Ames‘ review of Hero (Cat Star Chronicles, Book 6) by Cheryl Brooks

Raised on earth, Micayla is the last living Zetithian female. Typical of her species, she’s aloof and uninterested in men – until she meets Trag, the Zetithian pilot for an intergalactic arms dealer and the sexiest, most irksome man she’s ever met. Trag has sworn he’ll never marry, unless he can find a Zetithian woman. Considering the odds, it’s a safe bet, until he encounters Micayla. Fighting the enemies who are determined to wipe out the Zetithian race may be easier than convincing these hardheaded lovers that they were made for each other.

So far in the Cat Star Chronicles, all the Zetithians have been male. But references have been dropped about the females and how hard they are to please. They are so hard to please that the males became freaking sex gods with orgasm inducing sperm to appeal to their women. And so far, only Terran females have gotten a Zetithian male.

So what happens when a Zetithian man comes upon a Zetithian female?

Well considering neither of them grew up on their home planet, a big misunderstanding!

Trag is Tychar’s brother (from Rogue, Catstar book 3) and he’s been saying he hasn’t settled down with a woman because he was waiting to find a Zetithian. However, he believed that there were no Zetithian females in existence so he was only saying that so people wouldn’t figure out that he had a big crush on his sister-in-law, Kyra. (This all stems from a threesome in Rogue.)

Micayla is a Zetithian female who was given to a Terran woman seconds before her family was killed. She was only 2. She was raised on Earth not even knowing what planet she was from. Now she’s in Orleon Station in the outer reaches of space working as a communications officer. And since Zetithian females are so hard to please, no Terran man has ever been able to excite her interest, sexually, which Micayla to believe that she was not normal somehow. She wants to be attracted to men, but there’s no sparks, whatsoever.

And then when she comes face to face with Trag, she hisses. So both of them assume that she can’t stand the sight of him. LOL

I enjoyed Hero – the characters were really engaging and Jack and the gang from the previous books showed up. There was also closure as to WHY the Zetithian planet was destroyed and WHO was behind it all. That’s how Trag and Micayla meet actually. The guy behind it all saw Micayla and tried to kidnap her in the space station but her and her friend hid on a ship…that Trag was the pilot of. So once Micayla shares what she discovered, she tells Trag and he tells Jack and they hatch a plan to catch the dirty bastard who destroyed their planet!

Also! I like how Trag and Micayla didn’t fall into insta-love. So at first they’re confuzzled about the mixed signals they’re sending and once they do hook up, Micayla is still thinking something’s not right with her and Trag is kind of wounded by her non-romantic attitude (because he knows with the other couples how they’re always ready to rip their clothes off). And Micayla is not like that at all. So it was good that she was going through some self-discovery with her newly discovered sexuality and that totally kept Trag on his toes. And he needed that because he was used to women throwing themselves at him. It also lets the characters get to know each other.

All in all, a good installment to the series. I would recommend reading at least the first book, Slave, in this series and maybe Tychar’s book, to get some of what the characters are talking about.

Hero gets a 4 out of 5 from me!

The series:

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This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here.

Ame’s review of Fugitive by Cheryl Brooks.

When a Zetithian fugitive meets a beautiful Earth woman, their passion may cost them both their lives…

Manx is a Zetithian fugitive with a feline gene that gives him remarkable sexual powers. He has been in hiding in the remote jungles of Barada Seven ever since being marked for extermination by the violent Nedwuts.

Artist Drusilla arrives on Barada Seven, enticed only by the promise of finding a nature paradise there. But she discovers a wildlife she wasn’t expecting when she encounters Manx. Reckless with desire for the beautiful Earth woman, Manx risks his life to win her as his mate.

It’s only a matter of time until the Nedwuts find them, but it will take all of Manx and Drusilla’s passion, skill, and ingenuity to survive.

Fugitive is book five in Cheryl Brooks‘ Cat Star Chronicle series. Although I enjoyed it, it didn’t compare to Outcast (which I still think is the best of the series so far). Also, although these books are connected, I think if you read the first book, Slave, you’d be ok to read any other book, as the characters from Slave pop up throughout the series, not so much the other characters.

Now before I get into the book, I want to backtrack a bit. In Slave, we found out that Cat’s planet, Zetith, was destroyed. What we found out in subsequent books was that the survivors were rounded up and sold off as slaves. Aliens called Nedwuts are blamed with destroying Zetith and are also out hunting any Zetithians as there is a bounty on their heads.

Manx, the hero of Fugitive, has escaped from the Nedwuts before he could be sold as a slave and he’s been on the run ever since. He is very elusive and has always managed to keep one step ahead of the Nedwuts. Sometimes though, he relaxes his guard and befriends locals of whatever planet he lands on…which leads to betrayal and so he begins to distrust people and avoid them all together. The last time he went on the run, his lover had sold him out to the Nedwuts and he stowed away on a ship and ended up on a peaceful planet called Barada Seven.

The locals have just recently allowed off worlders onto their planet and are trying to lure tourists to their land. The latest visitor is Drusilla, an artist from Earth. She likes to paint birds and her manager has sent her to Barada to get her muse back, so to speak. She’s kind of still in shock that her boyfriend ended up being gay. So away she goes, hoping for peace and quiet. Barada is the perfect place.

Ok, what I liked about Fugitive compared to Outcast is that Manx is the one doing the wooing. In Outcast, the hero was so scarred from his slave experience that he wanted nothing to do with women. However, Manx is starting to feel lonely because its been over a year since he’s had any humanoid companionship. And Manx has a feeling he can trust Drusilla. So he sets out to woo her. And Drusilla is wooed. Zetithians have that crazy penis going for them after all. LOL

Also in Fugitive, there’s more of a focus on trying to discover WHO was behind the destruction of Zetith and who has put a bounty on the Zetithians’ heads. So Jack and her crew (from Slave) are in the picture as well, which was fun. I love Jack, she’s such a fun heroine.

All in all, Fugitive is a good addition to the series. There’s some hot, inventive loving, a hilarious Eltran (lake dweller) and Cheryl’s writing is getting smoother. Fugitive gets a 4 out of 5 (B) from me!

This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here. Fugitive is not yet available in e-format.

Ames‘ guest review of Outcast (Cat Star Chronicles Series, Book 4) by Cheryl Brooks

Bonnie Neurath, a homesteader on the newly colonized planet of Terra Minor, is in desperate need of help. Her boyfriend abandoned her with a farm, some really nasty livestock, and a baby on the way. Lynx is a Zetithian who spent ten years as a slave to a harem full of women. Now a free man, he’s already forgotten more about pleasing women than most men ever learn, but his experiences have also turned him into an impotent woman-hater. Neither is looking for love, but when circumstances bring them together, danger and hot romance ensue.

Outcast is the 4th book in Cheryl Brooks’ Cat Star Chronicles and I have to say, it is the best one so far.

It begins with Lynx, a young Zetithian being sold as a slave. He is taken to a harem where is the only male – he is a slave to slaves. And Zetithian males are creatures unlike any other in the universe, their potent snard (semen) giving women orgasm after orgasm, which the women in the harem discover very quickly. And so Lynx’s new life begins, being constantly hounded by 50 women for sex all the time, and when not providing mind-blowing orgasms, he’s being treated like dirt on the bottom of someone’s shoe. He has to fend for himself, stealing scraps whenever he can. It takes 10 years, but the women of that harem finally break him. He cannot stand the sound of women’s laughter or their incessant chatter. He eventually is sold when he no longer pleases the harem and he’s soon working in a mine. Granted his freedom after 5 years of mining, Lynx decides to stay on and save money so he can own his own home one day. This dream takes him to Terra Minor, a newly colonized planet with lots of land.

Bonnie Neurath is a homesteader on Terra Minor. She’s also pregnant and abandoned. Her boyfriend, Sylor, stole all their money and took off for parts unknown. Bonnie is left to fend for herself when she asks the local magistrate to send any help her way.

Lynx lands in Terra Minor with absolutely no money and no prospects, until he gets hired on at Bonnie’s farm. Which is the last thing he wanted to do was to work for a woman. And he let’s Bonnie know that he doesn’t like women and he only wants to do the work and be left alone. And Bonnie is hurt by his attitude, but she cedes to his wishes but meanwhile, she’s drawn to him and keeps trying to reach out to him.

Ok, I have to admit, my summary doesn’t sound like much – but my goodness Outcast is one heck of a read! It’s all because of Lynx. He’s been treated like crap for 10 years, laughed at, starved, and that kind of treatment leaves scars – deep, emotional scars. It got so bad for Lynx that he became impotent because he couldn’t stand women anymore. That’s why he was sold to work in the mines. And what truly broke my heart is the fact that in the 10 years Lynx was in that harem, none of the ladies became pregnant by him – and when he’d help them deliver, time and again he would hope for one baby to resemble him in some small way and it never happened. He even overheard the women whispering that they didn’t want to have his baby. So after 10 years, he thinks there’s something wrong with him, on one level because they don’t want to have his baby, and on another level by the fact that he appears to be sterile.

So when Lynx finally ends up at Bonnie’s farm, he’s in hell. Having to end up working for a woman after all he’s been through? And eventually, despite his gruff demeanor, Bonnie becomes attracted to him and Lynx can smell her desire, which torments him. At first he is repulsed, for he cannot stand the smell of a woman’s desire. But eventually, after Bonnie keeps getting through the cracks in his armor, he begins to despair when her desire doesn’t ignite his own. So he keeps Bonnie at a distance, because he can never be with her.

Having read the three previous Cat Star books, I know how sexual the Zetithians are, so I understand the depth of Lynx’s torment. He cannot be all who he can be, corny as that sounds.

And that’s why I enjoyed Outcast. It hit me on an emotional level that the other books never did. We also get to see Jack and Cat (from the first book) and Tisana and Leo (from the second). It was good to see where those two couples again, and Jack is still her awesome, quirky self.

That’s also why Outcast works for me so well – the heroine. Chery Brooks heroines are strong, smart women. And Bonnie fits right in there with the others Cheryl has created. Her boyfriend abandons her on a strange planet with some pretty vicious lifestock and she’s pregnant to boot. Rather than despair, she carries on, planning for the future and her knowing but not afraid of how much harder things are going to be when the baby arrives. And when Lynx joins her and he’s presents such an offputting display, Bonnie is smart enough to delve deeper into his mystery. She doesn’t take Lynx at face value and a weaker would have given up a long time ago. Bonnie is definitely not weak.

Outcast gets a 4.25 out of 5 from me. The best in the series yet!

This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here.

Other books in the series: