Introducing a new feature here on Read-Love-Blog…Phoebe’s Picks!
My good friend and up-and-coming author, Phoebe Chase, will be stopping by every now and then with a recent read she would love to recommend. Thanks for stopping by to check out her very first pick. Enjoy!
Rulebreaker by Cathy Pegau
Book links:
Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Goodreads
Synopsis:
Liv Braxton’s Felon Rule #1: Don’t get emotionally involved.
Smash-and-grab thieving doesn’t lend itself to getting chummy with the victims, and Liv hasn’t met anyone on the mining colony of Nevarro worth knowing, anyway. So it’s easy to follow her Rules.
Until her ex, Tonio, shows up with an invitation to join him on the job of a lifetime.
Until Zia Talbot, the woman she’s supposed to deceive, turns Liv’s expectations upside down in a way no woman ever has.
Until corporate secrets turn deadly.
But to make things work with Zia, Liv has to do more than break her Rules, and the stakes are higher than just a broken heart . . .
***
Well, consider me a Cathy Pegau fan. This book reads like a kickass heist movie IN SPACE with the requisite fast-paced ending and twists I never saw coming. In other words, I loved it! It’s smart and funny and the plot kept me turning the pages. I thought the world-building and science fiction elements were well done.
Liv, our heroine, is funny in that “Oh, I wish I had said that” kind of way. Yep, she’s a smartass. She makes a classic mistake during a job—she falls for her mark, Zia. Who happens to be another woman. The romance doesn’t kick in until the second half of the book and some reviews I read thought Liv’s conflicted feelings for her ex in the first half of the book negated the romance with Zia or made them root for a reunion. I feel like it added another layer of depth. For me, it felt like a natural progression. Liv works with hunky ex, has impure thoughts and almost acts on them. (I mean who hasn’t almost slipped and hooked up with an ex?). Meets girl. Thinks girl is hot. Falls for girl. I think someone who didn’t necessarily know they could fall in love with a member of the same sex might discover it in just that fashion.
Rulebreaker is a Phoebe’s Pick!
About the author:
I had stories revolving in my head as a kid, but made little effort to get them down on paper. Home computers were rare way back then, and using my Brother Correct-O-Typewriter was a pain. Funny, then, I thought it too time consuming to use a pen and paper. Now, I will most likely write my stuff out by hand before sitting at the computer to input/edit.
Writing was not the career path I chose when the time came. I thought the arts, while enjoyable, was not the way to make a living. So I went into science. Wildlife biology, to be exact. Yep, plenty of prosperous biologists wandering about in the woods, you know. Obviously money was not high on my list of job perks. But I enjoyed the course work (how many college students can say THAT?) and managed to get short-term positions for a few years. It was fun, hard and sweaty work, and gave me the chance to see and do things I wouldn’t have if I had chosen accounting or even writing. Like get lost in the woods overnight. But that’s another story.
I got engaged, then married–to a scientist, assuring perpetual financial uncertainty. We lived in Oregon for a while, and when he was offered a job in Alaska we jumped at it. So, now we live here with our kids and critters and the occasional moose strolling through the yard. I can’t afford therapy, so I write. I want to do what I want to do, so I write. I want my kids to know that pursuing dreams is important, so I write.
About Phoebe:
Phoebe Chase loves books. Keep your eye on her, she may just tempt you with some stories of her own. You can catch a little of what goes on in her head at Wickedly Twisted Tales.