STELLARNET REBEL

Author: J. L. Hilton ISBN: 9781426892950 1/2012 SCIFI ROMANCE Publisher: CARINA PRESS

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

STELLARNET is a complex and engrossing read. As much as it frustrated me at times, I couldn’t wait to see how it ended.

Genny O’Riordan is a blogger who goes to Asteria, a pod colony in the back of beyond, in the hopes of finding material interesting enough to rocket her blog to the top of the list. There, she finds a colony full of homeless, abandoned children, Irish pub crawlers, video gamers, and a lover, but most importantly, she meets a real life rebel/refugee (and handsome) alien. The alien becomes her ticket to stardom as she shares her blog and life with him, enchanting the Stellarnet readership. It’s hard to say more without spoilers!

I had trouble identifying with the characters as they were all quite extreme; but then, this isn’t a romance novel, though it has adventurous romantic elements. I was also a little frustrated with the Irish elements early in the book. The author is a student of Irish history, and I believe was trying to draw parallels between the Irish/British experience and the alien experience; but since there have likely been many more contemporary similar exploitation/genocide events in human history, it felt strange to have so much information pushing back to the nineteenth century on a space colony of the future, especially since there didn’t seem to be any Troubles contemporary to the story. Still, the author got her point across.

If you are looking to be entertained and challenged, this is definitely a worthy read.

Heather Hiestand