SFRB Recommends 36: The Key by Pauline Baird Jones #sfrom #scifi #romance

When Sara Donovan joins Project Enterprise she finds out that what doesn't kill her makes her stronger. An Air Force pilot - the best of the best to be assigned to this mission - Sara isn't afraid to travel far beyond the Milky Way on an assignment that takes her into a galaxy torn apart by a long and bitter warfare between the Dusan and the Gadi. After she's shot down and manages to land safely on an inhospitable planet, Sara encounters Kiernan Fyn - a seriously hot alien with a few secrets of his own - he's a member of a resistance group called the Ojemba, lead by the mysterious and ruthless Kalian. Together they must avoid capture, but can they avoid their growing attraction to each other? A mysterious, hidden city on the planet brings Sara closer to the answers she seeks - about her baffling abilities and her mother's past. She has no idea she's being pulled into the same danger her mother fled - the key to a secret left behind by a lost civilization, the Garradians. The Dusan and the Gadi want the key. So do the Ojemba. They think Sara has it. They are willing to do anything to get it. Sara will have to do anything to stop them

I read this while reading through the Nebula Nights collection. Having read an extract, I wished to read the whole book. I was not disappointed.

Pauline has a sense of humour I love, which comes through clearly in this story. Given some of the tough situations the main characters, and particularly Sara, find themselves in, the humour did much to lighten up what could have been a rather dismal read.

The romance is good, and I loved the SF side of the story too. It all worked together, and the worldbuilding (or civilisation deconstruction?) is fascinating. A tale with a relatively simple premise, but some feisty characters that flesh it out. Not to mention the creepy creeps (villains).

A good read, or as I've classified it in my head, space romp.

Author site: Perilous Pauline