The Last Sky

Atrophy, Book 1

De: Jess Anastasi

Narrado por: Raquel Beattie

Twelve years on the prison planet Erebus makes a man long for death. The worst part for Tannin Everette is that he was framed for murder. He's innocent. When the ship Imojenna lands for emergency repairs, Tannin risks everything to escape . . . only to find himself face to face with the captain's undeniably gorgeous sister.

Zahli Sherron isn't planning on turning Tannin in. In fact, she actually believes him. Sure, he's sexy as every kind of sin, but he's no criminal—so she hides him. But no one escapes from Erebus and lives to tell about it. With every day that passes, Zahli further risks the lives of the entire crew . . . even as she falls in love with a man she can never have for herself.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 Jess Anastasi (P)2022 Tantor

Fantastic Romantic Space Opera!

A great beginning to a wonderful series. An action filled space opera with plenty of romance and intrigue. The book was overflowing with wonderful characters, like a prickly captain, his fierce sister, a falsely accused man on the run and the rest of the colorful crew. A great plot that kept me listening all day. Mystery, action, adventure, romance, human connection, inner demons... this book had it all. The narrator was also very good, she did a stellar job with all the different voices.

More Romance with some story then a Story with Romance if that makes any sense.

I still enjoy the story and the crew. the romance between the main characters became annoying at times. I knew coming in that there was going to be some romance in the story but I wasn't expecting it to be the main focus of the narrative.

Firefly-lite space opera, bubblegum romance

With each book focused on a different couple, this is definitely romance first and space opera second. But, the Firefly-lite space opera, complete with broody veteran with PTSD and a mixed gender crew, is a close second for anyone wanting a fun space adventure with a few naughty bits thrown in (starting at nine hours in).

I think this is better than the teen-level Fallen Kingdom series by Lyndsay Buroker and as fun as the Starlight’s Shadow series by Jesse Mihalik. The series arc about a shape-changing alien infiltration is unique-ish, outside of Marvel. I like the supporting characters enough that I’ve wishlisted the rest of the series to follow their HEAs and see where the alien invasion thing goes.

On the downside, the book tends to run long and repetitive with his inner thoughts about how lucky he is to have escaped and found Zahli, her thoughts on how hunky Tannin is, and big brother Rian’s tortured inner monologue. The damsel in distress thing is combined with the leering men plot device too often. There’s an oddly high use of the Irish word for crap, especially given exchanging Frecken for F bombs. And, I get the feeling that the bad guys will always be redshirt scapegoats rather than worthy adversaries with scene chewing dialogue and personalities you love to hate.

Altogether, however, this gave good popcorn sci-fi and bubblegum romance.
If this is a new author, then I expect the series will improve as it goes on.