4 Stars

I think I must have Firefly goggles on….

Apparently, I’m a fan of space and smugglers and a motley crew of outcasts with their own code of honor and their own brand of family.

This time around, the focus is on Captain Sebastian Garcia (aka Captain Mal Reynolds), and I dug his charming personality, his on-the-fly ability to adapt to any situation. Though he may project he’s all about nonchalant charisma with nary a care in the universe, Sebastian holds deep inside all his failings and regrets. He’s not a bad person per se, but he’s done some not so nice things.

One of those things was charming a prince and relieving (ok, really stealing) him of his ship, for all good intentions and purposes of course. Prince Ren comes looking for Sebastian, not necessarily for revenge but for help. Someone stole a priceless artifact from his home planet, and Sebastian’s loose morals, profiteering self is just the guy for getting it back in return for not going to jail.

This was not as serious and gritty as the first installment and sadly, nowhere near as smexy. WTH Ms. Dare? WTH? Anyhoo, this had a good romantic progression filled with longing and doubt, as Sebastian and Ren try to resist caring for one another again.

What this excelled at were the lighter funnier moments, the action and suspense - with me holding tight to those goggles I’ve been wearing in the useless hope of ever seeing a Firefly revival in my lifetime. However, this pretty much scratched that itch for the time being.

Obviously, I was entertained, especially relishing every scene the ship’s crew was in, slowly building everyone’s background adding layers to this quirky onion. I really enjoyed their misadventures of planning to do wrong but always ending up doing right. Looks like bounty hunter Xin, and high ranking Commonwealth agent Jonathan, are up next! Woot!
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3.5 stars

I did like how the crew was with each other, and how Ren was included within that dynamic without actually being part of the group. I remember really liking the first book in the series, although it's been a few years since I read it. This one fell a little short for me. I wasn't all that engaged with the plot, as it just seemed to bounce from interaction to interaction of Sebastian and Ren, with not a lot of story in between. It was nice, but nothing to get excited about. ( )

I really like this universe! ( )