Thursday, March 20, 2008

Slave by Cheryl L. Brooks


Slave
The Cat Star Chronicles, Book One
Cheryl L. Brooks
Sourcebooks – Casablanca
April 1, 2008
ISBN# 978-1-4022-1192-8

For the past six years Jacinth has traveled from planet to plant searching for her kidnapped sister, Ranata. Believing that she’s been taken to Statzeel, a planet where all women are slaves, Jacinth poses as a man to purchase a slave of her own to act as her master. This will allow her the freedom to search for her sister without being taken as a slave herself.

Cat was taken as a slave at a young age, and has been in servitude all of his adult years. Back on the slave market he’s bought and freed by Jacinth, but he’s unwilling to leave the woman who showed him such kindness. Born on a planet that no longer exists, and possibly the last of his race, Cat has no home to return to as a free man.

Tracking down Ranata will be a dangerous journey for Jacinth and Cat. What they’ll find along the way will threaten their future and tie them together in ways they never dared hope for.

Slave is the first story in The Cat Star Chronicles. After spending years searching for her sister alone, Jacinth finds the help and companionship she needs in Cat. Theirs is a relationship built on trust and survival that will quickly grow to more. Ms. Brooks creates a detailed sci-fi world and sends her characters on a journey to alien planets in their search. This is an erotic romance with a creative plot, and while I usually enjoy a first person narrative it was difficult to get through in this story. The protagonist’s internal dialog is peppered with exclamations that seemed unnecessary, and in the end I was unable to establish a connection with her. The character that did capture my attention was Cat. He’s intriguing, sweet and sexy. The next installment in the Cat Star Chronicles, Warrior, is currently due to release in October 2008.

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews

4 comments:

scooper said...

I have a pet peeve with books about slavery. I just don't like to read about it, even if both of the characters wanted to be kinky slaves it just bothers me on a personal level.

I'm glad you found something good in the book. It's funny how a book can do nothing for us, but one character can make us not hate the book.

Kimberly Swan said...

I definitely have my little list of things I try to avoid in books as well. :)

I did, and it could just be me that had a hard time getting through Slave. 'Cat' was a rather unique character though, and easily my favorite in the story.

Wendy said...

This book sounds good, although I don't like that it's an erotic romance, I'm guessing it's based mostly on romance than sci-fi?

Kimberly Swan said...

Wendy - It's both sci-fi with space travel to alien planets and erotic romance. :)