Red Gambit by Luke R Mitchell

From Goodreads:

What do a wayward mercenary and a vexed arcanist have in common? Neither of them signed up for this crap . . .

It's been fifteen years since the raknoth made a smoldering heap of Earth. But for some survivors, the problems are just getting started.

Jarek Slater is a sword-slinging nomad with a powerful exosuit and a mean vigilante streak—or was until his exosuit was stolen. He wants it back.

Rachel Cross is an energy-bending arcanist who wants nothing more than to find her brother and bring him home safely.

When their paths collide, Jarek and Rachel are reluctantly pulled into a race across the nuclear wasteland to reclaim his suit and save her brother. All that stands between them and their goals is a vicious alien warlord, some grating interpersonal tension, and a whole bunch of violent marauders. Oh, and a mysterious alien device that may bring on the second apocalypse.

Together, they might just be strong enough to pull it off. Assuming they don't kill each other first . . .

My Take:

The narrator was great. He really got into the characters, making it easy to feel their personalities and keep them separated.

Great story, full steam ahead action with good story elements woven through the fighting. I really enjoyed the post-apocalyptic feel with the “Tony Stark-like” Jarek’s quest to get his super suit back, the arcanist Rachel’s goal to just protect the last of her family, and the intrigue of the power struggle. And in the midst of it all, there is some love/hate flirting that makes things really fun. Jarek’s willful snarkiness keeps the desolation of it all at arms-length.

The author did note there would be language, and there is a lot of it. It is fitting for the type of story and situation, but if you don’t like reading or hearing a steady stream of heavy swearing, think twice about this one.

I give the story a solid 4, the narrator a 5, and it gets an R rating simply because of the f-bombs. There is no sex or even a kiss. Which, I think Rachel and Jarek could have snuck at least one in. Well, maybe not. It was one thing after another with the surviving bit.

1-5 scale and what it means:

1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad

2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing

3: I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive

3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love

4: Solid mind candy / worth reading

4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read

5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

Movie Ratings in relation to my review:

Clean--Hallmark movies, some kissing, no nudity, no intimacy on or off "screen"

PG--Some innuendo but nothing kids don't hear every day, intimacy is all closed door

PG-13--some language (swear words not related to intimacy), more talk about intimacy, heavy petting, removal of clothing on screen, but intimacy is closed door.

PG-14—somewhere between PG-13 and R. Not erotica, but at least a paragraph of on-screen intimacy

R--swearing (F-bomb, on “screen” intimacy, sometimes feels like the whole story is about the intimacy and not the relationship or some other plot, but not always

The Touchstone Series by Andrea K Host

From Goodreads:

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: alone, she will be lucky to survive. The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? 

Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Lab Rat One:
Test subject was not the career path Cass had been planning.

With no privacy, too-frequent injuries, and the painful knowledge that she must always be an assignment to her Setari companions, Cass can only wish for some semblance of normality and control. And as her abilities become more and more dangerous, tests and training may be the only thing capable of protecting Cass from herself.

Caszandra:
Cassandra Devlin doesn’t know what she's for, but she knows she's running out of time. Space is tearing itself apart. Ionoth attack in ever-greater numbers. And "the useful stray" has been injured so many times that the Tarens hesitate to use her for fear of losing her.

With one particular Taren now her most important person, Cass is determined to contribute everything she can - and hopes to find some answers of her own.


My Take for the series as a whole:
I just finished rereading the series for the second time. The first time there were several typos and style choices that bugged me about the series, but not enough that I quit. In fact, after the first free book, I paid for the other two because I had to find out how it ended. I enjoyed the second read through even more because I could skip the annoying parts (which I didn't find as annoying this time and didn't even skip).

This series follows a girl straight out of high school, though a wormhole of sorts, and into a completely new world where she has to learn to survive. She goes from being a Stray (someone who wonders through the Ena, to a Lab Rat (her form of coping), to finally finding herself, a cause, and a new home and family.

My main complaint about the series is that Cassandra knew an awful lot about things that most 17-18-year-olds wouldn't (heck I don't know them and watching documentaries is a favorite pastime of mine). The character names also piled up to confuse me at times. Everyone has two like we do, but you rarely see them together to connect first names to last names, not even when new characters are introduced. And there are a lot of characters. However, the second read through was easier to put formal names together with the given names used when off-duty.

The world building is complex and imaginative if a bit disjointed at times. It is young adult, so there's plenty of angst, but I become giddy with Cassandra's need to find connections to her new world by relating them to several fandoms. They aren't more than a sentence and highly entertaining without trying to pull from those franchises. I just love her general geekiness. Here's one of my favorite quotes following the moment she decides to stop actively searching for a way home and help fix the tears in the universe.

"I blame Doctor Who. Mr. Spock. The Scooby Gang: both the ones in the Mystery Machine and the ones with the stakes. I've spent my life with stories of people who don't walk away, who go back for their friends, who make that last stand. I've been brainwashed by Samwise Gamgee."

And finally, in spite of some technical writing issues (which I think were intentional style choices because it's written as a journal), there are moments that I just connected with on a deep emotional level. There's a lot of telling, but then you'll get a scene that just grabs your heart. For instance, at the end of book two, Ruuel and Cassandra finally give in to the romance side of the book. You have to read the first two books to get all the ways this is such a big scene (all the complications and paranormal and political reasons they shouldn't, and so on), but it's one of those moments I just "get".

Ruuel tells her she needs to be certain she wants "this" meaning a relationship with him. Her answer is a beautiful example of love and trust, not just lust.

"What is certain? Haven't even ever really talked. Only know that every day, first I know on waking, is that you're not there. I hate it when you're not there."

*Le sigh* There is awesome sci-fi stuff, superpowers, scary creatures traveling through near space and tears in the walls to reach real space, secret agendas, and people doing the best they can to be "super space ninjas" as Cass calls them, and romance!

So, it's easy to say that this has gone into my multiple read piles. I know I'll visit Tare and Muina again many more times.

I give the series as a whole a 4.5 because it was good enough that I had to read it again, and I know I'll read it in the future as well. This is a world I can live in and enjoy the journey over and over.

I have to give it an R rating because it uses the F-bomb, but sex is mostly innuendo/PG 13.

1-5 scale and what it means:

1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad

2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing

3: I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive

3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love

4: Solid mind candy / worth reading

4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read

5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

Movie Ratings in relation to my review:

Clean--Hallmark movies, some kissing, no nudity, no sex on or off "screen"

PG--Some innuendo but nothing kids don't hear every day, sex is all closed door

PG-13--some language (swear words not related to sex), more talk about sex, heavy petting, removal of clothing on screen, but sex is closed door.

 R--swearing (F-bomb, on “screen” sex, sometimes feels like the whole story is about the sex and not the relationship or some other plot, but not always