Love Spell, Dec 2002, 5.99, 358 pp.
ISBN: 0505525054
To celebrate graduation from the Intersystem Academy, Princess Ariana persuades her friends to journey to the outpost of the Border Territory. However, instead of fun at the infamous Lodder Vale, Automons, using a strange gas, capture Princess Ariana and her shipmates. Ariana knows her father will come after her with every force the Intersystem can muster even as she is transported to Mining Colony Fifteen. At the slave camp, the men seem identically beaten except for one colonist who displays dignity and honor. Ariana begins to fall in love with this slave and together they escape, but he is recaptured.
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A decade later, Ariana knows she loves her former slave mate and returns to find him though she believes the colony was destroyed. The nameless slave now using the moniker Damen escaped and has become a pirate. He captures Ariana, but the passion they shared ten years explodes into a deep love. However, each keeps secrets that if revealed will probably end their relationship before it can flourish.
The story line will appeal to both the romance and alien world audience because the non-earthly environs and species seem real and the star-crossed lovers strengthens that authenticity. Though the pirate spin seems unnecessary with all the outer space adventure already packed in the novel, Ms. Piel spins a solar heated tale that shows she is one of the top cross-genre authors under the WHITE SUN.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner