BLACK STAR DIAMOND - Marteeka Karland

Black Star, Book 3

Changeling Press - www.changelingpress.com

ISBN : 978-1-59596-629-2

January 2008

Erotic Sci-Fi Romance - ménage and M/M interaction

Open space, aboard the Black Star - The Future

Viktor is the second in command aboard the Black Star, he’s also a vampire who has denied his needs for far too long. Now in the grips of the Blood Burning, a sickness that is driving him to the brink of insanity and endangering everyone around him, he finds an incredible woman waiting for him in his cabin, Diamond.

Diamond knows that she is the only one aboard the Black Star who has a chance to save Viktor. A vampire once saved her life, and in the process, made her the perfect sustenance for his kind. He also made her promise to help any future vampires in need. Helping Viktor is her chance to pay back the Black Star and her crew for saving her from the Hand of God (a fanatical religious group).

Ranier is the pilot of the Black Star, he’s also Viktor’s best friend. Though he’s never admitted it before, he wants Diamond for himself and yearns to show her the tenderness she’s never experienced. But when Viktor claims her for his own, Ranier has to admit that not only is he jealous, but he’s possessive of Viktor as well.

Will Viktor, Diamond and Ranier be able to form a relationship that makes them all happy, or will the Hand of God strike again and destroy them all?

Viktor is well respected among the crew of the Black Star, he’s just not well liked. Considering his natural tendency to behave in an arrogant, high handed fashion, that’s really not a surprise. But underneath his gruff and dangerous exterior beats the heart of a truly caring and noble man. Not that he’s inclined to admit any such thing. Diamond is a woman of contrasts, while she enjoys Viktor’s rough sex, she also is in need of the sweet loving that Ranier wants to share with her. Strong and brave, she’s vulnerable too, and it just may take both men to meet her needs. Ranier is in a difficult position indeed. At first he loves Viktor just as a friend, but when he finds himself surprisingly willing to give Viktor whatever he needs, including blood and sex, he realizes that the heart can hide many things, even from its owner. Given the very different way all three of these characters think and act, the possibilities for misunderstandings boggle the mind. It might just take an act of God, or rather, the Hand of God, to get them to claim the love they’re destined to share.

This short story concentrates mostly on the interplay between Viktor, Diamond, and Ranier, but there are some very important secondary characters as well, namely the Black Star herself. A cyborg ship with the brain of a human woman at her core, the Black Star is watching out for everyone aboard her. She’s also investigating an intriguing possibility that could change the landscape of the Black Star series forever. The ship’s doctor, Mahat Zabin, is also very important as Diamond’s first experience with Viktor leaves her in quite a state, in reality, it’s surprising she even survives. (Please don’t judge Viktor, the Blood Burning is incredibly powerful and it’s amazing he was able to restrain himself as much as he did.)

If you haven’t read the first two books in the Black Star series, by all means get them! BLACK STAR PRINCESS (January 2007) and BLACK STAR STOWAWAY (April 2007) are must reads (they’ll also allow you to get to know the characters, and ships, who make up the cast of this intriguing series). Fast paced and full of the kind of no-holds-barred sex that Marteeka Karland excels at writing, BLACK STAR DIAMOND once again proves that this is a sci-fi series you just shouldn’t miss.

Lori Ann