Series: Steamwork Chronicles #2
Published by Loose ID on 2013-01-15
Genres: BDSM, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Steam Punk
Pages: 290
Format: eARC
Goodreads
Saving the world should be easier. When airship captain Kaysana meets Sten the last thing she wants to do is have mad rough sex with him while bound by ropes and clamps…but fate pencils in their appointment. The lust plague strikes. From her infected crew, zombies arise.
With her ship gone, she must rely on Sten, a human clone, a man who has fought all his life to master himself. She despises his kind and detests Sten’s growing hold on her. Though he never takes no for an answer, surely it’s the plague that makes yes slip from her tongue like melted butter? Or should she blame her own traitorous heart?
Hordes of slavering zombies await them. Sten and Kaysana unlimber weapons, don goggles, and set a course for the origin of the plague. Yet victory will be hollow if they cannot also solve the puzzle of their hearts.
Zombie-F has hit Kaysana’s world and now her crew are in peril. The Commander of a massive airship, she has no choice but to abandon her ship when her crew turn into the murderous, lust crazed Zombies that the disease creates. Escaping with a Frankenstruct (a being made entirely in a lab of parts), she cannot foresee the way that that choice will affect her life path.
Sten is used to people looking down on him as a manufactured man. He has seen the worst in people and been made to be the worst of men in return. Lusting after the Commander of his ship has never gotten him anywhere, but when he comes across her bound and at the mercy of lust crazed zombies, all that is about to change. Under the thrall of the Zombie fever, neither of them can do anything but succumb to their carnal desires for each other. They escape the ship, but they cannot escape the fever that still flows through their veins.
The sex fever overtakes their brains, makes them less able to concentrate on fighting to survive. Submitting to their urges, whenever they take effect, seems like the best course of action, but the fever brings out their deepest fantasies, proving to them both that they may have something other than work in common.
Kaysana is a woman used to being in control, a woman who can’t fathom being seen for anything less than her role. However, her sub-conscious fantasies show something else, show her submitting to a man strong enough to take the reins. Turns out that man is not a man at all, he’s something more. Only in Sten’s arms can she lose control and take the pleasure he wants to give her. Can she lose the relationship sell-by date stamped on her brain and allow him to give her everything?
Before we start a few words of advice: read book one first. Not only is the story an absolutely amazing piece of work, it explains the workings of this world in far more detail than this one does. It is vital to looking at the history of the Frankenstruct and explains some of the tensions that underpin this book. Now a word of warning; this book contains graphic scenes of gore. I’m talking zombies chewing off their own lips…it made me gag a few times, but that’s what you get with Zombie books! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel book and will be picking up other books in the series.
This book is dark. It deals with rape, mutilation, murder and cannibalism. It wasn’t easy to read, and at some points I felt plain ill, but I could not tear my eyes away. It was romance building in the most perilous of times. With roadblock after roadblock being put in the way of Sten and Kaysana, I was hooked because I could not fathom how Cari Silverwood would sort out the mess she had written her characters into. Of course, the sex was ridiculously hot (it always is in Cari’s books), although I was slightly uncomfortable with the heat I was feeling, as the sex was a side product of the virus. It felt a little icky because neither character was capable of saying yes or no. Once the story got going, emotion and trust built between the two characters and I felt able to lose myself in the scenes. By golly, that made for some uncomfortable bus reading, especially a scene involving a kitty mask and one with a car ornament….phew! 🙂 On a sideways note, I can get into the nipple clamps, but the clit clamp made me want to cross my legs whilst running for the hills!
Both of the main characters are well written. Kaysana is a female captain, not a rarity in her world, but one who must be careful none the less. She finds a way to let go through submission to Sten, to simply relax. However, she cannot be seen fraternising with a Frankenstruct, cannot be seen to lust after a lower class, and so once the disease is out of her system she must let go. I knew the decisions were hard for her, knew the pride she took in her work, so I didn’t hate her for her hesitations. She was quite horrible to Sten because of this pride, but true love never does run smooth J Sten was all Alpha hotness in the bedroom and a lovely, genuine hero outside of it. Quite often, writers seem to write Dom’s who just want a stronger sub to prove that they can tame a strong woman. I didn’t feel this at all here; he worshipped her because of her strength. He used her strengths and tactics to get them out of trouble; he never belittled her experience or skill. I admired that he allowed her to move at her own pace, didn’t rush or pressure her in anyway. He was a fabulous hero who I enjoyed reading about.
This is classed as steam-punk but I’m not sure what I think about that label. It is futuristic with elements of sci-fi/fantasy; I don’t know what I’d class it as other than a stonking good read! With a hot BDSM love story set amongst the backdrop of chaos and death, I was engrossed until the end. The epilogue was interesting too…..
I thought this book was true to the authors style, I love reading her work. I think her writing is clear enough you can picture her characters in your head and that is the sign of a true artist.