Book Review: V.B.’s impression of Uncharted Stars by Lea Carter

Hi, readers! The latest I Love Romance Blog review selection is Uncharted Stars by Lea Carter. Take it away, V.B.!

Thanks!

Uncharted Stars by Lea Carter

This is an awesome love story set in space. The mystery is sound as well. Ava is a charmer and is down to earth. She’s competent and self-aware, and is the kind of heroine you admire. Ex-military Jean is just as capable and frankly sexy. Add in an excellent supporting cast of family and friends, and the tale pulls you in.

The heat level is clean, but still exciting. The Sci-Fi and Mystery elements are also sound. If you like action romance, this is a book for you. The single caveat…It would have been a joy to read but for the head hopping. The book is short because the author didn’t take the time to separate the scenes by viewpoint. The POV is murky. I lost track of who was doing what in every chapter, and frequently lost the thread of the plot as a result. That said, I liked it enough to ignore this. The story is worth the aggravation of wanting the missing *** marks.

NOTE: I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed it enough that I bought my own copy.

I give this book 4.5 hearts because the love story was phenomenal. I rooted for JAK and SAM the whole time.

Many thanks, Virginia! ♥

Book Info:

Jean Kearns never expected Ava Montgomery to walk onto his space station and back into his life. He knows he won’t get a second chance with her, because single dads don’t get happily-ever-afters. All he can think about is that he’ll never forgive himself if anything happens to Ava — again. He failed her once, but this time he’s determined to protect her.

Ava didn’t come to the Beyond for romance. Finding out that Jean is there only makes her mission more difficult. She’s there incognito to troubleshoot operations in the galactic corporation she’s just inherited. She’s confident in her abilities to resolve these issues — providing she doesn’t get distracted by the gorgeous second officer.

When Ava’s cover gets blown and Jean comes face to face with an old enemy there’s only one path for them to take. One they’ll have to walk together — or lose everything that really matters.

Universal Reader link: https://books2read.com/u/b6GLAE

Here’s a teaser from the book…

Getting up at last, she joined the tag-end of the group as it made its way out through the short corridor and onto the station itself.

Taking a deep breath, Ava couldn’t help noticing the difference between the air here and that aboard the shuttle. Severely recycled air, such as was necessary for health reasons on board a station with thousands of occupants, quickly grew flat, devoid of flavor. While she’d grown accustomed to it after logging countless hours in space, it always disappointed her when she noticed it.

The station air, though, seemed tantalizingly alive, offering a peek into the Beyond’s personality with a whiff of food here, the tang of soap there, and a few oddly damp scents she couldn’t identify.

Ava frowned when she saw the man that stood partially blocking the corridor. She could only see the back of his head just then, yet there was something strikingly familiar about his squared shoulders and the way he wore his uniform, almost as if he’d been born to it. The red of his tunic was so dark as to be nearly brown, a striking accent to his jet black hair and space-pale skin.

Her heart bottomed out when he turned to face them. Jean Antoni Kearns. J.A.K., for short. The man she’d never been able to forget. And, apparently, the first officer aboard the Beyond. She leaned closer to hear him better as he began to speak.

“Gather up.” Jean glanced over the group, mentally ticking off the approximate numbers of engineers, security officers, and other departments represented. They’d lost some excellent officers to this rotation.

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The records claimed the new faces were a fair exchange, but only time would tell. One of the women, her hair dyed mourning-black with only a small cap of vivid red on top, caught his eye. Odd, he wasn’t the type to be distracted by a pretty face. Of course, it was hard to ignore her red-black hairstyle. “Welcome aboard. I’m Lieutenant Commander Kearns, Executive Officer on the Beyond. We think she’s the best station in the quadrant and by the end of rotation, we hope you will, too.”

Ava folded her arms across her chest as she listened, impressed. His thirty-five hundred days in the military had essentially hard-wired him for command and it showed as he reviewed basic station protocol without losing people’s attention.

With the notable exception of herself. Ava tried harder to listen instead of just staring and failed miserably. It was all his fault, of course, for distracting her. There was something different about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Different in a good way. What was it? He was neither taller, nor shorter. He was as muscular as ever.

Her heart flipped as she realized what had changed — he’d gained weight! It was about time, too. He’d been muscle and bone when she knew him in college, lean as a hunting knife and twice as sharp. Now he looked good enough to hug.

His hair was longer than she remembered, too. He’d worn it so closely cropped at their last meeting that his scalp was visible. It was still relatively short compared to the currently popular hairstyles for men, just touching his ears and well above his collar. Certainly long enough to run fingers through, though.

Ava coughed slightly and looked away, wondering if her cheeks were as pink as they felt. For all the time she’d spent dodging unwelcome overtures from so-called business partners, it was startling to realize she wasn’t categorically opposed to the idea of romance. Real romance, of course.

Why was it that the same men who’d gladly shaken her father’s hand to seal a deal assumed she’d be eager to kiss them? It was enough to make her nauseous just thinking about it. So much so that she almost missed that Jean was finishing up.

Reaching the end of the lecture, Jean rewarded them for paying attention with a small joke. “Now, during the last crew rotation we lost a new yeoman for three days.” The group chuckled and he indicated the line of waiting crewmembers on his left. “So everyone grab a commband on your way through and get it coded to you. They’re how you’ll access your company food allotments, shift assignments, quarters, and just about everything else.”

Sweeping the group with a final glance, he locked eyes with the redhead. She looked away first and he abruptly realized everyone was staring at him.

“Dismissed.” To further impress upon them that the meeting was over, Jean activated the projection display on his own commband. Adjusting the privacy setting to opaque, he opened the list of new crew members and scrolled through it. None of the names rang a bell, even after he narrowed them down to yeomen. Remembering her uniform, he eliminated all but the comm officers, which brought the list down to one. “Terina Massuk.” He spoke the name softly, testing it for familiarity, but without success. So, who was the mysterious redhead?

Ava, seeing the frown on his face, faltered in her approach. Squaring her shoulders, she reminded herself that she had no choice but to talk with him. He’d never forgive her if she tried to deceive him. Her stomach flip-flopped when he unexpectedly shut down his display and turned toward her.

“What is it, Yeom…” Jean choked on the word, unable to force another microliter of breath out between his lips. Hauntingly familiar orange-flecked green eyes watched him anxiously from either side of a pert nose, above the full mouth he’d dared to kiss once.

The shock of recognition forced him back a pace, demanding that he look again — which he did, his gaze sweeping her from head to foot and supplying conflicting information. Sigrid Ava Montgomery, who regularly turned intragalactic heads modeling the latest creations of her fashion line, now stood before him looking thoroughly miserable in a yeoman’s uniform made of… Well, whatever it was, it looked stiff and scratchy. What was going on?

CHAPTER 2

The muddle of voices around Jean faded until it was no more than a background buzz, then snapped back into perspective as his mind kicked into overdrive. Ava was the mysterious redhead — no wonder she’d caught his attention, even made-up as she was — and the redhead had been standing alone.

“Where’s your guard?”

Surprised, Ava shook her head. “I’m traveling incognito. I didn’t bring…” His sharp intake of breath stopped her mid-explanation.

“Are you insane?” Hastily, Jean maneuvered them away from the others, at least far enough for a semi-private conversation. The corridor was relatively secure and had a good sightline around them, but there were no good defensive positions. Of course, that might be a good thing, since the wide-open area made it hard to sneak up on someone.

Unless they didn’t need to sneak up. Jean studied the group of new personnel closely. He didn’t actually know any of them. And for the prize of removing the head of Montgomery Galactic, the challenge of hacking their security system would be dismissed as a trifle.

“Hello to you, too, Jean.” Ava wondered briefly if his grip on her arms was going to leave a mark. “And here I was wondering how long it would take you to recognize me.” She flinched inwardly when angry blue eyes returned to her face. He wasn’t glad to see her, then.

“Have you forgotten what happened?” He cut in harshly, turning his head to look at her. Their first and last private date, sans security at his insistence, would live forever in his nightmares.

Her lungs seized under the intensity of his glare, robbing her of her speech. Forget? He thinks I’ve forgotten the most wonderful day of my life?

“Where are your quarters?” Jean swept the area with a glance, already planning their route to the crew’s residential sector. Or should he take her to his own quarters? She’d certainly be safe there, except… No. No, he couldn’t take her there.

She blinked. “M-my quarters?”

“Never mind, I just remembered.” Extreme pressure had a way of sharpening his wits, in this case allowing him to remember that detail from her file. “Let’s go.”

Ava considered her choices as he began propelling her away from the others. Half of her bristled at his high-handed way. The other half recognized the barely suppressed tension radiating from him as he strode toward the pivot lift — he’d gone into protector mode. Almost instantly, she made the decision to defer to his protection. Within reason, of course.

Jean checked the interior of the pivot lift to be sure no one was lurking inside, then let her precede him. Entering his security code, he overrode any stops between them and their destination, then allowed himself to breathe.

“Well, that was exciting.” Ava smiled tentatively. This was her chance to talk him down, convince him there were no trained assassins lurking in the corridors and closets. “Thank you for keeping me safe.” When he didn’t respond, she tried again. “It’s good to see you. You look…” Wonderful. Devastating. “As handsome as ever.”

“Never mind how I look,” he snapped. “What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?”

Ava, who’d been innocently — perhaps even a shade eagerly — anticipating a reciprocal compliment, now tightened her grip on the strap of her travel case and drew a steadying breath. “I’m here as part of standard crew transfers. Yeoman Terina Massuk, junior comms officer reporting for duty, sir.” She sketched a mock salute with her free hand. “Nobody else knows where I am, not even my personal assistant, Phyl.” They’d had a frank discussion about it and Phyl was definitely not thrilled, but eventually the older woman had thrown up her hands in surrender.

“I don’t believe that for an instant,” he huffed. “If your personal security chief doesn’t know where you are, you should fire them. In fact, you should fire them for letting you pull a sap brained stunt like this.”

“Sap brained stunt?” she sputtered. Her temper rising, she demanded, “How dare you?”

“How dare I?” Jean hit the standby button on the input panel so hard his hand hurt, bringing their journey to a halt. Stalking the few steps over to her, he glared. “I am the second officer aboard this station, President Montgomery. It is my sworn duty to protect everyone in here from each other and from everything out there.” He flung his arm out, not really caring where he pointed since the station was surrounded by space. “How dare you come here without adequate protection? We only have two fighter squadrons and the standard weapons array, scarcely enough to defend ourselves under normal circumstances.”

Ava squirmed under his accusing gaze even as she sprang to defend herself. “For your information, Lieutenant Commander, I’ve traveled half the galaxy, on my own, to get here. Every other station and ship I’ve passed through is still in working order, so don’t start acting like I’m a walking, talking security breach!”

“You are as far as I’m concerned,” he barked. “Or have you forgotten…” Jean broke off, suddenly uncertain as to the wisdom of bringing up their one and only proper date. They’d spent a great deal of time together for a few months in college, so much so that he’d worked his way up to a first name basis with her entire security team, not an easy task. He’d used that friendship to convince that team to let them have one day to themselves. No peanut gallery, no distractions. No backup if — make that when — he failed miserably at the job of protecting her.

Marla. Edgar. Todd. Yvette. Norman. The others. Not for the first time, Jean wondered what had happened to the members of that team. Were they all fired for their stupidity in trusting him?

For her part, Ava’s mind made the leap without further prompting and she turned away. She didn’t want to talk about their breakup, either. Not what led up to it and certainly not the event itself.

An examination of the explosive device after the incident had shown it to be expensive, unique, and built for the sole purpose of disabling her personal hovercraft. But they hadn’t taken her craft. No, the little bit of freedom had gone to her head, prompting her to yield to Jean’s stubborn insistence on arranging the entire night. That decision saved both their lives; which they promptly stopped sharing, for reasons she feared she would never understand. Finding herself face-to-face with the input panel, Ava pressed the standby button, starting the car on its way again. It hadn’t gone far before it slowed, then altered course to go up instead of sideways.

Jean took a few deep, calming breaths, then moved to stand beside her again. “I heard about your father.” That was a dumb thing to say. The entire galaxy heard when Edwin Montgomery died. “I’m sorry for your loss.” So inadequate.

“Thank you.” Ava folded her arms across her chest, trying to deny access to the emotions that inevitably swarmed her each time she slowed down enough to feel them.

“Why change your hair?” Jean threw out the change in subject when he noticed her eyes growing suspiciously moist.

“What?” She looked sharply at him, uncertain she’d heard correctly. His eloquent shrug confirmed that she had. “Oh, I, I don’t know. Make myself look different.” Shaking her head swung some of the loose hair onto her upper arms. Irritated, she brushed it off. “I tried a couple of colors before settling on this, um, on these. The black for mourning and the red because I kind of like it.”

“Makes sense.” Except it didn’t. Ava wouldn’t alter her appearance, assume an identity, and travel ‘half the galaxy’ incognito without a good reason. What that reason might be, he couldn’t begin to guess. He did, however, need to know. “Why did you come?”

“I came because I’ve spent the last six months completing a, well, a tour of succession, I guess you’d call it.” Her voice broke slightly as she remembered why the tour was necessary. Months. Things spoken of in large lumps of time were things folks hoped to forget, or at least get over. The passage of time from special events, times and happenings that they wanted to remember, was always counted in the days spent savoring the memories. “I’ve made personal visits to every major business concern Montgomery Galactic owns. I shake hands, listen to complaints, and check the books.”

“Skip to the part where you went around without your security detail,” Jean prodded. He shoved aside the guilt he felt for interrogating her.

“Right.” Ava smirked at him. “Because naturally, none of what I just told you could’ve been accomplished by a mere yeoman.” She held up her hand to stop him before he could scold her again. “Jean, relax. I’ve had the exact same training as any of my investigators. I’m not a bored debutante here on a dare. Just keep running the station the way you have been and I promise I won’t be late for any of my shifts. Deal?”

The pivot lift whirred to a nearly silent stop, and the doors slid open.

Confident that she’d won her point, Ava stepped out into the corridor and headed toward her assigned quarters. She was only mildly surprised to find Jean beside her when she stopped in front of a plain, gray door, indistinguishable from all the other doors in sight except for the numbers embedded in the wall beside it.

Holding her comm-band up to the security panel until the screen unlocked, she selected a room configuration, then leaned one shoulder against the wall to wait while the synthesizers created the furniture for her. Raised an eyebrow at Jean, who’d composed his features but was clearly still mad enough to chew through a blast door.

“The Beyond is my last stop on this tour,” she explained quietly, needing his approval more than she cared to admit. “Your security chief has just been informed that I will arrive by personal shuttle in twenty days. Between now and then, I’m just one more face in a sea of them.”

“You’re going to do this whether I like it or not, aren’t you.” It was slowly sinking in for Jean that he had absolutely no choice in the matter. She’d dismissed his objections and, as his boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ ad infinitum, she could simply order him to stand down. And, while he wouldn’t apologize for reflexively ushering her to safety, he did feel a little better knowing she had some training to fall back on.

“I’m afraid so.” Ava sighed and pushed her hair back again. Made a mental note to put it up before she went on duty so it wouldn’t drive her crazy the whole time. “You can only learn so much by reading reports, Jean. Sometimes you have to get things firsthand.” Her words reverberated in his mind, the echo of something he’d once said himself when asked why he insisted on visiting the front line each time he got a new assignment. He’d never gone incognito, but he’d never reached her equivalent rank, either.

“Then I guess I’d better get out of your way before I blow your cover.” He was just straightening from a slight bow when his commband vibrated and the alert light began rapidly blinking amber. Another minor emergency. Turning so his shoulder was to her, a promise that he was leaving, he took the call. “Kearns.”

“Sir, this is Command. Security Chief Taylor has a situation that needs your attention, a code 3T.” Officially, there was no such thing as a 3T. Unofficially, there were some things that the whole station was better off if Captain Donovan didn’t know about.

“Again?” Jean grimaced, embarrassed by the groan in his voice. In nearly the same breath, he inquired, “Is it urgent?”

“No, she’s, er, everything is okay.” The tone of voice was empathetic enough that Jean winced. How he hated having the entire station crew know his business! Or at least, everyone on shift in comms when his six year-old daughter got up to something. He suppressed another groan when he realized that would soon include Ava.

“On my way.” Jean closed the channel and looked over his shoulder at Ava, who’d heard every word. Despite her carefully blank expression, he could tell she was curious. For a microsecond, he considered letting her believe that the ‘she’ in question was his girlfriend. His wife, even. He could use the distance that would put between them as breathing room, to keep things strictly professional. Except, he’d never lied to her. He’d nearly gotten her killed, but he’d never lied to her.

“Sounds important.” Ava risked the two words, hoping they sounded more concerned than curious. She had no right to be intensely curious about the ‘she’ in Jean’s life, yet she was.

“Very.” He looked away, gathering himself, then popped the proverbial airlock. “My daughter is adorable, creative, and smart. All of which contributes to her getting into trouble on almost a daily basis.”

“Your daughter?” Ava almost jumped when the door to her quarters clicked open, signaling that the synthesizer was finished. “I…I didn’t know you were married.”

She also didn’t know why the news was making her head spin. Or, at least, she refused to admit that she knew why.

AUTHOR: Lea Carter

TITLE: Uncharted Stars

GENRE: Science Fiction Romance/Sweet/Second Chance Romance

RELEASE DATE: August 4, 2023

PUBLISHER: Indie Published

ISBN/ASIN: ‎B0CBYB9XTY

OUR RATING: ♥♥♥♥ 4.5 stars

REVIEWED BY: V.B. “Can Do Indie Author”

Reviewer Bio: VB is an indie author who writes romance and Sci Fi and voraciously reads anything (with some limits). When she’s not reading and writing, she’s working a day job to pay for her truck habit and puttering around her house.

Thanks for reading our latest book review on ILRB! ♥ Have a great rest of your week, everyone!

Originally published at http://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com on October 3, 2023.