Maven<\/a>, by my friend Starla Hutchton. \u00a0I went out and bought this on my Kindle the first week it was available, because honestly, her writing is that damn good. \u00a0I don’t normally read science fiction, but I didn’t get a heavy science fiction vibe from this one. \u00a0The science is there, and it’s a big part of the story, but it’s not in your face.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Maven is the story of Dr. Lydia Ashley and Daniel Brewer, two brilliant young people on very different paths when they meet aboard the\u00a0Endure,<\/em> an undersea exploration submarine that made me remember the old\u00a0SeaQuest\u00a0<\/em> TV show (shut up, yes, I’m showing my age). \u00a0This was a smart, fun read that sucked me in right away and dragged me through. \u00a0 Someone’s been doing some unorthodox experiments in the lab Lydia arrives to take over, and it isn’t long before she and Daniel are involved in a clandestine search for who it was. \u00a0And who is bankrolling it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I’m a very character-driven reader – the plot can be stellar, but if I don’t like the characters, I’m not going to finish the book. \u00a0(I’m looking at you, Thomas Covenant) \u00a0This book kept me an hour later at my desk at work because I kept telling myself \u00a0“Just one more page!” \u00a0I liked not only Lydia and Daniel, but the supporting cast as well. \u00a0Starla does an excellent job of bringing her \u00a0world to life, and I can’t wait for book two to come out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In short, if you like character-driven, smart romance, this is a great book for you. \u00a0Go and buy it!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesdays are going to be book review days on the blog. \u00a0I’m finding I’m not reading as much as I should, so I’m hoping this will prod me on. \u00a0I’m not getting paid for these, and I’m not getting sent books – these are a combination of old books, new books and, well, my own …<\/p>\n
>>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-book-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vg-ford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}