Nimue

As a devoted Marie Sexton fan I got my hand on her new book, Blind Space, as soon as it was published. In contrast to her popular Coda series the Blind Space is a science fiction book set in a world where the all-mighty Regency government rules almost all known and useful planets. But in between these secured planets is the so-called Blind Space, where pirates rule.

These supposedly greedy and merciless creatures capture the space ship Captain Tristan Kelley is travelling with his ward Prince Rikard. To disarm they temporarily blind all prisoners. This was the beginning of the book and then Tristan meets the intriguing Captain Valero, one of the pirates. Immediately it's clear that there is some connection between the two of them. I was very curious how the relationship between the mysterious and clearly attractive pirate and the vulnerable and loyal captive Tristan would develop.

During several meetings the tension and attraction, denied by Tristan, would rise more and more. During these scenes I was glued to the book. It seems to be a very unbalanced situation, as Valero has all the power and Tristan literally none. But it's not as clear. Valero, through being a pirate, has his own kind of honor code and while he wants Tristan, he wants him willingly. On the other hand Tristan can't see anything, has bound hands and is deeply loyal to the Regency. In addition he feels he would betray the regime by sleeping with the "enemy". But his believes are shaken strongly as Valero doesn't act violently and actually questions him about loyalty and duty and what he owes whom. This more sophisticated internal discussion added another layer to this thrilling budding romance. And that the chemistry between the two main characters is sizzling, doen't hurt either. I liked that there is a slow build-up to a kind of friendship and later more. It's not an all or nothing.

The plot isn't overly complicated but still captivating enough to not be too predictable. There were few minor twist which kept the story going smoothly. Maybe there could have been a few more details to the whole regime setup and a more differentiated picture of the Regency, which is drawn a bit like the Galactic Empire of the Star Wars world. But that's not really a problem as the main focus of the story is clearly the romance between Valero and Tristan, which is sweet, thrilling and not to forget really hot and a bit kinky. There are quite a few steamy scenes, which are very enjoyable to read. Once again Marie Sexton wrote a fetching falling in love story, with clearly very loveable and detailed characters.