This book contains:
- Mentions previous cheating in a relationship
- Very detailed descriptions of domestic violence (emotional and financial control, not physical abuse)
- Brush with death
- Description of a massacre.
Hanne escaped her prior relationship by finding a place on the expedition to Rendu. In a bid to keep the freedom she’s found, she chooses to stay on Rendu and make a life for herself. She’s incredibly stubborn and refuses to allow others to help her, even when she desperately needed, thanks to the trauma she’s experienced in the past.
Lhett is an army general, stoic, very closed off and doesn’t talk much. He doesn’t feel like he deserves to have a happy life, but does everything he can to ensure the safety of those he loves and cares about. While we don’t find out why he’s as scarred and closed off as he is until right near the end, he has a very good reason for keeping to himself.
Hanne has decided not to return to Earth and begins making a life for herself on Rendu. She’s fighting her attraction to Lhett in every way and is finally giving in when her past catches up to her and threatens everything she’s achieved and possibly even everyone on Rendu.
Lhett is consumed with guilt for actions in his past but also can’t seem to keep himself away from Hanne even though he doesn’t understand her at all. He just wants to keep her safe, yet everything he does seems to push her further away.
As the final book in the trilogy – and long awaited too! – we round off the partnering up of the ad Naals brothers with yet another tricky situation that could put the new alliance with Earth in danger. Only this time the danger isn’t an orchestrated political game, it’s a personal vendetta.
To begin with, it was just your regular two stubborn characters refusing to communicate to find their way to each other. But as we learn more and more about each of them, the drama unfolds and suddenly you’re sucked in and can’t put the book down because you don’t know how they’ll work through it.
I was a bit worried that because of how much time had passed between the first two and this final book, it might be a bit disjointed and might not have the same political intrigue, action and romance as the others. But I shouldn’t have worried. Zoe pulled it off and I could barely put it down once I started it.
