Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: In Discretion
SERIES: Ylendrian Empire #3
AUTHOR: Reesa Herberth
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 114 pages
BLURB: Thanson Nez thought his career as a Discretionary would take him to the stars, not strand him on a space station at the ass-end of the Empire. Thanks to his last client, he’s carrying a secret he can’t get rid of fast enough, but his oath to the guild means a swift, painful death if he shares it. Already desperate for help, he runs into yet more trouble: his ex, and an explosion that paralyzes the station moments after their uncomfortable reunion.
Kazra Ferdow, Station 43’s communications officer, is almost as blindsided by the return of his first love as he is by the sudden loss of power and life support. The station is a floating graveyard in the making, and something is turning its inhabitants into savage killers. Fighting human monsters and damaged tech, Kazra and Thanson must put aside their past long enough to try to save everyone.
The more light they shine into dark corners, the more Thanson realizes how many people might die for the secrets locked in his head—and what he’s willing to sacrifice to make sure Kazra isn’t one of them.
REVIEW:
“My secrets are as heavy as any ever borne. My contract is terminated under duress. I need a Head of House to share my burden. Do you understand?”
Thanson Nez is a Discretionary. That is, in plain terms, a very highly sought after, and paid, escort. An escort that has some very strict rules when it comes to divulging the secrets gained while under contract–he must never speak about what he learns. It is an oath. And it is backed up with some pretty nasty neural-software to insure his oath is never broken. The problem is that he knows something that he has to share. Something important.Something dangerous. Something that is going to get him, his ex, and everyone on board Station 43 killed.
He expected a lot of things when he de-shipped himself onto Station 43, but there is no way that Thanson was prepared for what would follow: power cuts, explosions, the crew and passengers slowly going mad and hunting him down. But what he really didn’t expect was to stumble upon the one thing in his past that he cherished best, and regretted the most. KazraFerdow. But reminiscing, and apologizing, will have to wait, because the air is running out, the crew is getting closer, and the secrets tucked away in Thanson’s head could be the key to their salvation, or the reason they all fade into the black.
There were some definite upsides to this story. I really enjoyed the non-stop pace. The drum beat in the background of the story basically pounding “time is running out” over and over till you are never quite sure if they are going to make it. The air is slowly running out, the cold is creeping in, there are crazy crewmembers trying to rip everyone apart…and there is something hunting them. Someone who just might not be crazy, but who will do anything in their power to stop Than and Kaz. It made for a nice bit of tension that slowly amped up through the entire story.
I also enjoyed the sense of backstory that slowly filtered into the present day crisis. There wasn’ta big info dump at the beginning, so there was always a sense of mystery to their past that I enjoyed exploring. Because you were never quite sure about them, everything else was also unsure, unstable. It was a nice side beat to the main mystery of this story.
There did seem to be, for me at least, a definite lack of chemistry between the two for a majority of the story. I get that making up, or making out, is not exactly on your top-ten list of things to do when death is imminent, but the lack of heat between them made their anger feel shallow at times. Like we were just hitting the surface emotions, and if there was anything deeper it was hidden from us. It did ramp-up nicely at the end there, but I wish I could have felt the build-up a lot better.
I also had a hard time visualizing some of the technical aspects of the station. I guess it is not practical to expect a blue print model of Station 43, but there were time when I was unsure if they were heading in, or heading out, or where they were in a room, so when the time to run came, I was a little lost as to where everyone was and where they were going.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad story, and there were some parts that I really enjoyed–nothing quite like screw-it-we-are-going-to-die-anyway sex–but there was a sense of disconnection between me and the characters that I was never really able to overcome. Maybe if we had stuck with just one POV or if I got a better feel of what they felt for each other, I might have had a better go at it, but as it was, it was very much like reading a story, not living it. It wasn’t a bad story…just didn’t quite get there, for me.
RATING: 