Book picks similar to
Ice Red by Jael Wye
romance
sci-fi
sci-fi-romance
science-fiction-romance
The Kinsman Universe
Ilona Andrews - 2018
Talent is power. And revenge is sweet.In a distant, future world Kinsmen—small powerful groups of genetically and technologically advanced families—control vast financial empires. They are their own country, their own rulers, and their only limits are other Kinsmen. The struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport: in business, on the battlefield...and sometimes in the bedroom. Silent Blade:Old hatreds die hard. Old love dies harder.On the planet Rada, Meli Galdes’ family is of minor rank, and were relying on her marriage to Celino, the razor-smart, ruthless leader of the powerful Carvanna empire. When he abruptly breaks their engagement, he ruins her family and guarantees that Meli will never marry, as no suitor will oppose the rich and influential Carvannas. But Meli has a rare, secret, lethal—and valuable—talent. As a melder of energy, she’s capable of severing anything in her path. So she ‘leaves’ her family and trains to become one of the best and most lethal of assassins, all the while covertly guarding her family’s interests. Now she’s ready to quit; but she has one more assignment.To kill the man who ruined her life. Silver SharkClaire Shannon is a killer…and her weapon is her mind. Born on a planet torn by war for over 300 years, Claire is a soldier: a psycher, with the ability to read, control, and destroy the minds of enemy psychers and to infiltrate the biological network where they battle to death. When Claire’s faction loses the war, she barely escapes extermination from both sides, as her talent brands her as too dangerous to society. By so-deeply burying her ability that she avoids detection, Claire is instead deported to Rada as a refugee, where she must find work to remain. She finds a job as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, a premiere kinsman; one of Rada’s most wealthy entrepreneurs—and most powerful psychers. She thought she had left war behind, but now she must hide her skills and her growing feelings from Venturo…and this battle might just cost her everything…A Mere FormalityThe leader of the fierce Reigh people expires during an intergalactic summit, putting 30 million colonists' lives and livelihoods in jeopardy. When the new heir to the Reigh throne, Lord Nagrad, demands restitution, the phrase "‘a life for a life" turns the intergalactic calamity into an arranged marriage contract between Lord Nagrad and sharply intelligent diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed... and the negotiation of terms becomes anything but formal!Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies, bound in leatherLettered: 52 signed traycased copies, bound in a different leather than the limited edition
The Challenge
Susan Kearney - 2004
Kahn offers her proof she can't refute: Tessa has been brought forward through time to save Earth by winning an intergalactic challenge. Kahn only has a few weeks to train Tessa to use the psi-abilities he insists she has. He is confident in the success of a time-honored method that uses sexual frustration to bring out her powers, but Tessa is dubious. She's a martial arts expert and can fight her way through anything, but she's never had much luck with emotions.Luckily for Earth, Kahn can be very convincing...
Blind Beast Mate
Milana Jacks - 2016
Since the day Rey’s defiance earned her a blinding blow to the head, fear has hovered as close as the guide dog that clings to her side. But the terror that grips her now is almost beyond description. Like her sister before her, Rey has been sold to satisfy the lusts of one of the alien Beasts that now rule the Earth. If the towering, leather-clad Alpha discovers his prize can’t see, he could kill her with a flick of his claw. Or worse, send her home—where the only mercy she’ll get is a bullet. From the moment the Alpha Beast spotted Rey smiling tenderly at her flowers, his desire to own her, body and soul, roared louder than his bike’s throaty engine. But the only smiles his new pair aims his way are forced—and oddly off target. She is liquid heat in his arms, yet ignores the notes and gifts he leaves for her. If he can’t win her over, he can’t trust her with his own truth. And the combined weight of their secrets could destroy everything. ***This dystopian fairy tale features one brave heroine paired with one sweet, unapologetic, possessive, protective, and kinky Alpha male Beast. If you're looking for "mating trope" with fleshed out characters in a steamy romance novella and HEA click it.
His to Claim
Taylor Vaughn - 2019
The Xalthurians are rough, domineering, and huge all over. But, this is the deal our leaders struck, so that they would provide our human colony with desperately needed supplies...
If the baby born from our taking is a girl, we will be allowed to keep it. If the baby is a boy, it will be taken away, never to be seen again. That is the way it has always been, on our small planet and that is the way it will always be...
I should accept my fate, but I can’t! When they come for my sister’s baby boy, I dare to defy the alien, they call “Tel”. As it turns out, “Tel” means prince. But rather than killing me for my insolence, the future overlord vows to return to the planet. When I am twenty-one...
He’s huge, all-powerful, and determined to claim me!
Can I stop him?
And how will I answer when the question becomes, do I want to?
In the Quick
Kate Hope Day - 2021
Younger by two years than her classmates at Peter Reed, the school on campus named for her uncle, she flourishes in her classes but struggles to make friends and find true intellectual peers. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station—and a hard-won sense of belonging—but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle’s fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world seems to have forgotten the crew, June alone has evidence that makes her believe they are still alive.She seeks out James, her uncle’s former protégé, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry’s fuel cells failed. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. But the relationship that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell’s fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to create—and any chance of bringing the Inquiry crew home alive.A propulsive narrative of one woman’s persistence and journey to self-discovery, In the Quick is an exploration of the strengths and limits of human ability in the face of hardship, and the costs of human ingenuity.
Dangerously Mine
A.M. Griffin - 2012
Freedom and escape are her only priorities, but none of her martial arts training could have prepared her for enslavement to the warrior King Taio. Eva finds herself drawn to this sexy alien male who ignites her heart and body.Taio is disgusted with the idea of owning a slave—until now. From the moment he sees her, he knows Eva is his for the taking. Torn between lust and duty, Taio discovers nothing will stop him from protecting his little warrior.
Unearthed
C.J. Barry - 2003
Then Cohl Travers picked her up.Of course, it wasn't exactly how she was used to being "picked up." Cohl dropped down from outer space with his robot Pitz and zapped her --- so that they could save his father by acquiring a magical amulet, he said. All Tess had to do --- supposedly --- was sing some strange song on some ancient mystical planet they still had to find. But her abductor was hiding something else, something besides the gorgeous body beneath his space suit. Something pretty darn bizarre was going on, and Tess vowed that she'd uncover everything. Very soon, it wouldn't be just her or an ancient artifact but some powerful feelings: By the end of this crazy ride, everything was going to be ... UNEARTHED
Michael
Lisa Renee Jones - 2011
One of an army of human soldiers injected with alien DNA, Michael is a legend within this new race, split between good and evil. Untamable, he has walked on the dark side and returned to the light. Feared and misunderstood, he leaves everything behind, including the one woman destined to be his mate. HE IS HER ENEMY...AND HER DESTINY... Cassandra holds the key to Michael's power, and his pain. With loyalties divided and against insurmountable odds, Cassandra's heart propels her to Michael's side-but can her love do anything but destroy him... No ordinary woman can control a creature such as Michael, and only one thing is clear-the world will never be the same...Originally published as The Legend of Michael by SourceBooks.
Axiom's End
Lindsay Ellis - 2020
A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.
Accelerating Universe
Nicola Claire - 2018
"This is how we’d traverse the stars; limping and crippled, the last survivors of a dying solar system."Fleeing from a past that almost killed her and a present that promises she’ll only burn, pay-for-passage passenger Ana Kereama boards the Sector Two lead vessel Pavo with only survival in mind.What she finds is a reason to live, and it has nothing to do with New Earth.Teaming up with the sexy and commanding Captain John Jameson to protect those on board their ship, Ana fights not only for her vessel’s survival but the intelligent being emerging within its gel coated walls.Love and trust are born amongst the stars and plasma fire, but is it possible for a captain to be involved with a second lieutenant?And can any of them hope to survive the treacherous voyage unscathed?When humanity reaches for the stars in a race for survival, only the most daring amongst them will succeed.
Collision Course
Zoe Archer - 2011
Blackmailed into helping Commander Kell Frayne infiltrate a treacherous corner of the galaxy, Mara learns that her biggest danger is from her sexy, by-the-book partner. She's a loner with more than a few battle scars on her heart, but something about Commander Frayne stirs up her long-buried need for an intimate connection.An ace pilot for the elite Black Wraith Squadron, Kell's mission is to rescue a lost pilot and ship. Unable to deny his attraction to the beautiful, rebellious Mara, he decides bedding her would cool his ardor. But one taste is not nearly enough, and he finds himself sharing more of his real self with her than he has with anyone.With deadly criminals on their heels and an increasingly dangerous assignment to complete, he's starting to wonder...if they survived, could he let her go? And will Mara want to stay?46,390 words
Unconquerable Sun
Kate Elliott - 2020
The legendary queen-marshal did what everyone thought impossible: expel the invaders and build Chaonia into a magnificent republic, one to be respected—and feared.But the cutthroat ambassador corps and conniving noble houses have never ceased to scheme—and they have plans that need Sun to be removed as heir, or better yet, dead.To survive, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.Take the brilliance and cunning courage of Princess Leia—add in a dazzling futuristic setting where pop culture and propaganda are one and the same—and hold on tight:This is the space opera you’ve been waiting for.
Song of Scarabaeus
Sara Creasy - 2010
When renegade mercenaries kidnap Edie, she's not entirely sure it's a bad thing . . . until they leash her to a bodyguard, Finn—a former freedom fighter-turned-slave, beaten down but never broken. If Edie strays from Finn's side, he dies. If she doesn't cooperate, the pirates will kill them both.But Edie's abilities far surpass anything her enemies imagine. And now, with Finn as her only ally as the merciless Crib closes in, she'll have to prove it or die on the site of her only failure . . . a world called Scarabaeus.Cover art by Christian McGrath.
Driven
Eve Kenin - 2007
She's spent her life on the run, one step ahead of the megalomaniac who hunts her. All she wants is to stay out of trouble and haul her load of grain to Gladow Station--but trouble finds her in the form of a sexy stranger called Wizard. He has the trucking pass she needs, and she has to drag him out of a brawl with the very people she's trying to hide from in order to get it. She may have rescued him, but Raina's not foolish enough to see Wizard as anything close to helpless. He's hard and honed and full of secrets--secrets that may destroy them both. As they race across the Waste, trying to outrun rival truckers, ice pirates, and the powerful man bent on their destruction, Raina's forced to admit that trouble's found her. And this time, there's nowhere left to run.
Shards of Earth
Adrian Tchaikovsky - 2021
Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete.Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.