by
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 98
One day, someday soon, Jeeze Madrid was going to wake up and realize just what he'd been passing up; he'd see what Cal Paxton was offering him so faithfully—"Faithfully, Jeeze! Even you can't deny that!"—and grab it. And they'd finally have what Cal wanted.
Cal Paxton and Jeeze Madrid are the top scouting team on the Pathfinder-class starship, the Carson, on the very outer edge of Earth's expansion across the galaxy. Cal and Jeeze find the uninhabited planets, the Carson evaluates them for colonization.
Cal and Jeeze are wingmen, best friends... and lovers. Cal wants more than a casual relationship but Jeeze, recently divorced, is wary of commitment. When Jeeze’s scout ship is shot down over a planet inhabited by a race Earth has never before encountered, what will Cal find when the Carson can finally mount a rescue mission? Will he ever succeed in persuading Jeeze to take up his offer of hand and heart?
- 2 To Be Read lists
Publisher: Glass Hat
Genres:
Word Count: 20,900
Setting: spaceship, non-Earth planets
Languages Available: English
Word Count: 20,900
Setting: spaceship, non-Earth planets
Languages Available: English
Cal helped him out of his jacket, trying not to think unworthy thoughts about how smoking hot Jeeze was. Even on normal days, Jeeze was hot enough to make Cal’s breath to come short and his pupils to dilate in what Cal assured Jeeze was a sex now! right now! conditioned response. On a day when they’d just become very rich men—even if it had only been temporary in Jeeze’s case—Jeeze was as sizzling as the incandescent surface of an exploding supernova.
READ MOREThey were the same height, just right for it to be effortless for Cal to lean forward and lick his way into a kiss. Other than that, they weren’t very alike. Jeeze was all brown-toned skin, black hair and eyes, and, with that long elegant body and straight-backed bearing, owed much to his Spanish-Mexican forebears. When he turned his head to meet Cal’s mouth with his own, the light glinted on sharply-defined cheekbones and shadowed his cheek down to a strong jaw and the full mouth Cal just had to kiss again. He was beautiful. Cal always felt washed-out in comparison and that his dark-blond hair and sea-blue eyes looked all the more colorless. If Jeeze was a dark flame, then Cal was the pale moth fluttering around getting his wings scorched, like Icarus getting too close to the sun. All that would be left of him would be a little tin heart in the ashes.
COLLAPSEThis book took my breath away. Not just because its story takes place in an interesting future, with puzzling aliens, and a real threat to the main characters' lives and happiness, but mainly due to the ending. Man, that got me shaken up! My jaw literally dropped and I was unable to write the review right away because my emotions were all over the place. So, I took a few hours to let things settle and to decide if I liked it or not. The thing is, the story is a really good one: great science fiction combined with a deeply emotional love story. Some of it was mind-bending and gruesome, and I cannot say it was a comfortable read. But it was a great read, and, now that I have a little more perspective, the ending is actually exactly right for the story.
Cal Paxton is a man with a bit of a reputation with both women and men. He has recently seen the light, so to speak, and is madly in love with his best friend, a fellow pilot named Jeeze. They are the top scouting team, looking for new colonies for humans to settle, and work well together both on and off the job. Jeeze is recently divorced, and not so sure he's ready for another commitment but Cal is unstoppable; he will not be deterred.
There is only one problem: theirs is a dangerous job and not all aliens they encounter are friendly. And that is about all I can ay without giving too much of the story away. Let me just say that if you do go for this book, be ready for an emotional roller coaster ride, confrontation with some scary situations, and an ending that will probably leave you just a bit unsettled.
If you like science fiction that challenges the way you think about the future and any aliens we may one day encounter, is you enjoy reading about tough men who love each other deeply, and if you're looking for a read that is scary-entertaining but definitely not a typical romance story, then you will probably like this novella as much as I did.
