TEST
“But she loved Gage to the point of foolishness and beyond.”You know a book is in trouble when you agree with the heroine on this point. Try as I may, Meriel summarized Firestar more aptly than I ever could. Now, if she only had drawn the obvious conclusions from that realization, this book would have been so much better. As written, it really is at the point of foolishness and beyond. 
Meriel is daughter to the queen of Tenua, and needs to bear an heir before she will be allowed to replace her mother as queen. As all Tenuan males are sterile, she employs a captured stranger, Gage Bardwin, as a breeder, after which he’s sent on his way. A few years later, Gage returns as a conqueror to deal with the Volan threat to Tenua and the Imperium. Volan aliens infiltrate humans and plan to take over the universe. Gage takes control of Meriel, who partly resists, partly complies, as she is torn between lust/love and her responsibilities as the new queen.
Meriel is a softhearted and sentimental woman whose persona fluctuates between a little girl and the I-can-manage-on-my-own-thank-you-so-much queen. While she can be partly excused by inexperience, a number of her actions are verging on the irrational, especially anything that has to do with whom to trust or how to survive a dangerous situation.
Gage is arbitrary and prone to jealousy, even violence. He has had bad experiences with women he has trusted (what romance hero hasn’t?) and this influences his treatment of Meriel. Gage can’t make up his mind whether Meriel is a scheming slut or an innocent in need of protection. Anyway, he’ll have sex with her a lot while he makes up his mind.
All of this adds up to a hot little space opera, which would have been a fun, if foolish, read even with all the emotional instability. However, there were a few distractions that I think it is only fair to mention:
Meriel convinces herself that since her husband, Pelum, is impotent, as well as sterile, it is okay to have mind-blowing sex with Gage. This problem in Pelum never bothered her before. I reacted strongly to the implied notion that a lack of an erection would suddenly void a marriage contract. Then poor Pelum dies conveniently, so our hero and heroine didn’t have to keep up the adultery.
I noted that Meriel’s son Kieran seemed to have a plot-powered cutesy-switch, so that he’d be properly adorable or invisible as needed. Given that I have a son the same age, the comparison was inevitable, and disrupted the web of believability for me. If this is a problem or not depends on your feelings about children in romance.
The overall universe in which the story takes place is very sketchily described. It might have helped to have read the other novels in the same series before Firestar. It might also be a conscious way of keeping the focus on the main relationship. I like epic, world-building science fiction and fantasy, so I would have preferred some more details, to better understand the motivation of the Volans or the workings of the Imperium.
Firestar is a piece of foolish fluff, and how you feel about it depends a little on your outlook. Take it too seriously and your dentist will surgically have to unlock your gritted teeth. Take it as the romance version of an afternoon-TV space opera and you can’t go wrong.
I escaped the dentist, but my teeth still hurt.
Grade: C-
Book Type: Futuristic Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 20/04/01
Publication Date: 1997
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.