of what this species actually looks like, and mostly we get the overall idea that they're evil because... um... they're evil! And we get hints dropped that the government under whom our heroine is a citizen is corrupt, yet we only have the word of a questionable character to begin with to back this up--and a character who's part of a rival government to begin with. There are a few side characters introduced that have the potential to be interesting, though I was personally vaguely vexed that the two side female characters seem to be primarily there to either commiserate with the heroine about her relationship with the hero, or to whack some sense into the head of the hero who is of course being Obtuse about his relationship with the heroine (since this is, after all, a romance novel at heart). There's the obligatory swarmy former boyfriend, too, but he winds up having hardly any camera time at all and is only long enough around for the heroine to punch him out before he gets diced.
Balanced against all of these things, I will admit that the chemistry between hero and heroine was enjoyable enough, and it was kind of neat to see a spacefaring situation where there were at least hints of multiple languages scattered around the dialogue. So overall I'll give this 'un two and a half stars.