Sanctify is a rabid speiciest group that has dedicated
themselves to wiping out their alien "enemies", and they
have tried to kill all the Diviners. Diviners are aliens
whose goddess give them direction via tarot cards, and by
telepathy as the Diviners progress along their spiritual
path. Ophelia is a Diviner, like her mother. Her father
is an escaped solder from Sanctify, who has a gunrunning
business. Ophelia works in her dad's business, and has
just returned home after losing all her crew in a
devastating attack by Sanctify because she did not listen
to the fate her cards foretold.
To drown her sorrows, she has a very hot night of drunken
sex (which starts on page 14!) then heads home. When she
arrives home, her cards tell her she is supposed to marry
the Prince of Hansarda. Having just had it deeply
impressed upon her it is dangerous to not listen to her
tarot cards, Ophelia sucks it up and leaves with who she
believes to be the prince's representative, who happens to
be the guy she just burned up the sheets with: Boone.
Boone first shows up to do some reconnaissance, to see if
Ophelia is going to bring all the resources of her father's
gun running company under his half brother Prince
Kristian's thumb when she becomes Kristian's wife. Boone
shows up after the card reading in order to kidnap Ophelia,
but Ophelia's family believes he is there to take Ophelia
to the Prince. Ophelia therefore goes willingly with Boone
to his spacecraft. Boone and his alien crew instead
transport Ophelia to an outlying planet, so Kristian can't
get access to her family's weapons.
Ophelia keeps laying out her cards as the story progresses,
a clever literary device that gives us some insight through
the plot twists and turns. There are a lot of
entertaining interspecies interactions, lots of political
intrigue and betrayal, a poisoning plot, and some kick butt
action. There are also some very steamy sex scenes. QUEEN
OF SWORDS
is a romp of a sci fi romance, and it is a blast to read.
QUEEN OF SWORDS is listed as book one in the Sanctify
series, but
there is a prequel novella, The High Priestess. I did not
read the prequel and did not feel it necessary to enjoy
QUEEN OF
SWORDS.
When the cards tell Ophelia Leoni she's supposed to marry
the Prince of Hansarda, the gunrunner grits her teeth and
boards the starship that comes for her. It doesn't matter if
the ship's commander is the gorgeous stranger she just spent
a wild, drunken night with. As a Diviner, she’s painfully
aware the cards don't lie. Ever.
Boone O’Keirna knows Ophelia is trouble the second he sees
the way she moves. Not about to let the deadly little
hellcat marry his sadistic half-brother, Boone pretends to
be the Prince’s emissary and kidnaps Ophelia. Too bad they
can’t be in the same room without him wanting to throw her
out an airlock–or into bed.
Even as they fight each other-and their explosive
attraction-Ophelia and Boone sense something is wrong. Too
much is going their way. Soon, they realize while the cards
may never lie, the truth is sometimes hidden between
them...and the future king of Hansarda is not one to take
defeat lying down.
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