Kicking Ashe (Project Enterprise) [Kindle Edition]

Pauline Baird Jones (Author)

Book Description

With hearts and lives on the line, a kiss may be all they have time for...
Time has dumped Ashe on a dying planet and she needs to figure out why before she ceases to exist. Or gets vivisected by some Keltinarian scientists. Or worse.
Vidor Shan might help—since someone somewhere is trying to hose him, too—if she can convince him to trust her. Probably shouldn’t have told him that only someone he trusts can betray him. Also wouldn’t mind if he kissed her on the mouth.
Vid would love to kiss the girl, but his brother is lost, he’s got hostile aliens on his tail, and the stench of betrayal all around him. Can he trust the woman who told him to trust no one?
Then a time quake hurls them to a nasty somewhere and some when...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jones concludes her Project Universe series with this fun, fast-paced tale. Ashe is a tough, no-frills heroine with plenty of spunk and a lovable companion, her nanite Lurch, who steals the show with his snark. Filled with plenty of humor and sexual tension, this quick read is ideal for lovers of sci fi romance." RT Book Reviews

From the Author

Kicking Ashe is the concluding installment in my Project Enterprise series of connected books and stories. The adventure begins with The Key. Then comes: Girl Gone Nova, Tangled in Time, Steamrolled and finally Kicking Ashe. Each book is written to stand alone, but the fun gets ramped up when you read them all. 

There are also two connected short stories that were originally released A Death in Texas (Men in Jeans) and Dreamspell Steampunk anthology, vol 1 (Steam Time). Now both short stories have been collected in The Project Enterprise Short Stories digital only release (soon to release in audio).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 369 KB
• Print Length: 214 pages
• Publisher: L&L Dreamspell (February 19, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007BGZL8C
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,400 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, funny, romantic sci-fi adventure! February 21, 2012

By A. Conoan-Baird

Format:Kindle Edition

Disclosure statement: I got to read along as this story was being written. What a ride!! Woot!!

So, if you've read any of the other stories in Pauline's "Project Enterprise" series, you'll find "Kicking Ashe" lives up to your expectations of being a fun, funny, and romantic ride. It's the last of the series (I hate to see it end!), but KA will stand alone if you haven't read any of the others. This is Ashe's story (from Steamrolled). Shan (from Girl Gone Nova and Steamrolled) also gets his story told, or re-told, in this time line. Their two time lines cross in this setting, where Ashe has had her bell rung by a time tsunami, her tech goes off line, and she's lost. Shan is still trying to break out of his constricted roll of reluctant bad guy.

Ashe's character unfolds here, still a bit edgy, still way fun, and this time a bit vulnerable. Lurch is ever-present, and I love the dialog between him and Ashe. Tres fun! Pauline's quirky humor doesn't fail to make this adventure a fun read. You'll laugh, you may wring your hands for the characters, you'll definitely be creeped out with the time-gone-bad scene on Shan's tortured world.

Shan made for an interesting bad guy in Girl Gone Nova. In GGN, he was the hot bad guy, one I didn't want to hate, but... he was bad (LOL!), so I hated him (sort of...). Here he is a strong hero, one I really enjoyed, still testosterone-laden. <vbg> I gotta love a guy who's not afraid to be macho and tenderhearted.

I love sci-fi romance, and "Kicking Ashe" doesn't disappoint. There's high-tech, low-tech, and fantastic imagination all working together here. The romance is strong but, again, won't make you blush (thank you Pauline!). The adventure is intense, the bad guys really bad but believable, the romance sweet.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Fun Romp Through Time and Romance July 3, 2012

By Patrick A. Terpening

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Pauline Baird Jones is a recent discovery for me. I am a SciFi fan and only recently branched out into new authors. Her excellent writing and sense of humor has hooked me completely.
Kicking Ashe is possibly the end of an great series of time travel and romance. The purple skinned time agent must answer the questions of "what was changed in time"? The problem is "will the fix loose her the love she did not know was the best thing in her life"?
I completely enjoyed the light and comedic diversion. Fans of Ms Jones will definitely like this latest adventure. Anyone unfamiliar with her work will like it as well but would benefit by starting with "The Key".
The 4 out 5 should really be 4.5. I just felt that Ms Jones is a great writer and this entry felt rushed or compressed. Her other works rate 4 or 5 consistently with me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Read April 11, 2012

By LAS Reviewer

Format:Paperback

Ashe is a time traveler, an agent of the Time Service. To help her is Lurch, a nanite who lives in her head. Their actions start a time tsunami which dumps them on a planet in another time stream. Cut off from their support they must figure out what's wrong with this time, and why a man they know is also in the same time zone - but he believes he belongs there.

I enjoyed reading this book although I would have liked to see more romantic interaction between the two main characters a little earlier. Ashe is a quirky young woman who has a continuous dialogue going on inside her head; when Lurch is silent, she talks to herself. The man she knows from before is Shan, but he doesn't remember her - maybe because their meeting is still in his future. Ashe is instantly attracted to him which confuses her. In the other time she believes he has had a fling with "great, great - not so great" grandma who is also a previous host of Lurch.

Aggressive robots, a traitor in Shan's family, and Ashe's inability to access her full resources: all these things make for a fast moving book with mystery and adventure. I liked the mixture of science fiction and time travel, along with the adventure and underlying mystery of who was out to get Shan and what had happened to his brother.

Ms Jones has created strong characters who interact well with each other with the added internal conversation between Lurch and Ashe. For most of the book Shan is not aware of Lurch, but he does wonder why Ashe occasionally gets a faraway look in her eyes. The minor characters add richness to the story while unexpected mechanical beings make their presence felt.

Whether you prefer straight science fiction or like yours with a dash of romance, this is a very enjoyable read.

Originally posted at LAS Sci-Fi/Fantasy Reviews

More About the Author

Pauline Baird Jones had a tough time with reality from the get-go. After "schooling" from four (yes FOUR brothers) she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting. She figured she could handle both.

Romantic suspense was the logical starting point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the wormhole into the world of science fiction and Steampunk. Let's face it, she's been making up science her whole life. (Sorry science teacher!)

And while she loves mayhem, doing it legal, by doing fictional, is way better than getting strip searched or going to jail. So she goes "Godzilla" on her characters and then gives the good ones a happy ever after.

In her real life, Pauline loves her family, chocolate, bacon, Diet Dr. Pepper, TV, movies and taking it easy. And she loves taking the scenic route.

To find out more about her fictional mayhem, visit her website at www.paulinebjones.com