Book Review: Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet

As you guys know I have been on a little bit of a romance binge and I’ve found sci-fi romance! I was super excited to read this book and it definitely did not disappoint. But let me start by telling you about it!

Tess is on the run; she was already a wanted criminal but then she stole a lab with super soldier serum on and well now the worst person in the galaxy is after her. After a daring (suicidal) escape, Tess’ ship is left in bad shape and she has to turn to the arrogant, handsome Shade Ganavan for repairs. But Tess has more secrets then just being a wanted criminal and Shade might not be just the engineer she thinks he is…

This book was such a good read. It drew me in with an action-packed start and I loved Tess. She was strong and fearless, with a weakness for books and cats. Do I need more in a heroine?

At first, I was confused who the love interest was. I expected to be the ‘big guy’ they found in the lab but then Tess said he was around fifty. At this point I wasn’t sure how old Tess was and then it was revealed she was 26 and I just wasn’t sure how much I liked it. But then, around a hundred pages in, there was a description of a man that was far too detailed for it to be a minor character. And hey! Shade was introduced.

One of the things with romance books is that the characters often go from zero to a hundred in terms of feelings really fast. While they have an immediate attraction, I didn’t feel like this was forced so much. Shade really likes her at first but then he backs off when he realises his conflict of interest. While the conflict of interest isn’t exactly honourable, in fact it’s the farthest from it, that aspect of his storyline is. For Tess, I liked how it was clear she didn’t get involved with guys often and the way that Shade’s flirtations had piqued her interest.

The book is mainly in first person with Tess as the narrator but there’s a few chapters from Shade’s perspective in third person. This was an odd choice and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Part of me thinks it would have been better to omit Shade’s part. It would have made it a shock when you found out about him. I’m wondering whether it would have made him less understandable though.

My absolute favourite thing about this book was Bonk. Tess gets a cat called Bonk and there is honestly an entire page that’s just an ode to cats which I loved. I’m naturally very worried about Bonk though, I always do in this kind of book. I also think they should probably get Bonk some kind of collar that has an automatic spacesuit for if he accidently gets blown out into space. I mean they are rebels – this isn’t exactly unlikely.

This really had a found-family trope which I quite liked, though the secondary characters were not developed quite so much.

It also had pretty good smut in which I am always down for. If you like sci-fi with a heavy amount of adult romance, strong heroines, and arrogant love interests then this is the book for you!

I gave it 4* I think, though I’m considering upping to 4.5* because I’ve had so much fun remembering it for this review!