I'm super impressed at how naturally it all flowed and I love, love, loved the idea of sentient spaceships and the court intrigue among Seht's people, who really were a lot like the characters in CAPTIVE PRINCE. In some ways, this is like really well-written fanfiction, because the universe is so developed that it leaves the author fully free to explore her characters and their motivations. The third book in the series is actually a prequel to this one which is about how they met- I was surprised by the twist! Actually- I was surprised by a lot of twists. I thought Ravnos and Seht were both hot and I liked their relationship with each other almost as much as I liked their relationship with Victoria. It never felt like the author was apologizing for such behaviors instead, there was an acknowledgement that what these characters were doing was beyond the pale, but that's just how they rolled. Especially in the beginning, where it's like, 'Whoa, omg.' At times this book could be seriously brutal, but- again- the author made it work with good writing and serious character development. Parts of this book share similar themes with the Omegaverse erotica, including hierarchies, knots, and major dub-con. Pacat's THE CAPTIVE PRINCE, this is similar in terms of themes and the plot-to-erotic content ratio, although VICTORIOUS STAR goes a step further with some really edgy stuff, including body modifications and some other things that I am not usually keen on but worked for the story because it was science-fiction and actually tied into the plot.

This is basically smut with plot, but the plot is so good that at times it almost overpowers the smut. And she gets caught by a sadistic captain and his gleefully mischievous second in command who is basically like a hot vampire elf alien with some VERY interesting physical attributes? DOUBLE YES. A strong heroine who can psychically interface with ships who's on the run from the laws that be? YES. I knew from the very beginning that it was going to be good.

Okay, so I actually ended up loving this because it was like a more explicit version of Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five Universe or Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series, and as a Star Trek AND Star Wars junkie who is starved for romantic sci-fi that has GOOD world-building, VICTORIOUS STAR was practically a godsend.

Victorious star morgan hawke