Today, I've got the fabulous Veronica Scott
and her latest book, Star Cruise: Marooned.
Liza: Space Rep! Where have you been? You went out on a space walk and never came back.
Space Rep: I sort of forgot to tether myself to your junkheap and floated off. And did you look for me? Not at all! Fortunately, I had my towel and was able to flag down another ship. And before you ask, the only reason I'm back is because I heard you bought a copy of Star Cruise: Marooned and it is selling so well that every place I went to buy wanted a million digits for it, and I'm broke.
Liza: Does that mean you want your old job back.
Space Rep: Not really. I just want to read Veronica Scott's latest book.
Liza: Well, so do I and it's only 99 cents here on Earth, so even you can afford to buy your own copy. Check out Veronica's beautiful cover!
Star Cuise:
Marooned
Veronica Scott
Meg
Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send
credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post
(and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.
Former Special Forces soldier
Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know
Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled
stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance
to impress the girl.
But when one of the passengers
is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly
forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the
defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves
without any of them.
Marooned on the dangerous
outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red
cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work
together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or
will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives
before anything can really begin?
On the
beach, there was chaos. An eel, easily two feet in diameter and eight feet
long, lay convulsing on the sand, Red’s hunting knife buried to the hilt in one
eye. The crewman had the medkit open beside him and was struggling to staunch
the blood flow from Sharmali’s lower leg, while she lay on a red-stained towel
and moaned. Callina was standing beside them, trying to help. The other men and
women milled on the beach nearby, drinking and talking in too loud voices. As
Meg headed for the injured passenger, the Primary intercepted her.
“Miss Antille, I demand to know how
something like this could happen.” white in the face, he waved a hand at
Sharmali. “I paid top dollar, if not an exorbitant price, for a safe, enjoyable
cruise for myself and my guests, and now the poor girl’s had her foot eaten!”
He was so upset he was spitting.
“On behalf of the Line, I certainly
apologize, sir. We do everything we can to ensure the safety of our guests under
all circumstances, but if she swam beyond the sonic barrier—”
“She was standing in three inches of water
right next to me,” Finchon said. “That monster could have just as easily gotten
my foot.”
“The barrier’s off,” Red informed her, not
glancing up from his task. “Can you argue with him later? I need your help.”
Meg ran to his side, the Primary matching
her step for step, yelling at her about lawsuits and refunds. She tried to stem
the tide of his vitriol so she could concentrate. “Sir, please, let us assist
Sharmali, and then I’ll be happy to discuss the legalities.”
Trever, the retired pro athlete, came
forward and took his host by the arm, shoving a drink into his hand and drawing
him aside. Meg took a deep breath of relief and knelt beside Red. “What do you
want me to do?”
“Apply pressure to the wound for a minute
while I see what antivenom we’ve got.”
Gulping against her nausea, Meg set her
hand on the makeshift bandages and pressed hard. “You said the barrier was
off?”
“Must be. There was more than one of these
things right in the shallows at the beach. We were lucky no one else got
attacked. I got her out of the water as fast as I could so the blood wouldn’t
attract other predators.” He sat on his heels, frowning, holding an inject.
“This is only a generic. Will it work on eel venom?”
“It’s all we’ve got on the shuttle. It’ll
have to hold her until we get to the ship’s sick bay.”
As he gave Sharmali the inject, Meg eyed
the wound with deep misgiving. The woman’s leg was definitely swelling and
there were ugly white streaks advancing toward her knee. “This is my fault,”
she said.
“How do you figure?” Red applied a light
tourniquet.
“I should have known if the ranger station
was closed, the barriers might be shut off, but I didn’t check.”
“Well, keep your voice down, the Primary
is pissed off enough right now. Don’t add fuel to his fire. We’d better get her
to the shuttle and hustle offplanet, to the ship. What did you find out?” He
turned to take more towels from Callina with a murmured thanks and wrapped the
oversize, gaily colored fabric around Sharmali. “She’s going into shock, gotta
keep her warm.”
“Drewson said he hadn’t heard anything. I
called the ship myself, but we got interrupted. Signal failed or something.”
Meg rose as he did, admiring the smooth manner in which Red lifted the injured
woman, not jostling her.
“We’ll know soon enough.” He shifted
Sharmali to lie more comfortably against his chest and walked away as if her
weight was nothing to him. “Guess it’s our turn to leave the equipment behind,
at least temporarily.”
“Oh, Lords of Space, of course.” Meg
grabbed the cleaning supplies bag, since the blasters were in there, thankfully
unneeded. She detoured to flip the switch turning off the power grid, dropped
the bag inside the nearest robo’s storage cavity to leave her hands free, and
then caught up to the guests at the base of the walkway leading to the landing
pad.
The rumble of the shuttle’s engines caught
her by surprise. How could Drewson possibly know about the emergency? As she
decided he must have checked the beach-facing vidscreens for some reason, the
tenor of the sound changed from warmup to full power. In disbelief, she saw the
shuttle rising from the pad.
“What the seven hells is he doing?” Red
yelled.
“Stay clear, don’t get caught in the
backflare,” Meg screamed, pulling at the guests. Most shrank away from the
landing pad, but the Primary strode up the ramp, shaking his fist and yelling
curses at the pilot. Red set Sharmali in the sand and sprinted to tackle Finchon
before he got crisped. The two men rolled on the ramp, the ungrateful host
trying to punch Red.
As the crewman laid their passenger out
with a swift right hook to the jaw, the shuttle cleared the trees and shot into
the sky, leaving them behind in the blink of an eye.
“Now what?” Callina said, shielding her
eyes with one hand as she watched the shuttle grow smaller and smaller in the
sky. “He won’t forget to pick us up later will he?”
Review for
Veronica Scott’s Star Cruise: Marooned.
Warning:
This books is not recommended for petulant billionaires. You might relate to
petulant guests who end up dying.
For the rest
of you: Grab this book and read it at once. It’s a fabulous story. It starts
off like a sci-fi rom and ends like a heart palpating Sci-Fi Adventure.
I couldn’t put the book down. The world Veronica creates is superbly
believable. They land on a beautiful
planet so the cruise guest can enjoy a lovely day on the beach. Unfortunately,
obnoxious mega-wealthy cruise guests, randy crewmembers, and venomous native
animals are not the main problems of the day. That would be something far more dangerous.
Meg is everything I love in a heroine. Specifically, under
pressure, her brain not only works, but works really well. And she doesn’t fall
under the spell of a guy just because he smiles at her.
Red, the hero, was once a member of special forces, and even
he is impressed with Meg’s ability to think and survive when matters go south.
But we soon find out he’s been smitten with her since he saw her at a mixer a
few weeks before. In fact, he signed on as a crew member just to be around her,
but he can’t seem to make any headway.
When trouble begins, matters between them start to change. Together, they try to save the guests. Best
not get too attached to the wealthy spoiled guests for a lot of them die.
Honestly, the fact anyone survived is amazing given all that Veronica throws at
them.
It’s not often that I become so engaged in a book that my
heart actually races, but while reading this book, my heart thumped double-time
for the last quarter section of the book.
Final Warning: If you have a heart condition,
you probably shouldn’t read this book either.
Since I lived, I give this book
5 stars
And one additional treat
The best trailer I've ever seen for a book
Right now, Star Cruise: Marooned is only 99 cents.
Best Selling
Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance author and “SciFi Encounters”
columnist for the USA Today Happily Ever After blog, Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a
library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and
Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran
out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
Three time
winner of the Galaxy Award, as well as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction
Award, Veronica is also the proud recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal
relating to her former day job, not her romances!
