Review: Break Out by Nina Croft

Title: The Gathering

Author: Kelly Armstrong

Series: Darkness Rising #1

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: April 12^th 2011

Format: library e-book

Pages: 373

The year is 3048, Earth is no longer habitable, and man has fled to the stars where they've discovered the secret of immortality—Meridian. Unfortunately, the radioactive mineral is exorbitantly expensive and only available to a select few. A new class comprised of the super rich and immortal soon evolves. The Collective, as they're called, rule the universe.
Two-thousand-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and rogue pilot of the space cruiser, El Cazador, can't resist two things: gorgeous women and impossible jobs. When beautiful Skylar Rossaria approaches him to break a prisoner out of the Collective's maximum security prison on Trakis One, Rico jumps at the chance. Being hunted by the Collective has never been so dangerous—or so fun.

Break Out is a refreshing take in sci-fi and supernatural worlds. A vampire in space, it makes perfect sense, but it’s not something you come across often. Once I got through the book I was excited to find that it is just the first book in a series because Croft integrated a lot of really interesting characters into Rico and Skylar’s story that I want to know more about.
As a fan of Firefly, and just about everything else Joss Whedon, I loved that this story takes place in space. Since Rico is a vampire this allows the reader to share a lot of idioms and colloquialisms that are totally foreign to the rest of the characters. It was a nice little chuckle everything Rico said something and the rest of the crew was clueless. He also speaks Spanish, which is a lost language in the year 3048, who knew? All of these little phrases and things are just nicely woven into this adventure.

Since a good part of the story takes place on a ship, you really learn about the world through the different crew members. It’s a great way to learn about this intergalactic universe and really made for some very interesting characters that I cannot wait to read about in the other books. The world building is wonderful. Having the crew in space and on different planets is really fun to read about because each place is different, especially compared to their ship.

The romance between Rico and Skylar in almost immediately intense but still manages to build as the story moves along. Partly because Skylar has a job to do and isn’t trying extremely hard not to let the lines blur. Mostly because Rico wants Skylar and he is very well known for getting what he wants from women, but there is something different about Skylar that makes him step back when he would usually charge forward. The latter keeps the story intriguing and doesn’t let the relationship between the two of them take away from the adventure they find themselves on together.
If you like the sound of an action- adventure, supernatural, sci-fi, romance then this is the book for you

I grew up in the north of England, and after training as an accountant, I spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia which left me with a love of the sun and a dislike of 9-5 work. I then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but have now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds.
I share the farm with my husband, four dogs, three cats, a horse, two goats, a three-legged Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, and a handful of chickens. It’s a perfect place to indulge my two great passions, reading and writing.
I write lots of different things, but mainly paranormal and science-fiction, usually with a strong element of romance.. 

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