Blue Nebula [Kindle Edition]

Not the sequel I was expecting, but I enjoyed Blue Nebula on its own terms. Given Sola's deadly capabilities and her hatred of her emperor father, I geared up for an action-packed ride. What I got was an intriguing space opera novella more concerned with who she was, what she was, and where she came from; it featured the most dysfunctional royal family EVER. It also served up several solid twists that complicated Sola's revenge on the old tyrant. Javan wasn't given as much to do this time, but he remained her lifeline to happiness...and sanity.

All in all, a well done story that stayed true to its pulp SF roots, and earned bonus points for going to some pretty dark places.

Awaiting Book Three.

If you like science fiction romance AT ALL, get Blue Galaxy now. I'll wait for you to catch up to me. It is just SO worth it. Don't believe me? Take a look at my review of the first book in Diane Dooley's Blue Universe for the first chapter of Javan and Sola's story.

(And it's impossible to review book two without spoiling book one at least a little. I want you to discover this world for yourself. Much more fun that way.)

At the end of Blue Galaxy, Javan and Sola have more of a "Happy-For-Now" than a "Happy-Ever-After". Not because they aren't crazy in love with each other, but because the entire universe really is out to get them.

Sola is determined that the only way she and Javan can have their happiness forever is if she goes home and gets rid of the enemy who is dogging their every step. There are only a few problems with her plan.

1) Their enemy is the all-powerful Dictator of Earth.
2) He's Sola's daddy.
3) Sola is pregnant.
4) Daddy dearest inserted some really messed-up bio-engineered programming into Sola that is messing up her pregnancy and her emotional balance.

And then there's the really big problem--her daddy the dictator planned all of this (except Sola's pregnancy) because he wanted Sola to take over from him. He's dying. He wants her to be the next dictator.

Sola only knows what she wants when she turns off all her enhancements. But without her enhancements, she's not sure she can survive everything that's being thrown at her. Especially after her programming makes her give Javan up. But it can't make her forget him.

No matter how many times she puts her memories of him into data storage. Love is stronger than programming. Love can conquer everything.

Escape Rating B+: Blue Nebula was every bit as good as Blue Galaxy. I loved finding out more about Sola and her world. In the first story, she's such an enigma. Here we find out what happened to her. But then, so does she!

There's also a lot of heartbreak. Not just for Sola and Javan, but also for Destin Grady, who loved Sola and lost her twice. I kind of hope there will be a sequel where he finally gets another chance at happiness with someone else. He's finally earned one.

I do still wish we knew a bit more about Daddy Dearest's motivations for totally warping all of his children. He was just plain way out there. I kind of get why he became dictator, but not the stuff he did to turn his children into monsters.

Blue Galaxy and Blue Nebula pack a LOT of story into surprisingly short novels. I still wish there were more.

Originally published at Reading Reality.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I did not read the first book in the series, but I was never lost. The story is very short, only about 100 pages but it did fill me in on what happened before so I never felt lost. Unfortunately the story was drab and the writing was terrible. The heroine is a cyborg and the writing was robotic. The story was so short, but loaded with twists, turns, and drama that never got a shot at being fleshed out. I didn't care whether the character's lived to died, and it didn't really seem like they did either, even the one's who were supposed to be on love. Considering there was only one cyborg it seemed odd that all of the character's seemed to doing the sociopathic imitation of emotions.