Okay, I’m no pro­fes­sion­al review­er, but I just fin­ished read­ing this nov­el, and it deserves a shout out.

Bastina’s Neck­lace is a sci-fi erot­ic romance with a pirate, a princess, an inter­ra­cial love affair, action, adven­ture, and… geez, what more could you ask for? Here’s a lit­tle syn­op­sis (Don’t wor­ry, no spoilers)

The Galac­tic League of Plan­ets cre­at­ed a ter­raformed world for the Basti­nans. They also pro­vid­ed the biggest and fastest space ves­sel ever built to trans­port them to their new home. Princess Anleen decid­ed that the space-ark could be put to bet­ter use. She defies the law and even her own father the King when she qui­et­ly steers the ark toward her home plan­et. She is deter­mined to prove once and for all that the leg­end known as plan­et Basti­na isn’t just a fairytale.

When Cap­tain Dirk Roberts seeks safe haven at the doomed plan­et Aznate, he’s only look­ing for a hot show­er, a drink or three at the last spac­er bar on the edge of known civ­i­liza­tion, and repairs for his ship. What he finds instead is Anleen, the gold­en-haired princess with a plan. She’s dead set on find­ing her lost peo­ple, and he can’t seem to keep away from her long enough to deny her any­thing, includ­ing his assis­tance. Now…if only he believed that her fairy­tale could come true, per­haps he could help her rewrite the ending.

Intrigu­ing? Yeah it is. Would you like to read my unof­fi­cial review?

Roscoe James is a world builder. After the third page, I was there on that plan­et, and I felt Anleen’s pain. Space trav­el isn’t glam­or­ized, in fact spend­ing six months in a lone­ly space freighter is some­thing that would take some get­ting used to. On this world, an Earth­ling and a Basti­nan are thrown togeth­er thanks to a good luck charm won in a pok­er game and a ten-thou­sand-year old-fairy tale. From the first time Anleen meets Dirk, you’ll be able to feel the chem­istry. Check out this lit­tle excerpt:

My Haark! Def­i­nite­ly male! Then she realized–he’s an earthling. 

Anleen leaned dan­ger­ous­ly around the edge of the door­way and was dumb­struck by the sight. Rip­pling mus­cles on his back, shoul­ders broad­er than any she’d ever seen. Thighs as thick as tun­nel sup­ports, more ropes of mus­cle pulling and bulging on each. She felt flushed.
Not black, she thought, a dark brown col­or. Yes, she’d seen it once, even tast­ed it.
Choco­late. Does he taste like chocolate?

It gets bet­ter from there. I mean, just look at the cov­er. I’d fall for Dirk too! Bastina’s Neck­lace is a beau­ti­ful love sto­ry set in the midst of an excit­ing sci­ence fic­tion sto­ry. Anleen isn’t a weak lit­tle pam­pered princess. She’s the kind of girl who can see what she wants…and goes for it. Dirk is a tough guy on the out­side, but oh boy does he have a ten­der side. Check out this lit­tle snip­pet in Dirk’s point of view:

When Lee final­ly qui­et­ed and her shoul­ders stopped quak­ing, Dirk raised her chin and kissed her soft­ly. Then he said the words he should have said weeks ago. Light years ago. Words that required much more courage than the com­ing bat­tle. Words that brought more strength than food and quenched a thirst that would not stop. “I love you, Lee.”

Yeah.

One word of warn­ing, Roscoe James doesn’t pull any punch­es. The sex is sexy, and the vio­lence is vio­lent. Not that either is gra­tu­itous; every­thing was where it needs to be, and fits the sto­ry well. Just put on your grown-up pants when you read it. I admit that I don’t pick sci-fi romance as a rule, but after read­ing Bastina’s Neck­lace, I might have myself a new genre. Bastina’s Neck­lace is part of a series, The Galac­tic League of Plan­ets, which includes Forever’s Not Enough. That’s next on my TBR pile.