Book picks similar to
Destiny's Song by Audrey Faye
science-fiction
fantasy
romance
sci-fi
The Starlight Rite
Cherise Sinclair - 2010
Desperate to survive, she picks the wrong target--Dain, the head of planetary security.Dain is amused by the attempted theft, and when Mella is sentenced to serve time indentured as a bedroom slave, he buys her contract. As he introduces the repressed Earther to the pleasures of sex with a dominating warrior, he slowly comes to realize that the little thief has stolen his heart.When the monster arrives on Nexus and has lunch with Dain, Mella is panic-stricken. Her owner must be part of the conspiracy to kill her, and it will only be a matter of time before the monster discovers that she’s still alive. She attempts to escape. She fails. Embittered by her lies and mistrust, Dain returns her to Indenture Hall to be sold again.Now the monster has found her. And she has nowhere left to run...
Red Rising
Pierce Brown - 2014
"That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.""I live for you," I say sadly.Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
The Breaking Light
Heather Hansen - 2017
Arden—beautiful, street-smart, and cynical—is one of the citizens of the lowest Level, known as Undercity, of an off-world colony. A blackout band traps Arden in her district, but as sister to the leader of the most powerful gang in Undercity, she has access to Above.There she meets Dade, one of the few lucky enough to be born into the sun-kissed families who reside in the Towers soaring above the rest of the city. But life isn’t perfect in the sky. Dade, desperate to escape his upcoming arranged marriage, has a secret of his own, and he’s willing to risk everything for it.An unlikely romance develops between the two teens—but their love faces opposition from above and below. When her gang pressures Arden to help break the grip of the elite and end Dade’s interference with their drug trade, she is forced to make a deadly choice between love and family loyalty. But will the brewing class war destroy the world around them first?
Taken to Voraxia
Elizabeth Stephens - 2020
Here's what I don't know: why the king of them is here this time, and why his black, glittering eyes are trained on me.A hybrid with red alien skin and brown human eyes, I'm not pretty. I've got no family and no plans to ever have one – least of all with this monster of a male. I'm an inventor, a mechanic, a tinkerer. The alien king wants me for reasons I can only guess at, but I'm not about to be taken for a slave and his response to me is something I know I can engineer my way out of.He plans to come back for me when I'm of age, but he'll have to find me first. Our little colony is a scary, desperate place and I'm less afraid to face it, than to face him or the strange, alien sensations he stirs...RakuShe is my Xiveri mate, yet she runs from me – straight into the horrors of her small, savage moon colony. Slaughtering in her defense is easy, while gaining her trust will be the true challenge.She fears my kind and the horrors my treacherous general has inflicted on her humans. Does she not know that it is my blood rite to keep her safe against him and his even more dangerous off-world allies? No, she thinks herself my slave and in place of acceptance, offers me only pacts and bargains. Shamed by her pacts, I still take them all gluttonously, because though she knows only hate, I know only need.Eventually, we will need more than just these pacts between us if I am to convince her that she is my Xiveri mate and if she is to take her place at my side, not as my slave, but as Voraxia's queen.Taken to Voraxia is a full-length, standalone, interracial, SciFi romance complete with an alpha alien overlord, warrior heroine, fated mates who are also enemies-to-lovers, world building and extra steamy bits. All Xiveri Mates books can be read as standalones, each one with a guaranteed HEA. NO cheating, harem or love triangles. Some dark themes, illusions to abuse, and debatable consent due to intergalactic cultural misunderstandings may be trigger warnings.
Abducted
Evangeline Anderson - 2016
It is a plus-sized novel--140,000 words long My name is Zoe McKinley. I have a boring life, an awful job, and a boss that throws staplers at my head. What could be worse? How about being abducted by Aliens? Being dragged through a mirror, naked and screaming, onto an extraterrestrial ship was bad. Finding out I had been sold to a huge alien male who looks like the Devil was worse. But learning he wanted to trade me to an intergalactic petting zoo was the worst of all! Now I'm whizzing through the galaxy with a robot butler, a trio of nib-nibs (they're like tiny green monkeys) and one huge, muscular, and very grumpy alien. The clothing they gave me shows all my lady-bits, the food-sim makes banana cream pie that tastes like sauerkraut, and Sarden, my captor, is too hot to stay mad at, even if he is a jerk. In fact, I think I might be falling for him. What's a girl to do? It's all in a day's work when you've been... Abducted. The Alien Mate Index--Learn more From the pen of Evangeline Anderson, the writer who brought you Brides of the Kindred, comes a new race of Alien warriors… twelve races, to be exact. Everyone thinks that life just evolved on Earth — Wrong. Our planet, and twelve others, all capable of supporting Terran life, was seeded by the Ancient Ones. Then Earth was locked away, kept safe in the cocoon of our ozone layer. But now there’s a gaping hole in our security blanket and guess who’s coming to dinner? That’s right—the Alien warriors of the Twelve Peoples - also descended from the Ancient Ones, are looking for mates and Earth girls are their first choice. The Vorn are feared throughout the galaxy. Savage, horned warriors, these males can be surprisingly gentle to the females they choose to bond with.Denarins come in pairs—two muscular males who share a psychic bond... and feel the need to share one woman as well. The Majorans worship their females as goddesses, the very color of their skin changing with their bonded mate’s mood.Braxians are savage with black-on-white eyes that can see every spectrum of light. They will defend their females to the last drop of blood in their huge, blue bodies. And there are more… so many more Alien warriors to pick from.Which type of male would you choose? Too bad you won’t have a choice, because thanks to the Alien Mate Index, an agency that abducts Earth brides for alien males, you could be snatched at any time and turned into a massive warrior’s mate or concubine.So the real question is - who will choose you?
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
K. Eason - 2019
Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she’d inherit her father’s throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium. Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world. When Rory arrives in her new home, she uncovers a treacherous plot to unseat her newly betrothed and usurp his throne. An unscrupulous minister has conspired to name himself Regent to the minor (and somewhat foolish) prince. With only her wits and a small team of allies, Rory must outmaneuver the Regent and rescue the prince. How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination—how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.
Seeing Red
Patty Jansen - 2013
Young diplomat Cory Wilson narrowly escapes death in the assassination of President Sirkonen. No one claims responsibility but there is no doubt that the attack is extraterrestrial. Cory was meant to start work as a representative to Gamra, the alien organisation that governs the FTL transport network, but now his new job may well be scrapped in anger. Worse, as Earth uses military force to stop any extraterrestrials coming or leaving, as 200,000 extraterrestrial humans are trapped on Earth, as the largest army in the galaxy prepares to free them by force, only Cory has the experience, language skills and contacts to solve the crime. But he's broke, out of a job and a long way from Earth.
Cassandra's Challenge
M.K. Eidem - 2013
It's hard not to at 6’1” and 165 pounds with jet black hair and sapphire blue eyes. And if that wasn’t enough she is also brilliant, graduating from Harvard at fifteen, teaching at MIT at nineteen and up for the prestigious Magellan Award at twenty five. But she’s never really fit in. Not with her peers, not with her contemporaries, only with her family. But everything changes when the Earth is attacked and Cassandra and her niece Victoria are the only survivors. Suddenly the smartest woman on the planet has to relearn everything. Everything she’s believed to be true is challenged and she has to learn to survive, not only for herself but for Victoria, because someone wants them dead.Admiral William Zafar is the youngest Admiral ever in the Coalition fleet, the hero of the Battle of Fayal. At 7’1” he’s 325 pounds of Carinian male in his prime who is feared and respected throughout the fleet. He is a royal from the House of Protection, carrying its birthmark and considers its King one of his oldest friends.But when the Regulians destroy a previously unknown planet leaving only two survivors he finds he's willing to risk it all to protect the woman he loves from the Regulians and the Carinian traitor that wants her dead.
Aetherbound
E.K. Johnston - 2021
K. Johnston's latest is story of survival and self-determination.Pendt Harland's family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.
Nyxia
Scott Reintgen - 2017
Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.
Victorious Star
Morgan Hawke - 2004
Strong-willed and resourceful, she has never lost a ship she's flown—and never serviced a captain she's had.Captain Ravnos of the Mercenary dreadnaught Hellsbreath rules his crew with an iron will. First Officer Seht is a skeldhi prince whose specialty is erotic discipline. They're on a mission, and in need of a nav-pilot.Kidnapped into service on the Hellsbreath, Victoria is caught between two very different men locked in their own private and erotic power struggle. And then there's the mission…The Moribund Company has captured the Imperial Dreadnaught Arcane, and intends to auction the sentient ship to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, Moribund himself is attending the auction and Ravnos is forced to remain onboard the Hellsbreath for Moribund has a personal vendetta against the handsome captain. It is up to Victoria and First Officer Seht to go deep undercover at the Mordred Space Station to rescue the Arcane.To complete the mission and return to her duties as an Imperial Officer, Victoria must become Prince Seht's rehkyt—a pet, literally and figuratively. Not allowed on the furniture and kept at the end of a leash, Victoria discovers that there are worse things than servicing your captain. Or are there?Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, BDSM (including bondage, domination/submission, whipping), menage (m/m/f), and homoerotic sexual situations (m/m, f/f).
Warrior's Woman
Johanna Lindsey - 1990
In the year 2139, fearless Tedra De Arr sets out to rescue her beleaguered planet Kystran from the savage rule of the evil Crad Ce Moerr.
Experienced in combat but not in love, the beautiful, untouched Amazon flies with Martha, her wise-cracking, free-thinking computer, to a world where warriors reign supreme - and into the arms of the one man she can never hope to vanquish: the bronzed barbarian Challen Ly-San-Ter.A magnificent creature of raw yet disciplined desires, the muscle-bound primitive succeeds where no puny Kystran male had before - igniting a raging fire within Tedra that must be extinguished before she can even think of saving her enslaved world...
Captured
Willow Danes - 2014
She races into the snowy North Carolina woods to help and discovers that this is no plane that’s crashed. Ra’kur’s people have been brought to the brink of extinction by war. After years spent searching for a compatible mate to bond with, an enemy attack lands him on a backward, primitive planet and right to the very female he has been seeking. And a Hir warrior’s first task in claiming a mate is to capture her . . .
Sky Without Stars
Jessica Brody - 2019
An officer. A guardian. Three strangers. One shared destiny . . .When the Last Days came, the planet of Laterre promised hope. But five hundred years later, it’s now a place where an extravagant elite class reigns supreme; where the clouds hide the stars and the poor starve in the streets; where a rebel group, long thought dead, is resurfacing.Whispers of revolution have begun—a revolution that hinges on three unlikely heroes…Chatine is a street-savvy thief who will do anything to escape the brutal Regime, including spying on Marcellus, the grandson of the most powerful man on the planet.Marcellus is an officer—and the son of a traitor. Groomed to command by his legendary grandfather, Marcellus begins to doubt the government he’s vowed to serve when he discovers a cryptic message that only one person, a girl named Alouette, can read.Alouette is living in an underground refuge, where she guards and protects the last surviving library on the planet. But a shocking murder will bring Alouette to the surface for the first time in twelve years…and plunge Laterre into chaos.All three have roles to play in a dangerous game of revolution—and together they will shape the future of a planet.Power, romance, and destiny collide in this sweeping reimagining of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece Les Misérables.
Quarter Share
Nathan Lowell - 2007
With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope...to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sailing a deep space leviathan between the stars. Join the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, a Manchester built clipper as she sets solar sails in search of profit for her company and a crew each entitled to a share equal to their rating.