Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Humiliated by the betrayal of his former Master, Lieutenant Benjamin Kraft will do anything to bring the drug czar Tazu to justice ~ anything but kneel again. Forget passion too. He’d rather risk daily grow-op raids. Then, just when Tazu is finally within reach, an ambush wipes out Ben’s entire squad and threatens the life of his partner ~ a partner he never realized he cared about, much less loved.

As a member of a former slave race known as starlings, Adam’s speed and strength make him a valuable asset to the police force even as his blue skin inspires prejudice and derision from the other officers. Ben’s always been able to look past that, so what’s changed? Suddenly his partner is rude at every turn. Ben may try to get rid of him, but too bad; Adam won’t be scared off. He has his own reasons for wanting to bring Tazu in, and he’ll do it even if it means putting Ben in his place.

Even if it means acting as Ben’s Master on their next mission: an investigation on a planet where sex is everywhere, and where whips and chains are the norm.

BOOK REVIEW:
Ben and Adam have a lot to overcome if they are going to make it through this assignment. The last one almost killed Ben and in the process made Ben much too aware of his feelings for Adam. Adam, a blue skinned, feathered former slave has been moved way above the normal Starling station of servitude and poverty because of an accidental addition of a rare symbiote into his body. All police officers share space in their body with a starfish symbiote. These allow for some telepathic communication and for added healing power as well. Since Adam has a rare starfish, and for as long as he has it, he must be a policeman. During their current assignment, Ben’s interest in bdsm, especially pain and service can’t be hidden for long. Adam, a former slave finds this appalling and appallingly exciting.

Admittedly, I am not generally a sci-fi/fantasy reader. I branch out from time to time when a blurb or synopsis catches my imagination as this one did. Any well understood or general lexicon is not necessarily something I am very well versed in. I think in the case of this book it hindered my enjoyment. There seemed to be many areas that I felt I should “know” or understand and just didn’t. Maybe this is part of a larger series? I didn’t see anything else by this author at Samhain.

While reading this book, I found a lot of unanswered questions and completely baffling choices made by Ben that I never understood. I struggled to follow along with this story but still found some of the BDSM scenes well written and interesting even though I had a hard time imagining some of the sci-fi toys and descriptions of their use. All in all it had some intense scenes, descriptive passages and the ending was satisfying but getting to the good parts was difficult for me. Readers more versed in this genre may find it much more to their taste.

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