Customer Reviews

Rogue: The Cat Star Chronicles #3

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Kyra is a piano teacher from Earth looking for a little adventure when she accepts a job teaching on the distant planet of Darconia. Hot, dry and not particularly beautiful Darconia is home to a dinosaur-esque race ruled by Queen Scalia. As far as rulers go, Scalia is quite progressive, welcoming outsiders from other worlds in the interest of enjoying diversity, technology and in the case of Kyra, entertainments. Among her many interests in off-worlders, Scalia has collected 'slaves' from other planets. Most prized among these are a pair of feline featured males the likes of which Kyra has never seen. One smile from the one called Tychar and she's ready to set him free.

Tychar and his brother Trag have been slaves on Darconia for the past twenty years. During this time the sexual prowess for which their race's males are notorious has gone to waste. Unable to become aroused by the Darconians they have lived a quiet, if lonely, existence hidden within Scalia's palace. Then Kyra arrives and the twenty-year famine ends for Tychar when Scalia makes him her personal servant. Her scent, her desire, awakens his dormant nethers. Whether Scalia intended this all along in hopes of breeding more of her beautiful Zetithians or whether this is a happy coincidence Kyra can only guess. But there are two brothers to be bred and Trag certainly isn't happy to be left out. Can Kyra convince Scalia to free Tychar? What is she to do about Trag? And what's with the octopus-fingered guy?

Blending once more the humor, eroticism and adventure she is quickly becoming known for, Cheryl Brooks hits it out of the ballpark again! I will admit, I was a little concerned about where this story could go with two Zetithian slaves and one quiet piano teacher from earth. But Brooks knows just how to take such a storyline to a point for the sake of the erotic side of the story while not killing the romance between two characters. Kyra and Tychar has great chemistry, though I still think Captain Jack is my favorite heroine of the series thus far.

In the previous stories secondary characters didn't play as large of roles as I tend to like but Rogue required a lot of them. The Darconians were really interesting and amusing, I grew particularly fond of Wazak the palace's Chief of Security. From Scalia's children learning the piano to Kyra becoming more open to the cultural norms of their world her interactions with the Darconians were always entertaining. There were also the other slaves Scalia kept, the toad-like Refdeck and the octopus-fingered Sladnil were great additions to the storyline. If this weren't a romance series I'd have loved to see their worlds. I love that Brooks isn't afraid to get adventurous with her alien races both in their physical descriptions but in discussing their sexuality.

Of course, no review in this series would be complete without mentioning the sex. Maybe this one is just fresher in my mind but there seemed to be a LOT more of that going on. It would be my one small complaint about the story... there was almost too much of it for my personal tastes. What I enjoyed very much though was the dirty talk. You don't see it enough. Tastefully nasty pillow talk done to perfection! Not many authors I have read can pull it off. I can't stand when characters are telling one another what to do in bed as if they are putting together a bicycle. Thankfully if you enjoy characters expressing their passion and sensual desires in a way that feels natural and real this book has it.

Overall this was a really enteraining book and added nicely to the series. The humor, the adventure and the sensuality made this one a definite recommended read.

Kyra Aramis has answered an ad for a piano teacher. She is excited as this will be her first time traveling to another planet other than Earth. Kyra will be going to the planet of Darconia. All Kyra knows about this planet is that it is dry like a desert and the people living there are reptilian.

Once Kyra arrives and gets her first good look at Darconia she is shocked. The people there are clothed in barely anything at all. Before Kyra can get herself composed, she is whisked away to the dining hall where she meets Queen Scalia and her daughter Princess Zealon, whom Kyra will be teaching piano to. As if there couldn't be any more surprises Kyra thinks, Queen Scalia shows Kyra her prized collection of exotic cats. Their names are Trag and Tychar. They are brothers and 100% male in every part of the way.

The queen presents Kyra with Tychar to keep her company during her stay on Darconia. Instantly Kyra becomes aroused by Tychar and the feelings are mutual. But how will Kyra feel when Trag comes into the picture. Can anyone say three-some?

Rogue is book three in the Cat Star Chronicles series by Cheryl Brooks. This series is about a bunch of hot, sexy males who have cat like features. They have been separated and each book is about a different guy or guy's story. The best part about this series is that you can read the books in any order. Of course having the male leads as out of this world hunks, who know how to pleasure a woman is not a bad thing either. I instantly fell in love with Cheryl when I read Warrior the second book in this series. I am so surprised that I have not heard more about this author. She is a talented author, who deserves to be praised. I know that from now on I plan to read every single book that Cheryl Brooks writes and I plan to tell all my friends about her.

Have you ever read a book that just made you feel good? One that didn't make you think too hard, didn't insult your intelligence, and didn't attempt to do anything other than entertain you? That's what the Cat Star books are like for me. They're like a night out with the girls--good fun (mostly at the expense of the men in our lives), raunchy jokes, frank discussion about sex and relationships, and lots of silliness.

Rogue is a book about Kyra, an Earthling pianist that decides to seek some adventure in her life by applying for a piano instructor job on a desert planet inhabited by giant lizards. When she gets there, the Queen (her boss) introduces Kyra to her slaves, a pair of sexy cat-like warriors named Trag and Tychar. Though Kyra finds them both attractive, she is most taken with the seductive one named Tychar. Kyra and Tychar develop a sexual relationship and fall in love along the way. When the Queen is attacked and the government is overthrown, Kyra and Tychar band with the other slaves and the citizens of the planet to battle the bad guys and bring peace back to the land.

There are two blurbs floating around the web for this book. One implies that Rogue is a menage story, which is completely inaccurate. Tychar, Kyra, and Trag are involved in one brief threesome scene that actually works fairly well within the story, but this is not a menage.

I had a few small problems with the story, but nothing serious enough to subtract major grade points: Tychar was a tiny bit flat and Trag seemed somewhat out of place in the second half of the book (sequel bait?). I would've also liked to see a bit more relationship development between Kyra and Tychar.

It's very clear that Ms. Brooks truly has fun with her writing. I get the impression that she dearly loves her characters and that she enjoys the worlds she creates. Sometimes I imagine I can tell the difference between writing for fun and writing for a living, and Cheryl Brooks' writing strikes me as the former.

As long as Cheryl Brooks continues to write these books, I will continue to read them. They are fun and relaxing reads, and I look forward to each one of them. I enjoy this author's voice immensely and I can't wait to read Outcast (The Cat Star Chronicles, Book 4) in June.

STORY BRIEF:
Scaly lizard-type creatures live on the planet Darconia, under the rule of Queen Scalia. Kyra is a timid, young piano teacher from earth. She travels to Darconia to take a job teaching piano to the Queen's daughter Zealon. The Queen has a few slaves which she treats more like guests than slaves. Two of them are gorgeous men with sharp teeth and fangs called Tychar and Trag, Zetithians. Their greatest talents are giving sexual pleasure to women. Their body fluids have unique tastes and are unusually potent for pleasure. Other humanoid men could never compete against them for women, and many men wanted to kill off the entire species. Most of the Zetithians died when an asteroid destroyed their planet. The rest are scattered on other planets, in hiding from bounty hunters hired to kill them. Queen Scalia has kept Tychar and Trag hidden and protected for 20 years. She refers to them as her pet cats. When Kyra sees Tychar for the first time, she experiences sexual ecstasy without even being touched. The Queen encourages the relationship, and the two quickly fall in love and have a lot of sex.

Much of the story is Kyra meeting new creatures and learning about the planet and how things work. She teaches piano to a few students. Later the palace is attacked in a coup causing some conflict and changes.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The story is told in the first person, Kyra's point of view. Something was off about the author's voice for me. It reminded me of a student writing a paper about "what I did during the summer." It felt dry. I'm not sure what it needed. Depth? Suspense? More interesting character development - showing different characters' thoughts, motivations, fears, and weaknesses? I'm having trouble explaining what bothered me. The author had some interesting wit and commentary about life on this other planet, but I wasn't drawn in emotionally. It was easy to put down, and I wanted it to be over. The author had some new and creative ideas which I thought about periodically after reading the book. I just wish the voice (or something) was different.

DATA:
Story length: 343 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 8, most of them several pages long. One scene has two men and one woman. Setting: unspecified time in the future traveling to and on the planet Darconia. Copyright: 2009. Genre: paranormal sci-fi romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
This is the 3rd book in The Cat Star Chronicles series. Book 5 is scheduled to be published in 2010.

didn't anyone else find this book juvenile and a total waste of time and money?? I found Kyra really annoying! I was hoping for a similar book to dara joy's....very disappointed....

What's an Earth girl to do? Employed on a very distant planet, offered the services of a beautiful sex slave, Kyra Aramis has several interesting and difficult choices to make. Unlike "Warrior" where sex was almost the reason for the plot, in "Rogue" things seem more logically paced and the story seems slightly more important than the sex though there is plenty of that.

I wonder if Brooks has a particular fetish though because there is a lot of penis fixation in this book as well. Yes, the men in question are alien with very odd addictive sexual fluids, but given that the audience is human women today, I found this focus on women giving oral to men unusual to say the least. From a male author I might expect it but even then I suspect most wouldn't claim it gave women orgasms.

The Brooks trend to push the boundaries of traditional romance novel continues this time with more species interactions, multiple partners, and even related partners in the mix. I'm not always thrilled with the word and phrasing choices but I can say these pairings make sense given the culture they happen in.

Again we meet up with the characters from previous book though this meeting and the ending of the story felt a bit rushed, almost contrived. Since the sexual relationships felt more realistic, I gave it 4 stars compared to the 3 I gave "Warrior".

This is the third in the series, but I skipped the second. I did read the first (see Slave, book 1) and thought wow, this started off very good, but got a bit "too much", and the ending seemed rushed. So I bought Rogue thinking that it may have improved being a third effort by this author. Nope, I actually liked Slave better. Again, this book had lots of potential, but dropped the ball as the story unfolds. I never felt connected to the heroine, she seemed a bit flimsy and I never felt I understood her very well. I didn't mind the "porn" so much, I love a hot steamy love scene much as the next girl, but the alien terminology seemed a bit silly to me. I wish the story had a bit more depth, and the main characters a bit more personality. Worth a read if you like alien stories with heavy sex involved, but not what I would consider a "serious" story.

Queen Scalia of the remote planet Darconia hires Upper Sandusky, Ohio resident Kyra Aramis to teach her daughter Princess Zealon to play the piano. The Queen assigns slave Tycharian to cater to whatever the earthling needs while she stays on the arid reptile dominated world.

Ty informs his "mistress" that he comes from the destroyed planet Zetith, and Scalia saved him and his brother Trag when she bought them at a slave auction. He also tells her he can smell her "scent of desire". As they begin to fall in love, Trag becomes jealous while Ty turns possessive and Kara confused. However, there are bigger issues on the planet as some of the more traditionalist reptiles object to the Queen's efforts to assimilate their world into the greater galaxy starting with the piano teacher and subsequently a McDonald's.

The third Cat Star Chronicles science fiction romance (see WARRIOR and SLAVE; neither read by me) is a terrific character driven thriller as the piano teacher and the slave fall in love on a third world. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Trag introduces himself to his "scent of desire" and never slows down as plots against the Queen balance nicely with the romance. Fans will enjoy ROGUE and look forward to Trag's thriller as he wants what his brother got, his own "scent of desire" and some more daring readers would also like a certain assertive female reptile's tale told.

Harriet Klausner

This book has a really enjoyable narrative style as we follow the exploits of Kyra, a piano teacher from Earth who is on her way to a new teaching position on the planet Darconia. She doesn't know much about Darconia except that its natives are lizard-like but it seems like a great opportunity to explore another planet. Once she arrives she meets her employer, Queen Scalia, and her pupil, the Queen's daughter. She also meets some of the Queen's slaves and notices the Queen's tame Zetithian brothers, Tychar and Trag, two Cat men. Her instant attraction to Tychar appears to be reciprocated and he is assigned as her servant.

As Kyra settles into her new teaching role, as well as learning rather a lot in the bedroom from Tychar and also his brother, she doesn't notice the ominous signs of a potential revolt in the palace. When there is an assassination and she, the slaves and some others have to escape across the desert to the mountains, Kyra finds that her new sense of purpose and confidence is important in helping to win back the throne for the rightful ruler - and to win freedom for her lover.

This book was very similar in tone to the previous book in the series with the same rather over-enthusiastic focus on a certain part of the hero's anatomy. The actual plot was interesting, if a bit thin in places, and the world in which events are set was appealing. Kyra's personality is great with a mixture of innocence and naïveté as well as a keenness to experiment with her new lover. However I didn't find the love story at all convincing, with the instant attraction apparently heralding an eternal love. Also awkward was the fact that Kyra sleeps with both brothers and this didn't seem to fit in with the 'true love' side of the story but felt more like a scene written to shock and titillate rather than further the plot. The writing is earthy which can be OK but in this story felt a little too repetitive; I would have appreciated more of the actual plot and less description of sex, but overall this is a lighthearted and amusing read.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

Kyra Aramis is a simple piano teacher who has accepted a position teaching on the planet of Darconia. It's a civilization so different from Earth that Kyra is convinced at first that she might have made the biggest mistake of her life. After all it's a whole planet full of lizard people and she's not at all sure that she'll fit in, besides with it being a desert planet the lack of water is a huge concern.

Soon after arriving in the capital city of Arconcia, Kyra is introduced to Queen Scalia and daughter, and Kyra's new student, Princess Zealon. She also learns about Scalia's penchant for collecting various species to keep in her harem. She's shocked by the fact that Scalia keeps slaves in any fashion but when Scalia brings in her `cats' which turn out to be more humanoid than feline and the most beautiful creatures that Kyra has ever seen she could understand why the other woman added them to her collection. Scalia mentions that she would love to breed them as their planet was destroyed and any who survived are being exterminated.

The queen assigns Tychar to Kyra after witnessing their attraction to each other. He's told to see to her every need but Kyra isn't comfortable with the idea of him acting as her slave and certainly isn't satisfied with him being considered a slave. Besides she isn't at all interested in being part of Scalia's breeding program even if Tychar is the most exciting temptation she's ever encountered. She's there to teach music to the queen's daughter and that's exactly what she intends to do but as she comes to know Tychar and the other beings that inhabit the palace she begins to blend in more and adapt to their way of life. Resisting Tychar and his obvious desire for her becomes impossible but is that such a bad thing when they're so perfect together? The only downside is Tychar's brother Trag and his need for female companionship. Zetithian's are mammalian and cannot cross with reptilian egg layers, they also can only perform if they're excited by a female's scent. For Trag and Tychar it's been twenty years since they've experienced lovemaking - and Kyra is the one female in all of Darconia who smells unbelievably good to both males. Is there any hope for a happily ever after when all their futures seem so precarious?

Cheryl Brooks takes readers on an intergalactic venture that they won't soon forget. The blending of so many different species brings about some delightfully captivating scenes and highly memorable conversations that really incite the imagination. The characters are vivid and loveable - even the ones I wasn't too sure about in the beginning I found loveable by the time I finished reading. Ms. Brooks delivers plenty of sexual tension, suspense and pleasure in simply being alive in this awe-inspiring novel that is worthy of a special place on my keeper bookshelf.

The next book in this wonderful series OUTCAST is due to be released in June 2009 and I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time immersed in these sexy feline heroes. It's enough to make any woman purr in pleasure.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)