Rules of Engagement
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4.8 • 29 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
NATURAL ALLIES ...Esmay Suiza and Brun Meager should be friends- they're both bright, brave, likable and adventurous. But true friendship doesn't run any smoother than true love. Brun thinks Esmay's a stuck-up prig, and Esmay thinks Brun's a spoiled rich brat who's making a play for Barin Serrano, Esmay's first love. So when Brun falls into the hands of a repressive religious militia movement, Esmay finds herself in disgrace, suspected of conniving at the capture. Even Barin, now being pursued by the beautiful and ambitious Casea Ferradi, has turned against her, and Brun's powerful family doesn't want Esmay anywhere near the rescue attempt.Meanwhile, Brun has to figure out how to survive as a pregnant, barefoot prisoner on a planet where female captives are surgically muted to keep them from contaminating others. Her luck may have run out, but her courage hasn't-she's determined to free not only herself, but also other, younger captives. This burst of initiative imperils her own rescue, and it will take double her own luck to save her. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Headstrong Brun Meager, daughter of the immensely powerful Speaker of the Table of Ministries, idolizes the slightly older Lieutenant Esmay Suiza, who is taking command track classes with her at the Fleet training facility. Esmay is too busy with her double load of courses to have much time for the younger woman, so Brun turns to handsome Barin Serrano to spice up her hours. The trouble is, Barin and Esmay had just been falling in love with one another. Brun's interference causes a distraught and overburdened Esmay to utter several ill-considered comments--including that Brun "has the morality of a mare in heat," a statement that gets passed to the newswires, which are ever eager for gossip about the rich and famous Brun. So when Brun is kidnapped, surgically muted, raped and impregnated by member of the New Texas Godfearing Militia, Esmay is considered the catalyst of Brun's headlong flight into torment. Esmay must clear her name, help save Brun and decide what to do about Barin--or risk a life filled with disgrace and loneliness. This sequel to Moon's popular Once A Hero (1997) is military space opera awash in suds. Moon's manipulative tricks, moreover, especially regarding Brun's prideful stupidity and hideous comeuppance as a sex slave, will at times be obvious to savvy readers. Even so, intensely lively characters, inspired details (including a bar comprised of salvaged parts from destroyed ships) and smart pacing ensure that the novel will win, if not prizes, at least readers' interest.
