DAY 12
Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Take Your Best Shot By Starlight
SERIES: Never Too Late (2015 Daily Dose)
AUTHOR: Yolande Kleinn
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 23 Pages
BLURB:
Halden Blake was a good soldier and a good man. He never intended to be a hero, and he definitely never intended the events that landed him in intergalactic politics. Now, three presidential terms later, Halden must decide if running for office again is worth five more years of putting his own life on hold.
Isaac Knox has been President Blake’s public liaison from the start, an ally and friend through difficult times. Halden has always carefully resisted thoughts of more, and Isaac has never given any hint of returning his guarded attraction. But when Halden finds himself struggling with questions about his own future, Isaac makes a surprising offer that could change everything.
REVIEW:
Halden has never been interested in politics, but he understands the importance of duty. That is how the soldier, who was Earth’s best known hero, became the President of the Intergalactic Alliance of Worlds. Fifteen years later, the still popular president needs to decide if he intends to run for office again, which will mean another five years as the Alliance’s leader. But Halden is lonely. The opportunities to meet someone he might want to have a relationship with are few and far between. It’s not like he’s surrounded by all that many humans and scales and feathers just don’t do it for him. As the president, basically everybody he comes into contact with is a subordinate and he doesn’t want to put anyone in the position of feeling pressured into intimacy. He’s already fifty-two years old and feels like he is losing his chance to have a family and something more than the life he is currently living. For the fifteen years he has held office, his Public Liaison, Isaac, has been by his side. The only constant, while other people have come and gone. Isaac is nearly twenty years Halden’s junior, and also Halden’s best friend. Despite finding the younger man attractive, Hal is certain that nothing should happen between them. When Isaac starts pressing Halden to decide if he’s going to announce his retirement or announce his intention to run for office again, Halden has no idea what to do.
This world that the author created instantly snagged my attention. I loved hearing about how and why Earth joined the Alliance and the fact that they were seen as something to simply be tolerated and looked down on by many. Hearing about the part Halden played in the “space war” was great. I appreciated knowing exactly how he ended up in the position he finds himself in.
But I was more interested in the galaxy around them than in Halden and Isaac themselves. They sounded like they’d be extremely interesting characters, and I think their romance could be a wonderful thing to read but I just felt that it didn’t happen here, in this story. It was all way too easy and convenient, yet still unfinished. Halden is lamenting the fact that he has no one and suddenly Isaac is literally in his lap. Some of Halden’s reservations about being with Isaac still stand, unless he decides to retire but whether he’s going to do that remains undecided by the end of the story.
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed this story, but more for the world it takes place in than the relationship between the main characters.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Dreamspinner Press – Anthology
Thank you for your most helpful review, it is so tricky to create a AU world and its history for us to understand and throw in a romance as well in so few pages, looks like its another set for a series perhaps or be expanded (hopefully)
A good world development is always important and I love seeing the world authors build especially if it’s different from reality. Thank you for the review!
Can be tricky.
Not sure what to think about this one so thanks for the review.