Book 41, 2020

Slave by Cheryl Brooks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I had only two or three chapters left in my book at work, so I brought it home to finish. The book was Slave by Cheryl Brooks, and it's the first installment of her "Cat Star Chronicles" series of...paranormal romance, I guess. Story is told in first-person pov by the main character, Jacinth "Jack"...I don't recall if we ever learned her last name. Jack is kind of an intrepid, female version of Han Solo, traveling through space and making her living as a trader, all while searching for her sister, Ranata, who was abducted in a crowd where Jack couldn't save her.

Jack has traced Ranata to a planet where all females are slaves and kept chained to the males. In order for her to safely navigate that world, she will need to be in the company of a trustworthy male. To that end, she visits the slave markets of a nearby planet, where she buys, and subsequently frees, a Zetithian male. Due to his subtly feline appearance, she begins calling him Cat.

Cat is grateful to be freed and would like to express his gratitude by giving Jack "pleasure such as you have never known". She tries to resist at first, but really, what woman can resist a male with Cat's...attributes? As they search for Ranata, they become closer to one another, and when disaster strikes, Jack must rely on her ability to track Cat through their bond to save the day.

This was painful to read. Jack was a Mary Sue, in that she didn't consider herself beautiful (in fact, she often passed as male where she went), yet by the end of the book, men were totally enamored of her, especially on the planet where Ranata was tracked to. The author used far too many exclamation points throughout the narrative. It wasn't that exciting, trust me. Jack's dialogue and inner monologue were liberally sprinkled with current English idioms that should not be known in the future, let alone used. The author made an attempt to explain that by indicating that Jack loved old Earth pop-culture. Riiiight. Descriptions of Cat's attributes were bizarre, quite frankly. Reading this was like reading fanfiction. I can't decide if it was written by a giggling teenage girl who tried to create the naughtiest smut possible, or by a guy who was projecting fantasies about his own dick onto Cat. Jack's character was well-realized, but hers was the only one. Even Cat seemed two-dimensional. The plot moved along at a good pace and flowed sensibly, but it wasn't enough to save this. In addition (SPOILER ALERT), when Jack found Ranata, she was happy and didn't want to leave. Called it! The whole concept of slavery did not sit well with me, either, especially the women chained to the men, even though (SPOILER ALERT) we learn it was the women's idea in the first place. *head desk*

Favorite line: Of course, you know how it is when a stray cat follows you home; once they adopt you, there's just no getting rid of them.

Reading this was a chore, and I'm relieved it's finished. The story itself was interesting, but the story-telling was awful. I have three other books in this series (purchased when all it took to pique my interest was "paranormal romance" on the spine), and you know what? They're all going in the donation bag, along with this one. That should tell you how little I enjoyed this.

Giving it two stars, mostly for the plot.