Now, this is how to make the perfect Science Fiction Romance recipe - just the right quantity and balance of essential ingredients, mixed to perfection! Action, adventure, yummy man (or woman, depending on your taste), excellent world building, a surprise or two, some seriously icky aliens and, yes, sexy-hot moments. It kind of reminded me a bit of some of the more...err...fantastic Fantasy Island TV series episodes that I enjoyed back in the day, but without the hot action of course. I really liked the variety of well-drawn secondary characters, who all make interesting contributions to the fast-paced plot in this fairly short but very gratifying read. I've thoroughly enjoyed the other books in this series too and can't wait for the next one. More of Red and Meg as well, please! I definitely think their back stories are well worth delving into, along with generous serves of Red's military mates. Intelligent, strong people in a relationship who just click without stretching plausibility wins me over every time, and this is a perfect example. ( )

My original Star Cruise: Marooned audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Part of the crew and passengers on a shuttle are suddenly marooned on Dantaralon, a planet where most of the wildlife is poisonous. They were offered an exotic vacation but they are abandoned on a world with multiple life-threatening dangers.

This is the second book by Veronica Scott I read, and in this case I felt that the science fiction setting was more of an excuse than anything else. In fact, the whole story could have been about a ship abandoned on a deserted island and attacked by pirates. There was adventure, there was romance, but I missed the science fiction that I was looking for.

The story started slow and took a lot to build up, just to suddenly end. The book is just under five hours, and I felt that it missed a one or two hours to have a polished end. Not that I wanted the book to be longer, but somehow it felt unbalanced.

The main characters are flight attendant Meg and former Special Forces soldier Red. The secondary characters were flat, and I even missed some development on Meg and Red. We get a bit of their background but just as side notes to the story. The dialogs felt artificial, like the love story in this book. It could be just me, but sudden romances and forever love promises born out of a dare situation are just not realistic, just like the love and sex scenes described in this book. I will not get into details, but believe me, in real life it never happens like this.

Something that makes me cringe is all the damsel in distress thing going on in these books. True that Meg is quite auto-sufficient, but her values are presented in contrast with the ones of the other main female character, presented as the typical damsel in distress, always making mistakes and being generally weak. Red will try to save the women in this book, especially this character that needs to be protected at all costs because she is quite useless. I would have not expected this from a female writer on this century. Meg is very capable, but again, I do not like the idea of using a weak female character to make others shine.

Michel Riffle did a decent job narrating the story, but it took me by surprise that Meg was interpreted by a Mary Fegreus. It could have been okay, but it was just confusing that this was done with just one of the female characters. True that the other women did not have many lines, but this just felt a bit weird. Also, this female narrator interpretation was quite flat, and her speed higher than Riffle, which sounded artificial.

It was an entertaining read that will delight romance lovers. If you are a science fiction reader, this book may not be enough for you.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )

Meg Antille is working on a cruise ship, and Simon ""Red"" Thomsill, recently retired soldier, has gotten a job aboard it to get to know her better. During a stopover on a nature preserve planet, things go ill. The ranger station is deserted, the big dangerous wild animals aren't being kept away as they should, and then the ships take off without their passengers. Simon, Meg, and the other passengers get pursued through the jungle by pirates and have to find a way to get off-planet safely. During the journey, Meg and Red develop a mutual respect to go with their mutual attraction.

For the first half of the book I've no idea what Red finds so compelling about Meg. It seemed rather radical of him to change his career so blatantly to cozy up to a lady who he saw once and has never given him the slightest encouragement. He doesn't seem impulsive, so it felt at odds with his character. I learned more later, but sprinkling that information in might have sold me more on his joining the cruise crew.
The secondary characters feel somewhat shallow, especially Peter. I can't remember anything about him other than his job and who he's married to.
I liked that Meg and Red are reasonable likable people, and the obstacles to their involvement aren't contrived. An early scene where Meg rescues the party from the baddies is a breath of fresh air. The story is quick-paced with vivid flora and fauna accompanying dangerous situations. If you enjoy just desserts, some of the bad guys get what's coming to them in spectacular fashion.
There's a cool subplot about some secret research on the planet that I wanted to know more about. It ties in with the fast-paced escape sequence at the end, but it begs for its own story (maybe it's told in other books?). I also enjoyed learning a bit more about the universe with its alien races and the political situation surrounding the characters, so I'll explore the rest of the universe with Scott's other Sectors books. ( )