The Black Rose (Love Spell futuristic romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lucien Charbonneau is a high-born noble with two faces: one is that of obedient son born of a father who has showed him nothing but contempt all his life, and the other is that of a revolutionary who has plotted and planned against his cold, autocratic father for years in an effort to throw over Dominion and force democratic changes into the existing noble and slave like system.

When Lucien's father commands him to come back to his home planet of New France, Lucien is very disconcerted to find out that he has been used against his will or knowledge to form a marriage alliance with the clan Fallon. Realizing how much his plans for galactic revolution lay in his counter-identity not being discovered, (trust me--Zimlich makes this work) Lucien bides his time and acts the complacent son so as not to raise suspicions about himself. A few days later, he finds himself on planet Lochlain preparing to marry a woman he had never before laid eyes upon...

Alexandra Fallon, niece to the ruler of the warrior Fallon clan, is less than thrilled to be forced to the altar. She is a warrior scholar with a destiny of her own choosing already mapped out. She had plans of her own...plans that didn't include being hitched to some high-born dandy like she was certain Lucien Charbonneau was going to turn out to be.

Alexandra's first and foremost desire was to prove to the skeptics that had dismissed her father's life work as the musings of a lunatic, that humans really had inhabited the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy thousands of years ago. Her destination was the fourth moon that laid outside of Dominion...the place where her father's writings assured her she would find the answers.

And so Alexandra escapes Lochlain after the marriage pact is signed and heads full fury toward the next galaxy. She hitches a ride with a smuggler en route, having no clue whatsoever that she's about to have the time of her life. Or that the smuggler in question is her husband...

The Black Rose is a revolutionary, with secrets of his own, but who feels that everyone should have the choice of self-determination in government and less xenophobic tendencies. One of the biggest problems I have found with science fiction stories (especially of the shorter variety) is that the descriptions of the societies and people and customs get lost or not explained. The Black Rose, did a great job of making me feel like I was really out there, living in this corrupt society.

Lucien and his many disguises are fun to watch, never quite knowing what to expect. Seeing a heroine who is not directly related to the main focus of the story was a nice change of pace. Alexandra has her own agenda, but it is not the overthrowing of the repressive government (though there are undertones of her rebelliousness that would indicate she would not be adverse to some of the revolutionary's ideas). There is enough action, suspense, romance, fantasy (sci fi) to please most any reader. The writing style is a bit "simplistic" (for the lack of a better word), which made this a very fast read for me. I would have preferred a little more in the overall story, but in general, the secondary characters are interesting and keep the plot moving. I sincerely hope there will be more books coming from Ms. Zimlich about this society in the future.