SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Eclipse the Moon by Jessie Mihalik: https://t.co/wEQgyXSdGN
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 13, 2022
Short Review: 7 out of 10 - the latest in Mihalik's Space Opera Romances features Tech Expert/Hacker Kee and Telepath Varro, as Kee tries to deal with an attraction that isn't as one...
1/3
Short Review (cont): sided as she believes as she tries to discover the plans of forces who want to start civil war....by infiltrating a fashion show. Fun and enjoyable, but not nearly as hot and steamy as I expected from Mihalik, who is usually ridiculously sexy.
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) July 13, 2022
2/3
Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 12, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Eclipse the Moon is the second book in Jessie Mihalik's second space opera romance series which started with Hunt the Stars (I assume book 3 will be something like Shatter the Sun). Mihalik's works - both her previous Consortium Rebellion trilogy and this trilogy's opener - are something I've devoured really quickly....they're incredibly fun, with some really great sex scenes, and while the space opera plots never really are super unique or special, they're more than serviceable (with a prose that is very easy to read). And again, the sex scenes and romantic chemistry is just so so hot....even if Mihalik seems to love teasing readers with incomplete and interrupted scenes until the final acts of each book. So yeah I was thrilled to get an early copy of this one.
But Eclipse the Moon is even worse at taking its time to get to the hot and steamy stuff, with there not even being a sex scene (interrupted or otherwise) until the book's final pages....and the scenes we get don't quite live up to the last book, which was insanely hot and steamy. To the book's credit, it's still a lot of fun, and the space opera action goes down really well - and it's so easy to like the book's characters that it's not like the book is bad or anything, this is still an enjoyable romp. It's just well, I (and I suspect many other readers) really was hoping for something to live up to that last book in hot and steaminess, and this didn't quite do that enough for me. More specifics after the jump. ------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Kee Ildez has had two things on her mind - first, using her hacking skills to help her captain Tavi track down Morten, the allegedly ex-Federation of Human Planets (FHP) Commodore who previously appeared, with elements of the Valovian government in assistance, to be trying to restart the galactic civil war between the Humans and the Valovian powers. Second, trying to avoid her incredible attraction to Varro Runkow, Valovian weapons expert and telepath and new member of Tavi's crew, who doesn't seem to share that attraction (to Kee's great frustration). It's hard to tell which of the two things are more frustrating honestly.
Kee has the perfect plan to resolve both her problems - she's going to go undercover on a Space Station where a big human-Valovian collaboration is happening...something that she suspects may be a front for the factions backing Morten. There she can better aim to track him down and get space away from Varro to clear her head. Even better - the collaboration is for a fashion show, something Kee can enjoy even if it turns out to not be a front.
But things don't quite go as Kee planned, and Varro doesn't let her go that easily. And so Kee's plan will soon require Kee and Varro to work closer than ever if they want to track down Morten and his faction....close enough that the heat Kee feels from his presence might burn her alive....if he doesn't surprise her with his own passion......
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Eclipse the Moon features a protagonist in Kee who is not quite like the last protagonist Tavi - whereas Tavi was strong and confident, Kee is filled with self-doubt; whereas Tavi tried to deny her attraction to Torran, Kee is well aware of it and just bitter it doesn't seem to be reciprocated; and whereas Tavi's issue was the fact that Torran was seemingly an enemy, Kee's potential partner in Varro is clearly on her side to start this book (thanks to the events of book 1). At the same time, elements of this book's relationship and its main character development will remind longtime Mihalik readers of her earlier work: once again, for the second straight book (and fourth straight if you include her past trilogy) you have a member of the couple with a secret power (in this case Varro's extra strong telepathy) that affects how he reacts to other people - especially his romantic interest.
Still that formula has worked for Mihalik in the past and it definitely works here. Kee is a really enjoyable protagonist, and the contrast between the deliberately stoic Varro works fairly well, with the two having solid chemistry as they work together - even as they often don't quite realize that chemistry is romantic and mutual for a bit. The space opera plot is fun and exciting as the characters deal with situations like infiltration via fashion, escaping from pursuit, and then infiltration of a more military kind. It helps that Kee's hacking and intelligence and planning is really used well to make some real fun and interesting action/other scenes, such that the story moves really fast and has some strong momentum.
Course that brings me to my main complaint about this book: the romance, which Mihalik takes even longer than usual....It takes till about the 1/3 mark in the book before Varro admits to Kee that her feelings are returned but not only do circumstances keep conspiring to prevent them from consummating any part of that attraction, but Kee repeatedly misinterprets Varro's strange actions in ways that push her apart from him, and so we don't really get anything hot and steamy between them till the book's last two chapters. And well, Mihalik's romances are hot and steamy and aren't really about dialogue and slow builds, even as she sometimes teases and draws things out, and so this isn't really satisfying and is just more frustrating than anything. And after a first book in this series that had some insanely hot sex once we finally got there, we don't quite get anything on the same level in this book.
I mean listen, Mihalik's work isn't erotic fiction (for erotic Science Fiction, check out Kit Rocha's Beyond series) so it isn't 100% reliant upon the sex, and what there is prior to the sex is still pretty entertaining. But her work still is best when it gets really hot and steamy, and Eclipse the Moon just doesn't get there enough to really rank among her best works.
Eclipse the Moon features a protagonist in Kee who is not quite like the last protagonist Tavi - whereas Tavi was strong and confident, Kee is filled with self-doubt; whereas Tavi tried to deny her attraction to Torran, Kee is well aware of it and just bitter it doesn't seem to be reciprocated; and whereas Tavi's issue was the fact that Torran was seemingly an enemy, Kee's potential partner in Varro is clearly on her side to start this book (thanks to the events of book 1). At the same time, elements of this book's relationship and its main character development will remind longtime Mihalik readers of her earlier work: once again, for the second straight book (and fourth straight if you include her past trilogy) you have a member of the couple with a secret power (in this case Varro's extra strong telepathy) that affects how he reacts to other people - especially his romantic interest.
Still that formula has worked for Mihalik in the past and it definitely works here. Kee is a really enjoyable protagonist, and the contrast between the deliberately stoic Varro works fairly well, with the two having solid chemistry as they work together - even as they often don't quite realize that chemistry is romantic and mutual for a bit. The space opera plot is fun and exciting as the characters deal with situations like infiltration via fashion, escaping from pursuit, and then infiltration of a more military kind. It helps that Kee's hacking and intelligence and planning is really used well to make some real fun and interesting action/other scenes, such that the story moves really fast and has some strong momentum.
Course that brings me to my main complaint about this book: the romance, which Mihalik takes even longer than usual....It takes till about the 1/3 mark in the book before Varro admits to Kee that her feelings are returned but not only do circumstances keep conspiring to prevent them from consummating any part of that attraction, but Kee repeatedly misinterprets Varro's strange actions in ways that push her apart from him, and so we don't really get anything hot and steamy between them till the book's last two chapters. And well, Mihalik's romances are hot and steamy and aren't really about dialogue and slow builds, even as she sometimes teases and draws things out, and so this isn't really satisfying and is just more frustrating than anything. And after a first book in this series that had some insanely hot sex once we finally got there, we don't quite get anything on the same level in this book.
I mean listen, Mihalik's work isn't erotic fiction (for erotic Science Fiction, check out Kit Rocha's Beyond series) so it isn't 100% reliant upon the sex, and what there is prior to the sex is still pretty entertaining. But her work still is best when it gets really hot and steamy, and Eclipse the Moon just doesn't get there enough to really rank among her best works.
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