My Review
Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet
Endeavor #1
Science Fiction Romance
Tessa Bailey leads a motley crew of escaped criminals as they Robin Hood their way around the galaxy. While on a stopover to repair their ship, Tess meets Shade Ganavan and is now confronted with falling for someone while keeping her true identity a secret. I have very mixed feelings about Nightchaser and I’m sad that I didn’t like this one more because on paper it had everything I love in a science fiction romance. Unfortunately, the action packed beginning soon faded into the day-to-day of Tessa and Shade and it wasn’t until the last quarter that the action picked up again. I found the whole middle portion too slow and I had to put this down and come back to it several times.
Part of my problem with Nightchaser is that there were so many similar elements to Amanda Bouchet’s other book A Promise of Fire. From the feisty heroine on the run to her tragic past at the hands of an evil parent, I couldn’t help but find connection after connection and this really affected my enjoyment of the book. There were also some events at the end that were miraculously solved by outside interference and this was something in Bouchet’s previous books that I never liked.
While I did like certain parts about Shade and Tess there were also some parts I struggled with. Tess was energetic and sweetly naive but she also has to be one of the worst criminals trying to hide ever. She knows the Dark Watch is after her for stealing their vaccine lab and yet she continually goes out in public, including a date to the beach. However, I did like her honor and her dedication to helping others who can’t help themselves. Shade was also an interesting hero but it was very odd that his point of view was written in third person while Tess’s was written in first person. I also felt like some of Shade’s decisions didn’t make sense considering the short amount of time he’s known Tess (vague I know, but I don’t want to give anything away).
Overall, I found myself working to finish Nightchaser and that’s never an ideal feeling to have while reading. There were several events that I didn’t see coming and I appreciate those surprises but as a whole this just didn’t work for me.
ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review
2 out of 5 stars
Reader Safety
Heroine was experimented on as a child and against her will (referenced, off page)
Book Details
Captain Tess Bailey and her crew of Robin Hood-like thieves are desperate and on the run. Pursued by a vicious military general who wants them dead or alive, Tess has to decide if she can trust Shade Ganavan, a tall, dark and arrogant stranger with ambiguous motivations.
Shade Ganavan had oodles of arrogance, oodles of charm, and oodles of something that made me want to kick him in the nuts.
What Tess and Shade don’t know about each other might get them killed…unless they can set aside their differences and learn to trust each other—while ignoring their off-the-charts chemistry.
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on January 1, 2019
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