6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sexy but slow-paced..., November 13, 2010
This review is from: In Enemy Hands (Kindle Edition)
Dr. Moon Thadin might be damned good at stellar mechanics but she didn't see her research assistant's traitorous plot coming. Blindsided and believed to be a traitor to the Republic herself she has only just been allowed to return to her research after three years. Desperate to prove her innocence and that she can reignite dead stars she dives into her work aboard the Differential. But her new partner ignites fires of his own.
Srin Flerovs has the mind of a computer and is of such value to the Republic that his handler has spent the past twenty years wiping his memory every two days. But there are some things that even his handler can't completely explain away such as his aging face and the sense of trust and desire he feels for Moon. When her experiment fails and the two face possible death they are left with no choice but to risk it all. Better to run together than die alone.
Finding really good scifi romance is something I look forward to. I'm a total Star Wars and Firefly geek who lives for a nice space adventure or alien race to dabble in. So glad I found K.S. Augustin because her writing is top notch amongst a not-always-reliable-for-quality epub world. In Enemy Hands certainly lacks the humorous moments the aforementioned fave scifi worlds of mine have giving it a harder, colder edge than most of the science fiction romance I've previously read. Augustin's Republic seems anti-alien, highly manipulative and political. The militaristic heavy-handedness present in the world building will appeal to hard scifi fans.
Moon is a heroine I immediately liked. She's extremely intelligent and while she's very driven she's not completely willing to take advantage of Srin to get results even when she's told that's what he's there for. I also liked that what few mentions of her physical stats were did not give a hard impression of any specific ethnicity. Srin, on the other hand, is mentioned as being very physically fit though based on his years of memory wiping history he has to be somewhere in his 40s. There's something about his personality that was really endearing, probably the fact that he puts up with half the crap he does is part of it. There is an intense and yummy chemistry between Srin and Moon that I had a hard time tearing myself away from. I wasn't sure I would like it at first but their personalities were refreshing individually and together.
The science is a bit confusing but Augustin does a decent job of making it non-essential for the reader to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. While the plot does center around their work on Moon's experiment the actual story is how their romance can develop when he forgets her every two days.
The one thing the story really lacks that I tend to like is some likable secondary characters. While there are a few they are either villainous or a little too faceless for me to have given a damn what happened to them when they left the room.
Overall I did enjoy In Enemy Hands but I feel that it might not please a scifi romance reader looking for action and adventure. There's a lot of talk and a decent amount of sex and plenty of complaining (though not angsty really) and only in the final few chapters does anything really happen. It fits the setting but does make it feel slow at times. If you love a good amnesia plot this is a nice twist on the theme. I will definitely look into reading more of Augustin's scifi romances in the future.
(Notes: I received this as an ebook review copy through NetGalley.)
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable SFR, June 9, 2010
This review is from: In Enemy Hands (Kindle Edition)
I enjoyed this SFR from a new-to-me author. Every two days, Moon and Srin are "reintroduced" because his memory is wiped, yet he remembers bits and pieces of HER. He can't forget her no matter what the Republic does to him. Now that's romance!
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