Futuristic/Scifi romance is a hard sell for me because often the author will either make it way too complicated and forget to focus on the romance angle, or focus too much on the romance and make the future sound just like the present just with funky names. Archer, who's historical novels I already adore, made me a happy girl with COLLISION COURSE.

First, and this is a purely superficial thing I love the name Mara and the fact she has white hair. I would have read this book for no other reason. Mara is a tough answers to no one smuggler/scavenger who is not afraid to speak her mind. She hates that the 8th Wing (a military group) pretty much forced her hand in helping them and is plenty vocal on it. I don't blame her, I'd be pretty pissed off too. It was underhanded, sneaky and questionably moral. Mara does however have a sense of right and wrong, her life is just full of profit and coerced pro-bono missions for the 8th are not profitable at all.

Sparks flew between Mara and Kell from the very first time their eyes set on each other. Those sparks didn't diminish once she found out he'd be riding shotgun on her mission and smoldered as the two of them tried (in vain mostly) to avoid their attraction to each other. They were both fiercely independent people, learning the hard way that to get any measure of peace of freedom you had to work hard for it. As their backstories are developed the vast differences in their childhoods matter less then the fact they survived them and overcame the difficulties therein.

Archer's future time is as detailed as time and opportunity allows. We get a vague sense of the battle between 8th Wing and PRAXIS (they're rivals militarily and politically), as well as some of the practical day to day in the universe for most people. Through context we get an idea of who's what and who's known for what. By necessity we learn more about the shadier side of universe, but all things being equal Archer was careful to associate Mara only with the 'cleaner' outlaws. Mara knew the other type, but didn't spend time with them. She was also careful to emphasize that Mara didn't trade in slaves or maliciously attack others to get her goods.

This was good in that later on when Mara is wrestling with her choices, her decision is a fairly logical step for her to take given her circumstances, but it then made me wonder how she survived and became such a great smuggler when being such a girl scout.

Some of the plot points made it simple for Archer to follow up with another story at some point. Follow up on some dangling plot threads and characters. Then again I got the happy ending I was looking for, with enough heat to scorch the earth. Once Kell and Mara give in, they give in. There's no halfway for these two. Before their thoughts were consumed by 'What if...' after they're thoughts are consumed with 'How fast and where at?'.
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A nice little SciFi romance novella. There wasn't room to develop the sci fi element greatly but what there was was decent. There weren't any glaring bits that made me grimace as sometimes happens when romance authors try sci fi. Attention was paid to piloting ships and description of space and planets in enough detail that it was firmly in the SFR camp rather than the futuristic romance camp.

However the gist of the story is the romance that develops between Mara, a smuggler sort, and Kell, a military man. Even though the story took place over just a few days, I felt like their emotions showed a progression. So even though they had the hots for each other immediately, the story was mainly about finding a compatible soul to go through life with. Mara was a competent woman who was in charge of her life and when the old one no longer suited, she was willing to make a new one that better suited her new desires. Kell was an honorable man. He was pretty kick butt. The author did a good job of giving just enough back story to justify the skills and actions of each of the main characters. I would be willing to try further stories in the series. ( )

Straight up, cheesy lady-porn. Cute... But there isn't much else to it. ( )

She's a scavenger, but she's a pilot to the core. The military may be able to blackmail Mara Skiren into helping with their rescue mission, but there's no way the passenger they twisted her arm into taking on is getting his hands on her ship. Her body, now, that's a more tempting proposition....

Rough and tumble romp of a space romance. Clever dialogue, likable characters, and the plot moves right along. ( )

i enjoyed both main characters and the world building. i was honestly a little sad to see it end. i hope Archer has plans to continue the series. ( )