Customer Reviews

Unmasked (Futuristic Romance)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Masters Shipping is the wealthiest shipping company in the galaxy. The main headquarters is on the planet called Dun Gali. Torie Masters is the youngest member of the family and the only daughter. She has grown up with more than half a dozen older brothers.

As the story opens, Torrie is on her maiden voyage as captain of the ship Ventura2. The crew is evacuating. Core melt down is due shortly. Torrie stays behind, sure she can save the ship. She is wrong. However, the ship was never in danger. Pirates board.

Qaade Deter lets Torie live. He is known as the Ghost Rider of the Dead Zone. All he steals from Torrie's ship are some special medical supplies. InterGlax, the law enforcement, may call him and his crew pirates, but to the slaves he rescues he is called a savior. If Torrie had not found a way to track her stolen shipment, she and Qaade would probably have never met again. But, of course, she did.

Qaade and Torrie must come to an understanding and learn to trust each other ... and FAST!

Qaade has a traitor somewhere in his crew. Someone Qaade trusts has given all information on the "Slipstream" operation (the name for his operation of freeing slaves) to a dangerous man named Chauvet. Chauvet knows every single thing about the operation and even has detailed maps on each ship, port of calls, and people. Chauvet has created a cold game in the name of vengeance.

***** Both genders will enjoy this sci-fi flick. It is like watching Han Solo and Princess Leia go head-to-head. Both stubborn, both used to leadership, and both filled with honor. I read the entire book in a single sitting, unable to stop. To be honest, I did not even try to resist. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. And what a ride this one is! There are a few hot scenes, but not like a "romance" book where it begins toward the beginning and steams all the way through the book. No, most of the time is spent on the plot. Again, think Han and Leia. The attraction and passion is between them, but the Rebellion is first and foremost.

Author C.J. Barry has a best seller here. No doubt! I can't wait to see what Barry releases next. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Torrie Masters is the only sister in the Masters Shipping family. She has 6 brothers including Zain from UNLEASHED. She has finally convinced her family to let her captain one of their cargo ships. She is a determined gutsy lady who doesn't take kindly to having her cargo stolen. When pirates capture her ship through trickery she decides to go and get it back. Following a secret tracking device she had implanted, she falls into the hands of Quade Deter, the leader of the pirates.

Quade was a slave who was rescued by pirates. He has dedicated his life to setting up a pipeline to rescue and rehabilitate slaves. It seems the Patrol is not doing anything about the kidnapping and selling of slaves. For the last 15 yrs he has worked to save and reunite families, always hoping to find his lost sister and mother. Known only as Laghato, a word meaning freedom, he is worshiped by slaves and hated by slave traders.

At first Torrie only has contempt for this man who hides behind a mask in order to steal from others. But after seeing the horror and misery of slavery first hand, against her will, she begins to understand and care for this strong willed man. When the safe communities and ships come under attack by a vicious slaver she finds herself caught up in his schemes. And when it looks like only Quade's life will stop the killing and protect the freed slaves, She is determined to save him.

Very well written and plotted, I enjoyed this one very much. Fast paced with a wonderful cast of characters.

Don't miss her other books UNEARTHED, UNLEASHED, and UNRAVELED.

She knows she earned this first run as a freight captain when she helped rescue her brother Zain from slavery (see UNLEASHED), but Torrie Masters is nervous yet confident. However, when the computer reports the engine is melting down, Torrie sends her crew away hoping to save the day and not go down with the ship. Instead of dying, the meltdown proves false, but the Dead Zone Ghost Rider pirates led by Qaade Deter capture her ship.

Surprisingly, Qaade sets Torrie free returning her vessel to her, but keeping her cargo. Later when he learns that slavers have kidnapped her, he comes to rescue her, but at the cost of his precious hijacked cargo. Once he frees her Qaade demands she help him recover the cargo he stole from her because his piracy assists the Slipstream rescue people from slavery although he wonders who will save his heart enslaved to the feisty captain.

The fourth "Un...ed" science fiction romance is a terrific outer space action thriller that stands alone even with a Masters as a protagonist as in previous tales. The story line feels somewhat like swashbucklers in outer space, but with the test that the pirates, believing slavery is an abomination, free the slaves at every opportunity. C.J. Barry provides a fast-paced action-packed thriller starring two wonderful characters that make believers of the audience that piracy in space exist. Fans of speculative fictions will appreciate Ms. Barry's latest stellar story and seek the previous three "Un" novels that are well worth reading

Harriet Klausner

C.J. Barry blasted on the scene with Unearthed. In the short time she has been published, her talent has catapulted her to the top. She is a beautiful writer, that excels on so many levels. Her Sci-Fi romances play on par with Indiana Jones in space. She gives you cultures that are rich in lore and history, full of perils and monsters, and with strong female heroines who can stand toe-to-toe with their men and fight without flinching. Sprinkled amongst these heart stopping, edge-of-seat adventures is a delicious humor that really sets her above the pack. Unchained, her first book has been re-released, joining her Unearthed, Unleashed, Unraveled and now her newest, and likely strongest tale, Unmasked.

Quade's name was whispered through out the quadrant, they called him Laghato - the liberator. For the past decade Quade has lived the life of a space pirate, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. A true Robin Hood, he is working in a desperate race to fight slavery. He uses the money he gets from his robbing to pay for medication used to reclaim the memories of the slave zombies - people stolen against their will, their brain's fried so they obey their masters. Underneath this valiant crusade is a fight to find his mother and sister who were taken years ago. He will not give up until he finds them. When he seizes the ship of Torrie Masters, the youngest child of the rich Masters shipping family, he gets more than he bargained for.

Torrie Masters is a beautiful redhead with a spirit to match. The instant she looks into Quade's masked face, she knows she will not let him best her. But he does - temporarily - seizing her shipment. Torrie gives her word she won't send the galactic police on his trail in return for him not killing her. Only she didn't promise not to track him down herself. She does, and with her tiny light-beam computer NOD, she traces him to a warehouse. However, she is caught by the black-marketers, and they plan on sending her to the slave auctions. Quade uses her shipment of illegal meds to buy her from them. Torrie is not happy, for she doesn't really comprehend the danger that Quade saved her from. Quade insists he has to go back to steal the meds, since they are needed to save the slaves he sends through Slipstream. He insists Torrie go with him, since she, and only she, can track the shipment through Nod.

She and Quade do just that. Only as they are racing toward the ship, under fire, Quade is stopped by a sad woman calling Laghato. She gives him her two tiny daughters to save. Torrie is almost ready to leave Quade behind, believing him a pirate and a slaver. Only the look in his eyes as he holds the two children stops her from leaving him.

Soon Torrie learns there is a lot more to the mysterious pirate, learns how her family is involved with the problem of illegal shipments connected to the slavery. Thus she begins a taught fight on the side of people who cannot defend themselves, at the side of the dangerous man she is falling in love with.

I love each of Barry's books, all earning a spot on my Keeper Shelf. But this one, pulls at the heart as the others have not. It's a stronger, blacker tale that keeps you spellbound from start to finish and aching when you put it down. I have seen one or two reader comment her tales are fun, but they are not powerful enough to push her to the top of the very talented pack of Sci-Fi Romance readers. Stand back - Barry makes you eat those words!

Applause for this gutsy tale that steals your heart. And that is not an UNderstatement!!

I love how C. J. Barry's books continue to be great no matter how good she gets. No churning out books at the speed of light for this author, no sir! The amount of waiting time between her books is enough to make a person scream, but that only makes the reading of them all the sweeter for the effort she puts into them. Her latest, "Unmasked", is the best of her books to date. She's turned a new page with this installment in her "Un" series, taking the usual fluff and morphing it into a true sci-fi tale that is sure to please any readers of the genre.

Qaade Deter is the famous Ghost Rider, a space pirate that is the bane of many peoples existance. But through his efforts, millions of lives have also been saved. He won't rest until he's saved millions more from a terrible drug that wipes people's minds, making it easier to subjugate and enslave them. Torrie Masters is the only girl in an overprotective family with a huge shipping operation. On her maiden voyage as captain, which took moving a mountain to accomplish (with all those overprotective family memebers), she has the rotten luck to run into the notorious Ghost Rider. He only wants to confiscate part of her cargo, a drug that is his operation's only hope of reversing the effects of the drugs that help to enslave his people.The situation quickly escalates out of control though and Qaade is forces to take Torrie hostage in order to escape.

Both despise one another instantly (and are attracted too)- Torrie thinking that Qaade is just a dirty pirate who is responsible for a lot of the lost profits and damages her families company has sustained over the years; Qaade thinks Torrie is nothing but a spoiled little rich girl that has the resources to help the victims of the slave trade, but chooses instead to turn a blind eye. To say Qaade is a man on a mission would be an understatement. He has his own personal reasons for the life he has chosen. Torrie is exposed to the underworld of space, quickly realizing that there is a need for the kind of help Qaade gives. She is torn between loyalty to her family and business and the cause that Qaade is leading. No whilting willow, Torrie can more than take care of herself. She turns out in the end to be an admirable heroine for Qaade while he in turn is truly noble for all he is trying to accomplish. He does get hung up on the revenge a bit, but other than that, he and Torrie made a fiery pair that complimented each other nicely. The sensual side was slightly underdone in comparison to her previous titles, but still satisfactory when we did get a glimpse of it. The focus here was more on the plot, which was great for a change.

Unmasked is a futuristic Robin Hood-like read filled with vivid characters that struggle with the horrors of slavery and oppression and the means to go about abolishing it. Qaade and Torrie both have very different ideas of how to go about doing this too, making for an exciting book the whole way through. Another wonderful tale from C. J. Barry, and here's to many more!

CJ Barry is a master at world-building. No one does it better. In UNMASKED, she brings Torie Masters into Qaade Deter's life, and together they bust a child slavery ring. Emotional, fast-paced, poignant, Barry writes a wonderful story. I've read every one of her 'UN' series...UNMASKED is my favorite.

Torrie Masters has fought long and hard to get a chance to run her own ship for Masters Shipping, but her maiden voyage goes sour when her shipment is stolen by pirates. What the thieves do not know is that Torrie is eager to prove herself able to the task and has slipped a tracking device into the shipment. She follows the pirates in an attempt to get the stolen property back, but is captured by ruthless criminals instead.

Qaade is not the average pirate. He has stolen Torrie's cargo of Phellium for its ability to undo the devestating effects of mind swipe drugs on slaves. Qaade is actually a slave freeing Robin Hood. When Torrie is captured during his negotiations with a ruthless crime lord, he gives up his precious Phellium to save the attractive woman from life as a slave. But now he needs Torrie's help to get the Phellium back...

CJ Barry is my favorite romance writer. Each of her books are filled with action, humor and zesty romance. The fourth book in the Un series is no exception, albeit this entry is a tad darker in tone than the previous books were, due to the story's subject matter, human slavery. Highly recommended.

This is Barry's break out book. I have enjoyed all her UN-books, Unchained, Unearthed, Unraveled and Unleashed. Each book is totally stand alone and a super reads.

Barry is pure brilliance with one. SHe pulls out all stops giving you first class space adventure, with one sexy hero, and oh, the children. A beautiful book that haunts my heart long after I put it down.

If this isn't a RITA nominee next year I will eat my hat.

Barry sounds the bugler she is the Queen of outer-space romance!
And I cannot wait for the next Un-adventure.

I have been waiting so long to see this in an eBook format! I absolutely love this book. Torrie and Quaade are some of my all time favorite characters.

The overall rating for the series is 4 butterflies. I had a great time reading these books, I had fun, I got a healthy dose of smutty galore, and I was very, very glad I got a chance to read them.
If I were to say what genre they'd go in, since people are always big on tags and stuff like that, I'd think these are romance with a sci-fi-ish twist, and not the other way around. There is a lot going on in each book, and there's a whole universe weaved for them, but I feel the main element is the romance. So I'd disagree with some reviews I read up on Goodreads, that slightly bash them for not being solidly sci-fi. I don't think they were meant to be; and I don't think I would have liked them more if they would have been, honestly. Buuut then again I'm not a sci-fi buff, I just like the occasional sci-fi because the book was very well written and the writer is very talented, not because of that genre. Anyways...

Unmasked (UN-Forgettable #4):
Aaaand my least favorite one - this one was a 3 butterflies. As I've mentioned before, a part of it may very well be the fact that I'd sort of started to detach from the series, knowing full well this one was the last book. And because they're `related', one character being introduced by the previous book, but they can very well stand on their own, separately, without any issue really, there wasn't a bunch of tension carrying over from the previous twists and turns in the series. Plus it came after a book I had a lot of fun reading, so without my intending to, it surely got compared and lost some points that way.

I attribute my slightly less enthusiastic reaction to this read to Torrie, really. I mean, Qaade didn't exactly outshine the other male characters of the series, in my opinion, but Torrie was decidedly less fun then she seemed to be when she was introduced in book #3. I mean, I thought she'd be more fun, and for some reason, she wasn't quite as much as I thought.

Of course, another factor is all the slaves thing, and the tone of the book in general is more sober, the characters deal with some disturbing issues. I dunno. But I still enjoyed reading it, and if we're talking series, I say read all the books.
There are some patterns, like the uber-hot-stud male character, and the perky female character, and the outrageous attraction between them, you know, the smutty ingredients for an awesome read.