Tracing The Stars

Set in Dallas, Texas, this is a Contemporary Romance series with light BDSM elements and mature themes. Each book will be a complete story, no cliffhangers.

[bc:All These Pieces of Me|18629368|All These Pieces of Me (The Stables #1)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381008150s/18629368.jpg|26421102][bc:Obsessive Compulsion|18629668|Obsessive Compulsion (The Stables #2)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381026400s/18629668.jpg|26421765][bc:If You Still Want Me|18629695|If You Still Want Me (The Stables #3)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028205s/18629695.jpg|26421828][bc:Pierce the Heart|18629705|Pierce the Heart (The Stables #4)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028808s/18629705.jpg|26421853]

Details Coming Soon!

Coming Soon! New contemporary romance series with light BDSM elements and mature, emotional themes. Intended for mature readers.
[bc:All These Pieces of Me|18629368|All These Pieces of Me (The Stables #1)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381008150s/18629368.jpg|26421102][bc:Obsessive Compulsion|18629668|Obsessive Compulsion (The Stables #2)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381026400s/18629668.jpg|26421765][bc:If You Still Want Me|18629695|If You Still Want Me (The Stables #3)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028205s/18629695.jpg|26421828][bc:Pierce the Heart|18629705|Pierce the Heart (The Stables #4)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028808s/18629705.jpg|26421853]

Obsessive Compulsion is Now Available! Contemporary romance series with light BDSM elements and mature, emotional themes. Intended for mature readers.

[bc:All These Pieces of Me|18629368|All These Pieces of Me (The Stables #1)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381008150s/18629368.jpg|26421102][bc:Obsessive Compulsion|18629668|Obsessive Compulsion (The Stables #2)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381026400s/18629668.jpg|26421765][bc:If You Still Want Me|18629695|If You Still Want Me (The Stables #3)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028205s/18629695.jpg|26421828][bc:Pierce the Heart|18629705|Pierce the Heart (The Stables #4)|C.E. Kilgore|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1381028808s/18629705.jpg|26421853]

I'm not a huge fan of vampire romance, but this was a really fun read - mostly because of Kade's character. He has a bad mouth, is brash and abrasive without excuses, but he also has a softer side that is endearing. I don't read many books from this genre, but I found some aspects of the world building unique and interesting. I may even consider continuing with the series.

Originally posted on http://www.TracingTheStars.com - I was provided a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am going to start off by saying that the above synopsis, provided on Goodreads and Amazon, gives a completely skewed and incorrect tone, assumption and impression to readers about this book. The above synopsis sounds more like a suspense filled, fast paced sci-fi married with some sci-fi romance and erotica. This book is none of the above. This book, however, is wonderful in its own right. I know the synopsis was written this way to get more people to buy it, because if the synopsis matched the actual material and style of the book, it would have a hard time breaking into the market.

Why? People, these days, don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to read thick books.

When I say thick books, I am referring not to the size but to the content. This book is more aptly defined as a modern classic, with tone and social commentary introspective reflection that hearkens back to Bradbury, Huxley and Stanislav. It has rythm and substance, in fact, the pages are almost weighed down by it. Endless meanderings resulting in quotable, memorable nuggets of “ah!” moments that cause you to set the book down and think for time over the true meanings of the phrases used. This is a book, like Semmant, that thinks for itself and asks you to do the same or get left behind.

The book starts off in the most unlikely of places – a mental ward in Spain. Here we meet Bogdan, the man whose head we will be the passenger in for the remainder of the tale. It’s his tale, that he is reflecting back on as part of a journal he is writing in the hospital.

“My days are scheduled right down to the hour, to the very minute, and yet I’m not in a hurry.”

Indeed, Bogdan is in no hurry to tell his story in any kind of short order. The next nine chapters (nearly 23% of the book on my Kindle) are spent as a set up – giving you a history and idea of what makes Bogdan tick. We discover his family had a Gypsy lifestyle until he was discovered to be an Indigo child. (For those unfamiliar, here is a link to learn about the Indigo phenomenon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children) After this discovery, he is moved to a special school with other Indigos. Eventually, the Indigo program ends and he finds himself employed by a stock market broker. This sets him along his path to the creation of Semmant.

”One thing leads to another,” I told myself. “The connection is obvious. I’m on the right path.”

Bogdan creates Semmant to be a stock-market playing computer with a goal to change the way in which people interact with the stock market and allow regular people to become profitable. He programs Semmant with a full learning brain (artificial intelligence) and then gives Semmant the task of playing and learning the market. This is when Bogdan’s mind begins to stumble down the path from creative genus to mad creator.

“Gradually, I was getting accustomed to the role of Creator, to drawing the boldest of analogies. What was it like in the quantum mocroverse that I had so carelessly discarded?”

“Of course, it would have been easier to task a simple program with this work, but I somehow understood: everything had to be done by hand. I am the Creator, not some soulless ‘macro’.”

All is going well, until Semmant experiences uncertainty in the market and backs away from it. Then we get to Chapter 9, and thus the heart of the story between Bogdan, Semmant (from the fluffed up synopsis) finally begins. The actual synopsis story of suspense, love, an AI gone wrong and betrayal doesn't begin until close to 50% in. (But I think it is worth getting there, so don't get me wrong.)

“Here’s what happened: I wrote a poem. Twenty lines without rhyme, a spasmodic shout into emptiness and obscurity.”

Bogdan ends up entering his poem into Semmant’s programming and it signals a turning point for Semmant’s development. Bogdan inputs more lyrics and Semmant evolves emotional responses and actions based on understanding more than logic.

“Strangely, I did not understand before then: the cocoon of impassivity binds more effectively than steel chains. You cannot compute the taste of victory with sober calculations. One must be involved – and biases, not indifferent. Otherwise, even the most ingenious brain could not manage to prove itself.”

Semmant is a book that should be consumed slowly, like a glass of malt – savored for it’s subtle layers and pondered over for its golden, world-distorting hue. In fact, I plan to read it a second time, and perhaps a third, as I am most certain there are things I missed and more nuggets for my finger to highlight in my Kindle. More thoughts to stash away and review later. Interesting questions raised and not to be so quickly forgotten.

“Why not five stars?“, you may ask. I feel like, although it is long for its reasons, it could have been shorn down in several places without losing its overall substance. It is quite apparent that the author is a scientist in the fields the book references, and he is also a postulate thinker. I hate to say that parts of this book could have been sacrificed to tighten the story, but it could have been. At times, it truly reads like a ranting manifesto, losing its path to take several unnecessary turns before folding back in on itself like a mobius strip.

I recommend this book for all lovers of classical science fiction and who are willing to take the time to sit down and really get to know a book instead of demanding a drive-through style story with soggy fries and a half-cooked burger.

This is a great, fast paced novella that gives a complete glimpse into the world of the Biomass Wars series from the perspective of Squad 19's leader, Obi. It tells the back story of Obi's necklace and gives more details about Squad 19, life in the Wastelands and the TDU. There is a good deal of heart pounding action as well as emotional pull in this short story, and it is a good companion to the series.

I got through this book last night but have been pondering over a rating for it. I'm not normally a fan of some of the things going on in this book or with parts of Peaches character, but there is just something so in your face about Peaches, that it makes you step back and reevaluate how you approach her. I think at least a small part of us wishes we could be as daring, brash, out there and 'exposed' as Peaches Monroe.

I do feel like Dalton was a bit over-vilified in a manner that seemed inconsistent with his character in book 1, almost as a necessity to make Peaches choices and actions simply easier for some to swallow. Keith, on the other hand, was a dream guy (aside from the eating habits.. and other ... oddities).

The issues with Kyle - I can understand how some people could have serious problems with this aspect of Peaches' character, but I think it explains a great deal about her and her approach to things. I think there is still a lot there to be explored and have a feeling that Peaches is going to have to deal with it in book 3.

One thing Mimi does well is write characters that aren't begging you to like them. They have flaws, some more apparent than others. Peaches isn't perfect, but she wouldn't be Peaches Monroe if she was.

TracingTheStars.com was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review and was subsequently blown away by the awesomeness of this book.

After reading and very much enjoying book 1 of the Endure series, Maven (4 Star review of Maven on TracingTheStars.com), I was really excited to receive an advanced review copy of the sequel, Nemesis. Within the first few chapters, I could already tell that S.A. Huchton had raised everything to a whole new level. I wasn’t ready to hand out the five-star rating quite yet, but by the last chapter, it was a no-brainer. Nemesis is intelligent, hard science fiction romance, where the science fiction of the story is just as important as the romantic elements.

I almost hesitate with calling it “hard” science fiction because I don’t want to chase away readers who prefer softer or speculative sci-fi. Although the science is instrumental to the plot and obviously well researched, it isn’t impossible to read or understand. I’m not a hard-science fan, normally. In fact, that was one of the problems I had with book 1, Maven. Where Maven struggled to incorporate all of the really great and well researched science fiction into biteable chunks for us softer-science folks, Nemesis succeeded in making me rethink my stance on hard sci-fi. Huchton made both the computer tech side of Daniel and the micro biology side of Lydia consumable, approachable and avoided using overly technical info-dumps.

Nemesis picks up the story of Dr. Daniel Brewer, computer/software engineering genius, and Dr. Lydia Ashley, marine/micro biology genius, as they continue to investigate the mystery surrounding the secret Maven project. The general plot line involves running secret investigations with a selected team on board the Endure, an undersea research facility, in an attempt to discover who is behind the Maven initiative. The Maven project was introduced in book 1 as a genetically engineered bacteria that could be used as a weapon with global consequences. Other familiar faces also make appearances, including Cordy and Tony.

New faces are also brought in that add both conflict to the plot and to the relationship development between Daniel and Lydia. Daniel and Lydia are struggling with having to divide their time between their normal Endure jobs and the secret research they are doing. This leaves little time for their relationship and they find themselves stumbling. The relationship conflicts deepen as two new characters are brought in – Dr. Anna Corvis who has an obvious interest Daniel while using her knowledge of the Maven project as bait, and Dr. Nick Miller who has a past with Lydia that she is unprepared to deal with.

Normally, these kinds of angst plots of old flames showing up or new pushy characters flaunting their drive to destroy the main characters’ relationship make me groan. When Huchton used them both at once, I had to bite my tongue. The way Huchton used these common plot devices, however, was as smart as her science fiction, and she mixed it with the time-strains already inflicting Lydia and Daniel. Facing these three complications on top of the ongoing Maven investigations resulted in realistic and believable reactions from both characters. Toss in the secret that comes to light about Lydia and I was applauding the angst.

Me, applauding angst. I do think a pig just flew by my window. Huchton masterfully crafted it in such a way that it worked without being annoying or over dramatic. I could understand where both Daniel and Lydia were coming from, and the angst became the honest ups and downs of a new relationship. Thank you, Huchton. Thank you.

Aside from Anna and Nick (love his character, by the way), a new addition to Daniel’s tech team is made. In my review of Maven, I mentioned that I was a bit miffed that the tech team was all male. In Nemesis, we get Brooke added to the team. She reminded me of a SYS Admin I used to work with, so it was a bit fun and I was glad for her addition.

The ending – it killed me and had me searching online for the release date of book 3. I have an idea of where Huchton is going to be headed with book 3 and Lydia’s character and I am dying to find out if I’m right.

The book is recommended for everyone who likes good, smart science fiction, a page-turning suspenseful plot and a believable, realistic relationship development between two people struggling to hold onto each other while pressure builds and presses in on them from all sides.

Society and empathy have evolved for thousands of years. Could I have guessed that corruption would continue to evolve along side them?

Black Hull is a strange, meandering tale that at times reads like a lucid dream. It will have you questioning what you are reading and how you are approaching the book itself while the main character, Mick, is questioning his whole approach at life. The premise is simple enough. Mick was in prison for a crime of passion, but he agrees to do a deep space smuggling job in order to cut time off his thirty year prison sentence. The mission will take ten years, so he is trading ten years of his life for twenty years he can spend with his kids and the wife who cheated on him, leading to the crime of passion. That premise, however, is where the simplicity ends and the strange trip begins.

Something goes wrong with the mission and Mick finds himself on board an escape pod that is losing power. He resigns himself to death, and the next time he wakes up, he's no longer where or when he thought he was. His pod has full power, he is saved by a bot called XJ and learns that he has been cast into the future - a future in which Earth has been destroyed and his wife and children are long gone. Mick's new goal is to find a way back. Time travel technology exists, but it doesn't come cheap or easy. His ticket to the past becomes Sera, a hard-lined captain who has her own goals. She's trying to get to Utopia, and she is going to use Mick to get there.

The style of this book will leave some readers floundering and grasping at conceptual understanding, I'm sure. It isn't an easy style and the formatting on my Kindle made it even harder to read. It switched constantly from inline paragraphs to block paragraphs. Endless sequences of dialogue led into meandering internal prose as Mick tried to remember why he held onto his goal to get back to a wife who didn't want him and reconciling past with present with future. There are also several flashbacks stuck into random places without transition that caused my brain to stutter a bit as it switched gears.

Formatting and style aside - there is a good adventure / thriller aspect to this story and a unique science fiction flavor that you don't get very often. There is comedy mixed with profound questions, and characters that don't ask you to like them. No, Sera and Mick don't even try. You find yourself liking them, however, and you find yourself asking the same questions as Mick - stay or go. Past or present. What is that fine line between good and bad? How far would you go when life becomes a blurred concept of artificial existence? What would you do in a desperate search for a personal utopia?

I recommend this read simply because it is unique. It stands out in a sea of merely likable, retold stories. It stands on its own, and I look forward to more from this author.

*deep breath* Oh my. I knew I would have a hard time putting this book down, but this was ridiculous. I think I may have stopped to eat. Once. I think. I have been looking forward to this book for so long, even though the Kit duo push these books out at a very reasonable time frame. This was the book though, for me. The one book in the series that had me completely riveted since the very first one. Bren and Six.

I don't often put quotes or meme images in my reviews, but this book actually had me highlighting things.

Maybe if she filled her head with enough good things, the bad ones would topple out the back

That quote sums up a good part of Six's struggle. Her struggle to relax, to stop biting outstretched hands. Her struggle to trust. Her struggle find a different reason and a different way to fight. What she found was Brendan Donnelly.

"I know." Her laughter tickled his skin. "You're my favorite of all the people who've ever kidnapped me."
It was sweet, in a sad, twisted sort of way - which pretty much described both of them perfectly. "You're absolutely my favorite person I've veer kidnapped."

Bren. Bren. His character is so roughly beautiful it's painful in the good sort of way that gives you an idea why he licks Ace's bullwhip so much.

These two characters are the focus for beyond Pain, but their story is intertwined by all that is going on in the O'Kane compound in Sector Four and the newly granted territory of Sector Three. Sector Thee is in a rough state, Trent's bad leadership having left it in a ruined, fermented state of decay. Dallas sends Bren and Six in to clean it up. While they work to reorganize the sector and put an end to the kind of business Dallas wont tolerate, Six and Bren begin taking steps to a middle ground between them, where the past isn't thrown away but built over and where all that remains is a bond dependent on the giving and acceptance of trust.

Boarding the edges of Bren and Six's story is the continued partnership of Lex and Dallas, as well as the continued trio of Ace, Cruz and Rachael dancing around one another. The next book is for them and I'm curious to see how that plays out, especially after the last Cruz chapter. (*fist pump cheer*)

There were parts about this book that I really enjoyed and almost loved. Mea and Kavath are both good characters, the world building was very well done and I enjoyed the romantic elements as well as the survivalist elements. There was so much cliche in the book, though, that I had to read it with a cheesy grin almost the entire time. Earth is at galactic war with aliens. Earth female (who at least in this book isn't a total dimwit) gets into a situation where she is confronted with alien hunk who just happens to be her "match" and a perfect man. Alien hunk is idealist (war bad, vegetables good), on the alpha side, sweet, smart, has survivor skills, is a virgin, wants one women and kids and wants to be a provider.
Cliches aside, I did enjoy the quick read, so four stars for cheese and crackers.

Freebie Novella. This was more science fiction than romance, but that wasn't an issue because the science fiction was interesting. Sean and Evan are workers at Earth's first space colony. It's never mentioned what planet it's on, how they got there or what year it is. It's all left to speculation, but the colony world building was well done for a short novella. Evan is an architectural engineer and Sean is a software engineer. Evan misses the colors of Earth in the drab environment of the colony while Sean misses real music and real human creativity. When a problem with the light-shields develops, Sean and Evan must work together to find a solution or the colony could be lost. I liked Sean's socially awkward yet brash character juxtaposed to Evan's more reserved, quiet nature.

This was an enjoyable and quick read. I really liked the mute aspect of Scotlyn and Nix was a heartfelt character. I really appreciated the duality of Lincoln in this; sure the guy was a bastard, but you could catch glimpses that he may not have always been that way and that he was struggling with his own demons. The side characters were also all full of their own life and could easily carry their own breakway books, which is what I was expecting as it seems to be the norm these days for books like this to be the set up for a series. Surprisingly, there were no real open ends left at the end of the book, though. All the characters seemed to get wrapped up. I appreciated that but I was also slightly disappointed by that. I would have loved a Clutch/Taylor book or a Cass/Dray book in the future.

Short freebie. The conceptual elements were interesting and so was the science behind the science fiction. The lack of scene transitions was jarring, and the formatting made it a bit hard to read on my Kindle Paperwhite. Sometimes it was difficult to understand who was speaking. It did cut off a bit abruptly with a teaser of a sequel to come, which I will most likely pick up as I enjoyed the story and am interested to see Luc's character develop.

I'm not normally a reader of Young Adult fiction, even science fiction. I often find it to be shallow, written with the voice of a ten-year-old and lacking any real story or characters that interest me. However, when Pippa Jay released Gethyon, I knew I had to at least give it a try. I have read other works by Pippa Jay, including Keir. Gethyon is in the same universe and follows within the same storyline of Keir, though Keir was written for an adult audience. I must admit that I could be considered a fan of Pippa Jay's stories and writing style, so I was curious to see how that might translate into a Young Adult book.

I know there is a bit of a grey area these days between children's books, young adult books and the latest new adult genre craze. I am not quite sure myself where the lines are technically drawn, what is considered age appropriate and what rules are applied to a young adult book. Without getting into semantics, I will propose that Gethyon is appropriate for ages 13 and up, much like a pg-13 movie. It includes violence, a self-defense murder and an attempted sexual assault (which is brushed over and not at all detailed). It also includes a vocabulary that might have younger readers reaching for the dictionary more than a few times. The style may also give younger readers a hard time.

The book is beautifully written. It does not lack the descriptive style and flow that I have come to appreciate in Pippa Jay's writing, which is a loss I feared given that this is intended as a young adult book. While I am uncertain as to how much of a road block this may pose to the intended audience, for me it was awesome. I loved every single page, paragraph and sentence of this book. The pace is fast, full of action and there were never any points of lag, which is sure to keep younger reader's attention. Even the slower scenes were ripe with a palpable tension and emotion that underlined every word and followed each character.

There are many great characters in this book, although the bad guys seemed a bit lax in the redeeming qualities department. This is often a crux of young adult books - a lack of complexity, reasoning or grey area for the villains. This is probably the only real gripe I have about the book. The bad guys are just bad, plain and simple. Dephon was an evil jerk, Neoris was a bastardous jerk and Jinx is well... Jinx.

Enough about the badies, though. Let's talk about Gethyon Rees. Gethyon is a complicated character, often walking the fine line between darkness and light. He is a kid struggling with abandonment issues and a dark power welling up within him that he has no idea how to control. On the other hand, he is sweet, caring and attempts to do the right thing, even when it means doing something wrong to protect those he cares about. Often a victim of circumstance, he finds himself in trouble with the authorities and outsiders hunting him for a bounty, while internally he is struggling to keep the growing power within him under control.

Will he let the power control him and draw him into the tempting realm of vengeance and domination, or will he control the power and use it to protect those he cherishes and reach his dreams of traveling the stars?

I'm not telling - so go read the book.

Best of the series so far, hands down. Loved Cory and Vic's chemistry and Cory's character over all. I didn't like the last forced scene in his office, though, and I think the book would have been better without it. Then Cory went and fixed my opinion of him with the balloon. I laughed and laughed about that. I have a suspicion this next book (if there is one) will be about Jill and Bryan. I already like their characters, so if it is, count me in!