Astraeus YA/SciFi, Romance
Covey Publishing, LLC
October 12, 2018
193
One pre-apocalyptic Earth. One desperate space mission to find a solution. One unexpected alien.
When Dr. Sakota Thorell signed onto the mission to scout out a new, habitable planet, she knew discovering extraterrestrial life was always a possibility. But she never expected to find an alien adrift in space, nor for that alien to be so intriguing. Sakota feels an instant and undeniable attraction to Astraeus, but he represents a million possibilities, and just as many threats.
There are others hunting Astraeus, and his rescue may cost Earth its last hope.
Review by Madison Davis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
In the year 2140 the Slepnir Science Vessel, a privately owned and financed science space ship, cruising through the Andromeda Galaxy, tries to find new possibilities for human settlement desperately. Wars, greed, neglection of environment and hatred have destroyed the planet Earth. The rainforests are gone, the ice caps have melted. Humans have to develop, or they will die. ‘Oceanstone,’ the owner of the Slepnir Vessel gave them the chance to find a habitable planet in another Galaxy.
Dr. Sakota Thorell is only one of the scientists traveling on the Sleipnir Science Vessel. In “Astraeus” we will meet a few other, very interesting, entertaining and humorous characters in the science department, Hisoka, Tatjana, and Alistair are a few of them.
When Hisoka looks out the window into Space out there, he suddenly discovers a man outside the spaceship. He is dressed in dark, unrecognizable fabric rather than in a protective overall; obviously, the man is injured, and even though nobody really can believe it, he appears to be alive!
Sakota is a medical officer on the ship and immediately takes care of her new ‘patient,’ massively interrupted and disturbed by Commander Brent Rutledge, the head of security on the spaceship. Rutledge is all for torturing the alien into telling him everything he wants to know. Sakota can barely explain what drives her to protect the humanoid with all her willpower and influence, but it seems very much the need for protection is mutual. The ‘man’ seems to feel the same toward Sakota. Due to her excellent relationship with Jayda Ortiz, Captain of the Slepnir Science Vessel, Sakota got 24 hours to find out as much as she can about her patient.
Dr. Sakota Thorell is working with her patient best she can and finds an inexplicable bond between them. How strong and how unique that bond is she is only about to find out. Strongly supported by her adoptive father, Alistair Mansfield, celebrated astrophysics, several other Scientists, she finds a name for her patient, Astraeus, and starts to use their bond to their mutual advantage.
Astraeus is a book I haven’t read one in a long time. From the very beginning, I found myself right in the middle of the story, held by fascination and suspense and the fact that this was less ‘reading a book’ than ‘watching a movie.’ Every scenery, every happening, was described so carefully vivid it was as being right there, as not an observer but a part of the story.
Moves, words, emotions like hatred, humor, laughter, excitement, tension, and even sexual attraction were drawing me in and described vividly, making the story one of the most enjoyable I read in a long time.
I am not going to ruin this read by giving any information about the outcome of this story, only that the reader will learn to love the characters, hate other characters in the book – and then switch surprisingly.
Astraeus is a well-written book I sure recommend to every fan of science fiction and romance! I even marked it “Young Adult” since there might be some cursing, but intense intimacy is not part of the story. Astraeus lives off suspense, description, vivid characters and a phenomenal plot and ending! Well done!
2nd Place: SCI-FI/FANTASY/PARANORMAL/URBAN/MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/THRILLER/EROTICA/RELIGIOUS & INSPIRATIONAL
