Star Cruise Captain's Story by Veronica Scott Series: Star Cruise #0
Published by Self-Published on October 20, 2024
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Pages: 143
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Captain Gil Fleming has taken a mysterious leave of absence from the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr and disappeared. Maeve, the ship’s governing Artificial Intelligence is the only one who knows why he left and where he went. Desperately worried after months of silence from him, she takes drastic steps to organize a small rescue mission of loyal crew members.
Can she manage to create and maintain a humanoid body as ancient aliens taught her to do, driven by her love for the captain and fear for his life? Or will her challenges and anxieties overcome her determination to find and rescue Gil, resulting in failure?
As the humans on her team struggle to accept the AI they’ve known and worked with for years in her humanoid form, they have to place all their trust in her because in the wild territories at the edge of the Sectors civilization where she wants to take them, there’s no law and no help to be had.
After the Prequel which told of how they met and their relationship came to be, I was more than ready to move on and get a ‘present’ day story of Maeve the AI and Nebula Zephyr Captain Gil Fleming. Veronica Scott’s world of far future space and planetary adventure accompanied by sizzling romance was on display in Star Cruise: Captain’s Story.
Captain’s Story is the latest entry in the Star Cruise sub-series of The Sectors. Most of the stories stand alone, but this one really must be read in order so the relationship with Maeve and the previous stories of the rest of the cruise ship crew and staff peopling this story makes sense.
Captain’s Story opens with Maeve worried because Gil has been gone on a private mission and she’s had no contact. She knows what he set out to do and her worry is warranted. She’s put a plan in place and is lining up her resources for a quick strike, small-scaled operation with a few crucial people in place to make it work. She’s been working on her human form and now would be a good time for her to make it work right.
Meanwhile Gil has gone into the borderlands of The Sectors to the lawless part of space to rescue his younger brother. His brother is Special Forces and was on a mission that went sideways. Now, he’s been left at the mercy of terrorists who have hired a cut-throat gang to bring him to them. Gil must infiltrate the gang and get to his brother before they torture him and kill him. In the delivery process is his best chance of rescue or to get captured right alongside him.
The romantic developments are a few fast and furious segments, with the rescue attempt on both ends the primary focus. This is why it was good for readers to see Maeve and Gil in the Prequel starting and developing as a couple. Maeve wanted a human body so she could be with Gil, but I thought their unique couple-hood with her being a sentient AI with mature emotions made for a much more interesting situation. I was glad the author kept Maeve’s nature different from the other humans and gave her vulnerabilities so she and the Captain weren’t vastly unbalanced in their relationship. Gil’s extremely competent for a human, but he’s still only human so she needed to have limitations, too.
I also liked that she had to work to put together the strike team and the group were familiar faces from earlier books (Red from Marooned, Jake and Emily from Outbreak, Owen and Tyrelle from Stowaway, and Theo and Jayna from Ghost Ship). Jake is the team leader and I enjoyed the tug o’ war as Maeve had to learn to trust his leadership and his skill set to get the job done when she wanted to rush full-steam ahead and get Gil back.
There was some good suspense building, action, and grand climax with an epilogue offering a nice denouement spent with Maeve and Gil showing a future direction. There were nice hints of a future story for his brother and another terrorist prisoner and I hope there will be further adventures for this ex-military cruise ship crew.
About Veronica Scott
USA Today Best Selling Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance author.
Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
MISC FACTS ABOUT VERONICA
Seven time winner ~ SFR Galaxy Award
Proud recipient ~ NASA Exceptional Service Medal but must hasten to add the honor was not for her romantic fiction!
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt – I’ll improve your process (mwahahahaa)!
Elvis Presley’s best friend once serenaded Veronica on a local TV telethon…now that could be a novel…
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
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Someday I’ll get to this series. Happy to see you’re still enjoying it, Sophia!
Yeah, its kept me pretty enamored from the get-go. 🙂
I like Veronica Scott. I need to start reading the books of hers I have on my Kindle.
I’ve got a couple more of her historical PNRs then I’ll be caught up on the ones I have. I can never resist the newer installments in this series, though. 🙂
Everytime i read one of your reviews for this author I think “I need to read this!” Someday…
Haha, and every time I think I’m sad that I’ve caught up on the last book, she generously releases more. But, yes, you must try at least one someday. 🙂
I enjoyed our buddy read for this one and liked reading your whole review for it. I agree reading the prequel was essential to get a feel for their romance as this one focused mostly on the mission. I also thought her being an AI and the uniqueness that brought to their relationship was one of the most interesting things and I liked how the author resolved that and didn’t make her full human.
Hi there, my favorite buddy reading partner! 🙂
Yes, Maeve was a treasure being different and I was glad that was emphasized.
The guy on the cover looks like he is trying not to laugh. Cute.
I think so, too. He’s a stoic captain to everyone else, but he lets Maeve see this fun side when they play games and he teaches her about humanity.