I don’t usually see scifi and romance blended well, but this did it. We’ve got a near-future society that has decayed somewhat (although I’m not entirely sure why). There’s a bunch of superheroes called “greater thans” whose faux science involving brain integration (using more than 10% at once) does manage to be slightly more believable than the X-Men DNA explanation. Or maybe it’s just the resulting powers that are slightly more believable. Not that it’s saying much. You really do have to suspend disbelief for these kinds of stories, but hey, why not? It’s fun.
There were three different romances going on at once, so we ended up going back and forth between seven points of view. (One was from a girl who was kidnapped.) That’s more than I’m used to since I stopped reading epic fantasy, so it took me a while to adjust, but once I did, I easily fell into the story. It was fun and fast-paced. The characters were interesting, each with their own issues and history.
One of Mack’s powers is sex appeal, so when she gets involved with Shane, she has a lot of trouble believing she didn’t just put a mental whammy on him. She was bristly, and difficult to like, but I got her. I just didn’t get why she was part of an elite team. Seemed too high-strung and unpredictable, disobeying direct orders and going off half-cocked.
Stephen and Elliot had the sweetest of the three romances. Very intimate and endearing. I don’t seek out homosexual romance, but it worked very well for me here.
There was just one problem with the book. The final romance remained unresolved. This had me scrambling to figure out if there’s a sequel planned. I guess so, since everywhere I look, this book is called (Fighting Destiny #1), but the fact that this remains unresolved really keeps me from going higher than 4 stars. I could even come back and adjust it after reading a sequel, but for now…you know, I read a lot of fantasy, so I’m used to story lines remaining open, but it threw me for a loop in what is essentially a romantic suspense, even if it is also scifi. I won’t spoil the ending, but I do feel the need to warn potential readers that this story isn’t finished here, and if you’re like me, you may want to wait until #2 comes out to read this one. (So you can read back to back and get the closure I am so sorely lacking right now.)
I recommend this if you like romantic suspense.
Rating: 4/5
Title: Born to Darkness
Author: Suzanne Brockman
ISBN: 0345521277
Published March 20th 2012