AURORA BLAZING by Jessie Mihalik – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik
Series: Consortium Rebellion #2
Published by Harper Voyager on October 1 2019
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

The nitty-gritty: An exciting, action-packed follow-up to Polaris Rising with new characters, plenty of danger, and some steamy romance too.

I do love when publishers decide to release an entire series on a short publication schedule, and Mihalik’s Consortium Rebellion series is one of those happy instances. I reviewed the first book in the series, Polaris Rising, in January of this year, and I’m rounding out 2019 with a review of book #2 today! The third and final book, Chaos Reigning, will be out next May, so this is a good time to jump in if you love a fast-paced space opera with some romance on the side.

These books are essentially stand-alones, so there isn’t much worry about spoilers in this review, although there are a few threads that carry over from Polaris Rising. Each book in the series focuses on the adventures of one of the daughters of the High House von Hasenberg, and this time it’s Bianca’s turn. Bianca’s strength is intelligence gathering, and her work is critical to her family, especially since House von Hasenberg has recently gone to war with their rival, House Rockhurst. When the story opens, Bianca is attending a ball when a hidden gunman tries to kill her. Her security escort Ian Bishop, the director of security for House von Hasenberg, manages to get both of them out alive, but when Bianca returns to her home to check in with her brothers and sisters, her brother Ferdinand doesn’t respond. It isn’t long before it’s discovered that Ferdinand is actually missing and may have been kidnapped.

Bianca doesn’t lose any time trying to find Ferdinand, although her efforts are hampered by the fact that Ian has forbidden her to leave home to search for her brother. Luckily, our heroine isn’t going to let a puffed up, beefy security guard stop her from what needs to be done. Yes, Ian is extremely attractive and has bulging muscles in all the right places, but Bianca knows she is Ferdinand’s best chance for rescue, and so she employs all her talents and dives into the ‘net for answers. When a lead turns up, Bianca joins forces with her siblings, a couple of mercenary pilots named Aoife and Alex, and yes, Ian as well, as they go against all odds to find and rescue Ferdinand.

That’s the gist of the plot, and of course there is a lot I’m not mentioning in the recap. I had a ton of fun with this book, although it wasn’t quite as good as Polaris Rising, but still a very good entry into this series. The story is told in first person from Bianca’s point of view, and I really enjoyed her character. Not only is Bianca very clever—she has to be because she’s more or less a spy—but she has a secret that she’s hiding from everyone, an ability to “hear” transmissions flying through the air. Her late husband Gregory was a terrible person and did experiments on Bianca without her permission, and now she can intercept and overhear messages and break encryption. She also has the ability to override passwords and can find her way into any computer network, even the enemy’s. This makes her a huge asset to House von Hasenberg, but despite this fact, her overpowering father is on the verge of either banishing her or marrying her off to another House for political reasons. Bianca is also fending off rumors that she killed Gregory, so life is pretty tense for her at the moment.

But I loved her character because she doesn’t take shit from anyone. Not only is she willing to risk her life to save Ferdinand, but she also has a soft spot for other women who are in compromised positions—unhappy marriages, kidnapped or imprisoned, for example—and she uses her status as the daughter of a High House (which is more or less like royalty) and her computer smarts to help them.

Ian’s character isn’t as well developed, probably because we never get to hear the story from his point of view, but I liked him because he’s also hiding a big secret which makes him vulnerable, in a way. Unfortunately, he just can’t compete with Bianca, and he ends up in her shadow for most of the story. I understand that he’s head of security and his job is to protect the von Hasenberg family no matter what, but I did get a little tired of his rehashed dialog with Bianca whenever she does something he doesn’t like. I’m paraphrasing, but these interchanges went something like this:

“I’m running off to rescue Ferdinand.”

“Bianca, I forbid you from leaving the compound. My job is find Ferdinand, you stay put.” Locks her in her room.

“OK sure, Ian.” Unlocks her door with her super brain, sneaks out and steals a ship.

Ian catches up to her. “I told you not to do that! Go home immediately.”

“OK sure Ian.” Takes control of the ship with her super brain, leaving Ian fuming.

I know I’m poking fun of Ian, but really he does end up looking like a duffus during these conversations! And let’s talk a bit about the romance. I have to say that Mihalik does a great job of balancing it with the plot, so even if you’re not a fan of romance, you can still have fun with this series. The emphasis is on the intrigue between Houses, the political maneuvering, and the dangerous mission to recover Ferdinand, and it was honestly hard to put this book down once I started reading. But because this is a romance, you’re going to get lots of smoldering glances, sexy banter and yes—eventually—hot sex. I do wish the author hadn’t saved everything for the end, however. It seems to take a long time for Bianca and Ian to finally get together, which means that it all felt very rushed at the end.

But these small quibbles aside, I am really enjoying this series. Mihalik brings back Ada and Loch from the first book, who are now happily together, and I loved how she integrates them into this story, even though they have very small roles. She also leaves some dangling story threads that I hope will be resolved in the next book, although book three, Chaos Reigning, will focus on a different von Hasenberg sister. I’m not going to rehash all the fascinating world-building details for you here, but if you’re interested in a more in depth description, I invite you to read my review of Polaris Rising. Now that I’m caught up, I can hardly wait for next May!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.