Determined to revitalize her imploding career, blacklisted movie star Ashley V takes on her biggest role yet: posing as one of ten scientists invited by aliens to a universal summit. But when the aliens seize, strip and implant the entire delegation to extract their knowledge, she is quickly found out and sent to a cell to await recycling.
The alien research director designated ZXQ-One devised a plan to let the humans volunteer their best and brightest in a gamble to solve his people’s energy crisis. But he fails to find anything useful and winds up imprisoned alongside the fiery human woman who refuses to give up, and who insists on calling him Sam.
After an accidental link between their implants lets them share their thoughts, they find themselves drawn to each other. Sam will have to trust in her human compassion and forgiveness for his role in her capture, and Ashley will have to trust him with her deepest secrets if they are to have any chance at survival…
The last thing that actress Ashley V expected when she headed off into space was to be captured and sentenced to death within hours of landing. She had paid big money to bribe the real doctor that was supposed to be going to Alhedis to talk with the aliens and had sunk herself into the role. She was pretty confident she could pull off the scam and then would be thought an incredible actress by directors and producers worldwide. She honestly believed that this would be the key to getting her blacklisted career back on track. She knew almost immediately upon landing that something was off but she never expected to be stripped and then implanted with a thing she thought was like an octopus – taking over all corners of her brain. The aliens soon learned that she knew nothing that could help them solve their energy crisis and was sent to be recycled – along with several other of her Earth mates.
When one of the aliens themselves got thrown in jail and was awaiting recycling she knew that he was their chance to escape. ZXQ-One believed that he had honestly screwed up in finding the resolution to the city’s energy issues but when he failed to get results the King sent him off to his death. He’s strangely fascinated by the woman in the cell near his and admires her strength. She soon has him believing that he doesn’t deserve death and they manage to escape their cells. In the process of escaping Ashley and ZXQ-One (who Ashley has now named Sam) end up linking. Sam and his people have been taught from birth that linking is a bad thing and they always keep their heads bowed for fear of it happening. When Sam links with Ashley, however, he starts to feel things and see things in a different way then he ever had before.
Sam and Ashley end up getting their motley crew of prisoners out of the city but then their at a loss as to where to go and how to get back to earth. When one of the prisoners, a boy, tells Sam that they should find the lost city Sam is stunned as he believed the city to be a myth. They find the city and while there they find themselves. Each of the prisoners, but especially Ashley and Sam, discover things about themselves they never knew. They look at life and the way they’ve lived it, the mistakes they’ve made and how they can be changed – and they fall in love. It’s a doomed romance however as Ashley will be going home to Earth and Sam knows he has to stay and inform his people of the lie that they all are living.
I don’t normally read sci-fi romance but when I read the blurb to this one it definitely caught my eye. The story started off a little bland but soon became the type of book that I couldn’t put down.
Ashley, at first, seems like such a selfish woman – even though she’s definitely kinder than the other scientists that are on the flight to the alien planet. She soon had me believing that she was not as selfish as I thought and much stronger than I would have imagined. If not for Ashley and her determination to get out of jail she and the others would have been dead. She was the instigator of everything and I loved how she motivated the others to work with her.
Sam had been taught so many things his whole life and one of those was to be emotionless. When he links with Ashley however he sees that these emotions that were supposedly destructive were more wonderful than he could have thought. I loved reading about his discovery of colors that he sees through Ashley’s eyes (his people are color blind) as well as the discovery of depth of feeling and of course the wonders of sex. 😉 He was a great hero and his character really added so much to the story.
The book, once the Earthlings get on to the alien planet, goes almost nonstop until the end. The story is engaging and interesting and was a delightful surprise. Even if you’re not a sci-fi romance fan I would recommend this one as it’s just a great story and shouldn’t be missed.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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