Alex Mariltar, third son of the High Lord of Mariltar, was ready to live his dream. Long ago, the clans had all traded and lived in peace in the Crestar System, but jealousy, greed and war drove the great families apart. Alex has been made ambassador of Treaine, a beautiful planet with a new colony that will become the example of the peaceful harmony that the Crestar System will be able to enjoy once again - if Alex can get all of the other races to get along, that is. The one snag in his plan is that he must marry a woman of a race not his own. Alex did not care for any of the Coalition's choices and didn't really want to get married soon. Still, he couldn't help but remember the beautiful woman he had helped a few months ago. Too bad that he never got the chance to learn who she was...
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Joanna Chase was an Earthwoman serving as an negotiator on a space ship near Treaine. She was in the middle of some very touchy negotiations when the handsome hunk she had run into before kidnapped her and said that he was going to marry her! She refused, of course, but she couldn't get anyone to listen to her and get her out of this mess. All they kept talking about was the Match Key and how the computer had said that Alex and Joanna would be a good match. Hah! What the heck did a computer know?
Joanna understood the sensitive situation that Alex was in on Treaine, but she knew that she just didn't have what it took to be an ambassador's wife. She resisted Alex at every opportunity, but, when Alex finally coaxed her into sharing his bed, sparks really flew. Joanna was falling in love with Alex, but she was still determined to escape the colony and go somewhere far away where he would never find her. She was convinced that Alex would find someone better suited to his new position than she. But she had no idea that she was being watched by a secret society with magic powers who were intent on resurrecting old grievances and setting the clans at war against each other as in the past. Joanna was an integral part of their plan because every fool could see how much the new ambassador cared for his wife - every fool except Joanna...
Moonfire was a good science fiction/romance novel and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything spectacular. It is a character driven book and so much of the story is focused on the two main characters and the other people around them, but they lived in a fascinating world with many different kinds of peoples that was interesting to learn about. I did feel that the author introduced some aspects of the story to give it a more fantastic feel that detracted rather than added to the story, though, as she kept throwing weird things in at the end to move the story along that just didn't fit. I also was a bit frustrated at the two main characters. They had the same argument over and over in the book and every time they came to an understanding the same thing would happen again and then they wouldn't know how to fix it. I would have liked to have seen some more depth and maturation in them as the book went on instead of them staying static and then suddenly changing at the end. Still, it was a good book and I enjoyed reading it and Alex was a really hot hero. Recommended for fans of science fiction with a lot of romance thrown in.
The review of this Book prepared by Debbie
Alex Mariltar must take a wife. Newly elected as Ambassador to the infant colony of Treaine, he has been ordered to take a wife from a race not his own. Rejecting the marriage choices of the Coalition, he settles on an elusive and beautiful creature from his dreams.
Plucked from the supposed safety of a Coalition vessel, Earth woman, Joanna Chase, finds herself married to a jewel-eyed warrior with a will stronger than her own. Independent and feisty, she relishes her chosen role in the peace making process on Treaine, but loathes the one fate has dealt her -- wife to the Mariltar ambassador. Yet the spell her husband casts is a powerful one and her plans to escape the marriage never quite seem to succeed.
Then a terrible conspiracy is uncovered. It threatens to destroy all they seek to accomplish on Treaine, tear asunder the fragile alliance of the nine nations of the Crestar System and cast the region back into war. Even all the formidable skills of Alex's Mariltar warriors cannot prevent Joanna from becoming a tool of the conspirators.
Can an ancient prophecy save her? And can the strength of love save a marriage?
The review of this Book prepared by J. A. Clarke
