Title: Pets in Space® 4 (STAR CRUISE: IDOL’S CURSE The Sectors SF Romance Series)
Author: Veronica Scott
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Book Blurb:
Pets in Space® 4 Anthology Blurb:
Grab your copy of Pets in Space® 4 today! For a limited time, Pets in Space® 4 brings together today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors to help Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that helps our service veterans and first responders. Journey to far off worlds with Anna Hackett’s House of Roan or board Veronica Scott’s Nebula Zephyr for another amazing Interstellar cruise. From S.E. Smith’s Lords of Kassis, Tiffany Roberts’ The Infinite City, to Pauline Baird Jones' Project Enterprise series, you’ll find the perfect story along with a few unusual pets. Thirteen incredible stories by thirteen of today’s bestselling authors. Don’t miss out on this limited time offer and help a great charity!
STAR CRUISE: IDOL’S CURSE (The Sectors SF Romance Series) blurb:
An unusual bequest….
Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question.
Until the rock disappears from her office…
When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise - she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship.
Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster?
My Review:
Juli is on a special assignment. A previous passenger has bequeathed a rock from the planet Tahumaroa to the cruise line with specific instructions to return the rock where he took it from years ago. An odd request but nothing Juli hasn’t experienced before as the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director. But when the rock mysteriously disappears, she wonders what she’s gotten herself into. Strangers are contacting her offering to buy the rock for huge sums of credits (money). There’s no such things as mystical rocks, right?
She’s not so sure anymore and enlists the help of Third Officer Steve Aureli, his Aunt Dian and her pet dog, Charrli to find the missing rock. They better act fact before the rock’s aura of bad luck turns deadly. But things go from bad to worse once they land on the planet. Can Steve protect Juli from harm while she makes every attempt to return the rock where it longs to be?
Blend Love Boat and Star Trek: TNG and you get Star Cruise: Idol’s Curse. There’s a mystery to solve, unrequited love, a visiting aunt, a psychic dog and mysterious mishaps taking place on a ship full of people. From the very first page, I connected with the characters. Each one has its own set of quirks and witty dialogue. I found the inner workings of the ship fascinating and Veronica Scott describes it in intricate detail. The plot moves at an easy pace but there is plenty going on. The supernatural elements surrounding the rock kept me racing through the pages until I reached the conclusion. The romance between Juli and Steve was slow burning at first but then sped up as circumstances put their lives in danger. One of the best stories I’ve read in a long time.
If you love science fiction romance, you’re in for a treat with Star Cruise: Idol’s Curse. Highly recommend!
My Rating: 5+ stars
Buy it Now:
Author Biography:
USA Today Best-Selling Author, Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
Seven-time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job, not her romances!
She read the part of Star Trek Crew Member in the audiobook production of Harlan Ellison’s “The City On the Edge of Forever.”
Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vscotttheauthor
Reviewed by: Mrs. N