My Review: This is the second book in Anna Hackett’s re-release of her Phoenix Adventures series, and I was reminded yet again of how much I loved this series back when it came out ten or so years ago. I’m also pleased beyond imagining that the stories - at least so far and we’ll certainly see - are still just as good a decade later.

My Review: This story is a direct follow-up to the Phoenix brothers’ and cousins' surprise discovery of Markaria in the previous book in the series, On a Barbarian World. Because now that they know it’s there, and now that cousin Aurina has married Markarian warlord Kavon Mal Dor, the Phoenix clan knows that a warm welcome is always waiting for them on this icy planet. This time around, they’ve returned with Niklas Phoenix’ Galactic Institute ship Drake, because the scholars at the institute have discovered more fascinating information about the Markarians’ Terran ancestors, as well as the possible location of a second crashed Terran ship.

My Review: When I first saw this as part of the author’s re-reissue of her Phoenix Adventures series the title did not look familiar. I read - and reviewed - the whole Phoenix Adventures series back when it originally came out and this wasn’t part of it. Or so I thought. But it was - and it is - and I was delighted to read it again. When the series was originally published, Beneath a Trojan Moon and On a Cyborg Planet were marvelous - and marvelously short - side stories to the main series and were released separately.

My Review: Eleven years ago I fell hard into this book, and the same thing happened again in this reread. I mean that completely. When the Phoenix Adventures series originally began in 2015, I loved them all and remembered them very fondly, but eleven years is a LONG time and a lot of books ago. However, I must confess, this was probably a case of the right book at the right time, as I needed a guaranteed escape from reality, and this author and especially this series has always delivered.

My Review: Something about the opening of this one struck a bell - and that’s not JUST a pun. The scenario reminded me of any number of fantasy romances where the romance begins with the MMC (male main character) swooping in to rescue the FMC (female main character) after she’s been put up as the prize in some type of no-holds-barred and quite possibly illegal fight. Or a tournament of some sort. Lili’s father is a former fighter and current coach for an illegal fight ring, as well as a spineless toady for the rich asshole who runs the operation.

My Review: Aurina Phoenix is the advance scout for her half-brothers’ convoy business. These Phoenix Brothers, cousins to the treasure-hunting Phoenix Brothers on the other side of the galaxy - the more settled side - live and work at the galaxy’s edge. At this point in the Phoenix Adventures saga, Dare runs the convoy, Niklas’ wife Nissa captains the lead ship, and Rynan is still figuring himself out. Because the convoys take trade goods and, most importantly, settlers, out beyond mapped space, each route is a bit different from the ones that went before.

My Review: Patrol Captain Nissa Sander has spent her years at the galaxy’s edge trying to catch Justyn Phoenix smuggling illicit goods across the border. He’s trying to catch her attention. His plans are working a whole lot better than hers - at least when this story begins. He’s too good a smuggler to let her find anything illegal on his ship. And she’s too good an officer to stop trying. But he’s certain he’s not good for her or good enough for her - and she’d agree with that assessment a little too readily.

My Review: I originally reviewed At Star’s End OMG TWELVE years ago for the much-lamented Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. That was a long time ago, especially in internet years, and represents an entire space flotilla of books under the reading bridge. But it’s a story that has stuck in my memory over all these years. Not necessarily the specific details, but definitely the gist.

My Review: Did you love the Die Hard movies? Is there anyone who doesn't love the Die Hard movies? Seriously. Die Hard is the modern holiday classic that no one ever expected - but can’t resist. The Norcross Rescue is Die Hard with a much happier ending, which should be more than enough of a hint to tease readers, especially readers (like moi) who have followed the author’s Norcross Security series from its beginning in The Investigator. Most of the author’s series let readers return to the characters and the world with some lovely ending novellas, because we get involved with the characters and want to see how all of our friends are doing AFTER their happily ever afters.

My Review: There have been three HUGE questions hiding in the background of the first five books in the Phoenix Adventures series. All those stories have had their very own happy endings, but there have been a few issues hiding in plain sight - at least some of the time - from the very beginning. First, there’s the tease - all the teasing - about rival treasure hunter Nera Darc. She’s good, she’s very good. She’s especially good at swooping in after the Phoenix brothers have done all the hard work and sprung all the traps.

My Review: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” And neither is Brynn Norcross. Considering that Vander Norcross first met his future wife, then-SFPD Detective Brynn Sullivan, when she was undercover in a motorcycle gang (their story is The Powerbroker), it’s not as if he doesn’t know that. Her innate badassness is one of the things he loves about her.

My Review: From a certain point of view, this is a bit of a forbidden fruit kind of romance. Once upon a time, Georgie was just the little girl who followed her older brother and his best friend around their small town - and Nash was that ‘big brother’s best friend’. She had a crush and he thought she was too young for him.

My Review: RED was code for “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” at least according to the classic action movie (OMG only from 2010) of the same name. A movie which was based loosely on a comic book mini-series. Both the comic series and the movie were about a group of retired assassins who were still so DAMN dangerous that their former organizations put a hit out on them.

My Review: This is the romance we knew was coming at the end of the first book in the Langston Hotels series, Night and Day. And the title for this one is an even bigger clue to the characters and their story than it was in that first book. Both Allie Ford and Caden Castro are in the midst of lives that have been irrevocably divided into “Before” and “After”.

My Review: Tessa Ashford has always, always wanted to be the manager of the Windward Resort in her beautiful Colorado hometown. The thing about achieving your dream and being on top of the world is that there’s nowhere to go. Not that Tessa isn’t enjoying maintaining the iconic resort in the style and status to which it, and the locals in the surrounding town that rely on it, have come to expect.