Title: Polaris Rising Series: Consortium Rebellion #1
Author: Jessie Mihalik
Published: February 5, 2019
Genre(s): Romance: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Page Count: 451
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:In the far distant future, the universe is officially ruled by the Royal Consortium, but the High Councillors, the heads of the three High Houses, wield the true power. As the fifth of six children, Ada von Hasenberg has no authority; her only value to her High House is as a pawn in a political marriage. When her father arranges for her to wed a noble from House Rockhurst, a man she neither wants nor loves, Ada seizes control of her own destiny. The spirited princess flees before the betrothal ceremony and disappears among the stars.
Ada eluded her father’s forces for two years, but now her luck has run out. To ensure she cannot escape again, the fiery princess is thrown into a prison cell with Marcus Loch. Known as the Devil of Fornax Zero, Loch is rumored to have killed his entire chain of command during the Fornax Rebellion, and the Consortium wants his head.
When the ship returning them to Earth is attacked by a battle cruiser from rival House Rockhurst, Ada realizes that if her jilted fiancé captures her, she’ll become a political prisoner and a liability to her House. Her only hope is to strike a deal with the dangerous fugitive: a fortune if he helps her escape.
But when you make a deal with an irresistibly attractive Devil, you may lose more than you bargained for...
Polaris Rising is the sexy space princess/rebel sci-fi romance none of us knew we needed. With a light touch and excellent pacing, Jessie Mihalik takes her readers on a journey around the universe and back, all while her characters are dodging the best-trained soldiers the human race has to offer. This book is exciting, compelling, and also just plain ole fun!
This entire book is narrated from start to finish in Ada’s perspective. Ada is a daughter of one of the three ruling Houses of the universe, but she’s on the run after fleeing an arranged marriage two years ago. In the first chapter, Ada is caught by mercenaries who want the bounty her father placed on her head. They dump her in a cell with…Marcus Loch, the most notorious murderer ever to murder. He is dark, he is irreverent, he is sexy. Ada and Marcus strike a deal and become tentative allies. Naturally, their partnership lasts far longer than either anticipated, as they discover a secret weapons technology that could start a universal war, and also a dastardly government cover-up.
Like I said: exciting.
The strength of Polaris Rising is its plot. The story is fast-paced, twisty, and completely engrossing. I think that if I were really to closely examine the book, I would probably find that the world-building and characterization were a bit shallow. However, because the author breezes you from location to location, emotional highpoint to emotional highpoint, with such skill, those things become less important. This book did not feel like either a masterpiece of speculative fiction or of genre romance, but for what it was, I enjoyed it.
(I also think the author was really capitalizing on the princess/rogue dynamic that brought us Han and Leia. It was a good choice.)
