One Giant Leap by Kay Simone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very nice, slow-burn romance about an astronaut and his CAPCOM. I picked up the book because the premise sounded interesting. Space exploration is something I find very interesting (and I love sci-fi things), and the idea of a slow-burn, age-difference, long-distance relationship was quite attractive.
It didn’t disappoint: I loved the main characters and the way they seemed to fit with each other, as well as their personalities. I was a bit surprised (and sad) that the mission they were on was actually so short, I wouldn’t have minded if it’d been a bit longer and they’d had even more time to build the kind of relationship they did. I also, quite surprisingly, found myself quite fond of the secondary characters and the way they related with each other and the main characters. Though Amal felt a bit like she was trying too hard, like she just had to be “edgy” in every possible way.
Not really sure this is a spoiler, but: (view spoiler)[One of the main characters had Meniére’s, and (suffering something similar) I found the descriptions quite accurate. I was happy to find someone treating the issue with the seriousness it deserves because it can be quite debilitating and most don’t take it seriously. (hide spoiler)]
Though the book was “low-heat”, I felt it quite suited the rest of the writing. I did wish the sex scene was a bit more drawn out, but I didn’t hate the gloss over as it wasn’t really that necessary.
But there were also several things I didn’t like, which is why I’m not rating it 5-stars: The news reports were terribly boring and after a few I just skipped/skimmed through them. The way it sometimes went from past to present in sorta unannounced flashbacks -it only happened a couple times, but it happened- was a bit confusing. I liked the flashbacks otherwise, though.
The book is written in present tense third person, I love third person, but the present tense thing was annoying, and it took me most the book to get used to it to where it didn’t throw me off it anymore.
The fact that it starts with the end is kind of bothersome too. I wish the scene would have been towards the end where it belonged. And speaking of ends, it felt a bit rushed: (view spoiler)[like oh hey, I’m bored, let’s just show them happy already so we can wrap things up. I did feel a bit cheated out of things when there was the whole slow-burn romance thing going on and then we time skip and they were already married. I wanted to see the wedding, dammit. (hide spoiler)]
And last but not least, the cheap tack at the end of “if you want the steamy scene join my mailing list”… bad form. Very bad form. If you’re selling your book, sell your book complete/full, and don’t strip things out just to put it “free” (in exchange for an email, so basically, selling it too). Write something new for that.
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Horror, Dark & Lite Volume Two by Anel Viz
