Ravyn's Flight
AUTHOR:  Patti O'Shea
PUBLISHER:  Leisure Love Spell PUB DATE: 
GENRE:  Romance w/ Spec Elements ISBN:  050552516X
REVIEWED BY:  Linda Steadman on 02/02/04 EISBN: 

For eight months, the Colonization Assessment Team has been on Jarvid Nine studying the planet. Unknown to them, Spec Ops has landed a team on the other side for a training mission.

The situation quickly deteriorates when first the CAT team is attacked, and then the Spec Ops team when they come in response to an emergency beacon. The two survivors of the attacks must run, heading for an old, abandoned city. What they find there both astounds them and protects them from their mortal enemy.

Ravyn Verdier knows communications, but the enemy who destroyed her friends knows only how to destroy, including every piece of communications equipment on the planet. If Damon Brody hadn't appeared, she would have been next. Her brother, also in Spec Ops, taught her how to survive, so the journey to safety isn't nearly as arduous as it might have been. Reaching the old city brings more questions than answers, but Ravyn knows the city contains the key to their attacker and their future.

Damon Brody is good at what he does. So were his men, but they're dead. His mission now is to save Ravyn and kill the monster who killed his men. Revenge is a good motivator, but so is the need to protect the woman he realizes he's fallen in love with.

Ravyn's Flight, once I got past the first few chapters, wouldn't let me go. Fast-paced, complex, and well-developed, this is a story that's satisfying on all levels. Ravyn and Damon fit together despite his initial antagonism and her terror at what she's experienced. His commitment to their relationship and her willingness to go against her remaining family to be with Damon, make for very intriguing reading.

In contrast, there is a secondary relationship between rescuers Alex Sullivan, Ravyn's stepbrother, and Stacey, Ravyn's best friend. He doesn't want what he senses exists between them, while Stacey is no longer sure she want's to be close to the man she's idolized for years. Their characters are distinctly different from Ravyn and Damon, yet just as realistic. The four of them must come together to defeat the enemy, bringing the story to an exciting, forceful conclusion.

I have only one problem with the story, and that's the enemy, an absolutely evil, destructive creature who's been in existence for over 3,000 years. He's too overboard in his characteristics and actions, yet the story works if you can overlook this little flaw. The story may be too explicitly gory for some readers as well, but it's a minor portion of the story.

Patti O'Shea has written a wonderful addition to the growing list of well-constructed science fiction romance novels. Ravyn's Flight has all the adventure of traditional science fiction, while marrying it to sensual romance in a memorable story. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.