Thisbe Vandergoss is the only child of Hans and Jiao Vandergoss, one of the richest families on Earth. At twenty-five, Thisbe has only just begun to settle into the corporate routine her parents have laid out for her. But, as always, her best isn’t good enough and now her parents have scheduled her an operation for the unthinkable: they want Thisbe to have a baby now, and they want to use their … use their own cells to make it.
Thisbe is desperate to escape her family’s incest baby demands, but nowhere on Earth is safe for her. So Thisbe does the only thing she can: she sells off her designer dinosaur leather stilettos, tosses her phone into the Thames, and gets herself a one-way ticket to Sirona, the lush moon world on the opposite side of the galaxy.
But the only way she can get said ticket is to sign up at the Happy Hearts Matchmaking Service as a mail-order-bride for a lonely lunar colonist. Our heroine hopes there’s a bachelorette or two to choose from, & unfortunately for her it’s all dudes (figures).
But, desperate times call for desperate cocks. She engages herself to 76-year-old Sean Kerridan. Who knows what that’s going to be like? Probably awful, but not nearly as awful as what her parents have in store for her if she sticks around on Earth. So she shuttles off to Sirona, into the arms of her geriatric husband-to-be. Or so she thinks.
There’s another S. Kerridan on Sirona, and she loves running Starfall Ranch almost as much as she loves being utterly alone and undisturbed by anyone. Shiloh certainly has no patience for rich off-worlders who show up on her doorstep out of the blue. Especially when they show up in the middle of a streak of bad luck: her fruit trees have come down with blight, her farm bots keep mysteriously malfunctioning, and the local mining company is breathing down her neck to parcel out her land so that they can get to the valuable platinum underneath. If her bad luck keeps up, Shiloh will have no choice but to sell.
But a major storm rolls in, nipping at Thisbe’s heels and cutting off all communications. She’s stuck at Starfall Ranch for the foreseeable future, half a moon away from where she was supposed to end up, with only a grouchy, stressed-out goat-rancher for company.
Can Thisbe Vandergoss really make a new life for herself on her own terms, far from the grasp of her family? Will Shiloh Kerridan ever be able to leave the past behind her on Earth and open her heart to another again?
Starfall Ranch is a F/F sci-fi romance that follows Thisbe Vandergoss and Shiloh Kerridan as they work out feelings of self-worth and fear of intimacy in the midst of some life-altering shakeups.
more
What I Think: This tale was well balanced from the start, having enough grit to make it real, enough humor to have me snort water through my nose. But I knew I would love it when I read this sentence: The Nordic God of gaping fish! Shy and I became fast friends after that. Her blunt, straight shooter ways making her irresistible even as jealousy lanced my heart. She’s living my dream: a farm big enough to not have neighbors, growing food and animals, running a property homestead. Ah, the life. Add writing, getting published and I’ve achieved heaven on earth. But, I digress.
This tale is a brilliant, sci-fi twist on the mail order bride idea. Thisbe should be living the dream and should be envied, hated even, yet she finds herself running from people who have no business being family and I love that she’s got enough guts to see it through even as she walks away from the comfort of everything she knows, grasping an uncertain future with the determination to land on her feet. She’s beautiful, has eyes big and deep enough to drown in. And she bakes. Dear goddess, she bakes. She bakes. That’s a done deal. She can have me as her valet and all-round problem solver.
I love the attraction that flows between them, an attraction filled with mutual respect and admiration, a concrete foundation for something more and longer-lasting. Which of course means it will hurt that much more when the truth is revealed. And yes, it hurt. Like a sucker punch to the throat that leaves you choking and gasping for air as I tried to breathe enough for both of them, afraid that Shy would let her past stop her from holding on to the best thing that ever happened to us. Err, I mean her.
The recipes had my mouth watering, sweet hound that I am. Again, I would hand over my entire kitchen plus meager salary. The cussing was infectious enough to give me a touch of a potty mouth for the next week but the desire was a flame in the belly. You see, in my narrow opinion (as I haven’t read as many as I would like to), a lot of FF romances tend to leave out a good dollop of lust and desire and I’m so glad that this doesn’t. It gives us every thrum of desire, every whisper of lust and its toe tingling. Ah, this tale had me giddy with delight!
But I wanted to smack Shy so many times. Then, I’d remember her background, empathize with her for 5 minutes before smacking her several times in my mind. This dance of love was soothing, exciting and satisfying!
Verdict? A comfort keeper to remind you to be brave enough to grasp love when it finds you!
I’ve never read sci fi before and I was a bit wary starting this book. But I really liked this one. Shiloh and Thisbe are amazing characters. I especially loved Shiloh, she was sassy and confident, total badass.
I was immersed in this world so easily. Romance with sexy times and a little bit of action, this was perfectly put together. Such an entertaining read. Highly recommend.
It’s really well written and well paced. Thisbe’s baking has left me so hungry. Especially that recipe at the end! Also absolutely loved Wallis! They are a delight!
*ARC provided by the author via A Novel Take PR in exchange for an honest and unbiased review
Billionaire heiress Thisbe (love the name) needs to get far away from her overly controlling parents and flees earth to become a mail order bride on Sirona. She ends up at the home of the wrong Kerridan and instead of meeting Sean, meets Sly. I thought this was a sweet story between 2 adorably screwed up people that were perfect for each other. I gave a 1/4 star for the use of the the term “jagoff” which I have never encountered in a book of fiction. Anyone from Pittsburgh Pa would be familiar with it but outside of the area, I’ve never heard it used. It’s recently been added to Oxford’s English dictionary! It was a special treat to see. I adored Wallis and their humor added a nice balance to the book. Overall it was an enjoyable read. I received an ARC for free of this book and I’m leaving this review voluntarily.