30/12 - WHY did I not find this 6 months ago. I've been looking for this for years (ever since I read 'The Skypirate') I'm definitely anticipating this read

Once upon a time the heroine wanted nothing more than the adventure and honor of captaining a ship for the coalition. But time and war and her beliefs have warn her down and she's beginning to finally understand the deeply flawed culture of her people. Always she admired the ease and devotion of the enemy. Her parents were bonded and dedicated to one another and this is something that she's always desired for herself even if this is against the way of her people who use sex as just a release and nothing more. While on leave and staying at a friends estate, she meets a man who will change her life forever. She never could stomach the idea of slaves and to see such a beautiful vibrant man in chains makes her sick. He's given to her by her 'friend' and even though she could never live with the idea of using him is such a way, she soons realizes that to turn him away will see him severely punished. So, she takes him into her room. There she informs him that he is no longer a slave while in her presence and for the few weeks afterwards they talk and communicate as if they were friends. But the hero isn't so easy to put his trust in a woman who's supposed to be the enemy and though he makes improvements to cease casting his eyes down or repeating' as you demand' to all her suggestions, the heroine knows that he still holds a lot of himself from her. The heroine has become quite attached to him, maybe in her mind longing for that connection her parents had on top of wanting him to know a taste of the freedom he'll never have but either way, she's hurt when she learns that he's already had a wife and lost her in the war. She uses this memory of his beloved as an excuse to use the slave controller on him for the first and only time. She sleeps him with, tries to convince him she's his wife but forgets to implants the memory that it had all been a dream. When the hero wakes, he's angered by her betrayal and they part ways on bad terms. Called away on a mission, the heroine returns a few months later to discover he's been sold to a slave trader. She risks her career, her reputation and her life to break him out. She secrets him onto her ship and takes them into the dead of space. There the two reacquaint themselves with the passion they once had in her quarters all those months ago. But still the distrust, they betrayal and stubbornness remain between them. The heroine can't understand why her true feelings aren't broadcasting clearly to him and he still persists on thinking the worse of her at every turn. She can only assume that what she was and who she worked for will always keep them apart and thought breaks her heart. She frees him of his collar, vows to see him wherever he wants to go and even though it will sever something inside of her, she'll then leave him life forever. But the tables turn, on his home planet, she becomes the slave, the prisoner. And when she learns who he truly is, she realizes that if their relationship wasn't doomed before it's certainly impossible now. I loved this story. The heroine was such a lovely mixture of vulnerable and courageous. Though she's a bad ass space pilot, it's obvious from the jump she's a prisoner to her emotions. She feels too deeply and too quickly and the fact that she's kept in the dark about the hero's feels throughout the book causes her to think the worse about herself. Though she makes stupid choices at times, especially when it comes to how she makes choices for the hero, she always does everything from a place of love. The fact that the author has written the story only from the heroine's POV just deepens the sense of mystery towards the hero. He was very good at not revealing what he was thinking or what he was feeling. And this results in a whole bunch of misunderstands that could have been avoided if he had only told the heroine what was on his mind. And the same goes to the heroine. She says she is against slaves but at no point did she ask him his trust name, calling him by the name given to him by his masters. And she unconsciously treated him as a slave if only by making decisions for him. But I can say that I was hooked from the first page to the last and was 100% along for the roller-coaster ride that was their growing relationship. This was so not the cheesy romance as the cover might suggest. I found it to be a angst ridden story about learning to trust and how one earns that trust. Lovely book. ( )

Sci Fi Romance. Coalition Rebellion 1. Shaylah Graymist, ace fighter pilot for the intergalactic Coalition, is given a slave as a reward for heroism in battle. Wolf wears a collar which controls him completely. While Shaylah is away, Wolf rebels and is sold to a prison colony where she finds and frees him. OK-
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Loved it! I've read a lot of Justine Davis's books but I had never read one of her fantasies. I'll be reading more of them too. Shaylah is a great kick-ass heroine. Wolf is mysterious and sexy. I thought it really fascinating how Justine Davis was able to characterize Wolf so well without going into his viewpoint. Great read! ( )

Damn, that's good. It's a ridiculous premise, but one I usually enjoy despite its ridiculousness - a love slave in a science fiction universe. But Justine Davis managed to make both the premise and the people in it very real. Shaylah and Wolf/Dare make sense in their actions, behaviors, and beliefs (though I'm glad Wolf explained himself, late in the game - I didn't know why he was so resistant). Of course, it also uses the misunderstanding trope, which I hate, but they had better reasons for misunderstanding one another than usual. It would have been one hell of a story without the romance - with it, this is magnificent. I'll be reading it again, I'm sure. Oh, and according to LibraryThing there's another book! Gotta find that. I do love Justine Davis - her characters always come to life, and the silliest premises make sense. This one is unusually good even for her, though. Excuse me while I wipe my eyes and blow my nose...
Rereading - I remembered the really stupid thing she did early on, and this time I realized just how stupid it was. So I was very slow reading the first part, wincing away from what I knew was coming. Finally got through it and it's still a good story, but it's only the fact that this is a romance (with all the appropriate tropes) that lets them get past that complete error. She screws up again later, but by that time he's screwed up with her a couple times too so it's less of an utter stupidity. I really don't like the misunderstanding trope - and here, the misunderstandings are as much within as between them, so they're even worse. It's still good, still enjoyable - but more so as an SF story (neat universe, interesting people, fascinating events) than as a romance (a bit too much to believe, that it would still work, for me). ( )