Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Review: Mated with the Cyborg (Cy-Ops Sci-Fi Romance #2) by Cara Bristol

Book coverMated with the Cyborg (Cy-Ops Sci-Fi Romance #2) by Cara Bristol
Purchase link: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - All Romance - Amazon UK - Amazon Canada - Amazon Australia

My rating: star starstar star

Heat rating: Flame  Flame  Flame


Kai Andros’s orders were simple. Get in. Gather the intel on the terrorist organization. Get out.

Then he met her. Mariska. Beautiful. Innocent. Ignorant of her father’s atrocities. And marked for death.

His orders said nothing about saving her. But he did. He went off-mission.

Can a rogue cyborg outrun both Cyber Operations and the terrorists to save the woman he loves?

I'm going to start off by saying I enjoyed this installment of the series (I think it's a series!) much more than the first book Stranded with the Cyborg. The characters were much more likable and the story was much more satisfying.

One thing which really struck me in this story is the focus on Lamis-Odg, the terrorist organization (?), planet (?) which is going around terrorizing (of course!) denizens of other planets because they do not subscribe to their beliefs and are considered infidels and therefore need to be destroyed. It drew a lot of parallels for me to what we are experiencing today with the extremist groups (one in particular) who are terrorizing our world on many fronts. I found the parallels interesting to ponder and wondered if Ms Bristol did that intentionally (she did!). I certainly enjoyed reading about them and relating them back to our lives today.

With the terrorist group being such a focus of the story, I'm really glad they had cyborgs to help fight the fight. I kinda wish we had cyborgs too, which we would be able to send in to fight and get rid of the threat. Of course, I had to ask Ms Bristol to give me the recipe for a perfect cyborg. I'd like to make one for myself!

I loved Kai as a cyborg. Of course, I didn't know he was masquerading as an android to start and my introduction to him was quite a surprise, a lovely one, for sure! He's everything Ms Bristol said a cyborg needs to be, tough, strong, determined, and sexy as heck. I'm so fascinated by Ms Bristol's cyborgs. I want to know so much more about them. I was happy to learn more about the cyborg technology along the way in this story too.

Mariska is adorable. She's such a down trodden heroine, and it's Kai's first reaction to her when he sees her without the veil which captures my attention. As I learned more about her, I had my suspicions about her origin and it was fun to speculate. As a heroine though, I loved her. She was beaten, marginalized, illiterate and basically kept ignorant of everything around her - again much like the women in the society of the extremists in our world where Ms Bristol has drawn her parallels. After she is rescued by Kai, she starts to emerge from her very sheltered shell. Mariska is brave, loyal and intelligent, only she was never given the opportunity to learn and discover the world the way other women who have not been oppressed have. With Kai she finds acceptance, respect and also love. It was a wonderful thing to watch her blossom as a person.

This is a great addition to the series and in my opinion, a much better book too. I'm excited to see Ms Bristol improving as a storyteller and look forward to the next cyborg. I'd like a dozen of them please! :-)

View all my reviews



Goodreads | Goodreads series

I'm so excited to have Cara Bristol here with me today to tell us her recipe for building the perfect cyborg, so ... one perfect cyborg, coming right up!

Cooking up the perfect cyborg
By Cara Bristol

I was asked for my recipe for the making the perfect cyborg. I create all my heroes “from scratch,” with a dash of this and a pinch of that, but I tried to write down the recipe for you all:

cy

The Perfect Cyborg
  • 1 human alpha male, extra buff, with a military or paramilitary background
  • A sprig of interfaced computer software
  • 1 large dollop of nanocytes
  • 1 or 2 mechanical parts
  • Season with determination and guts and then mix well with a dash of danger, an impossible mission, and an imperiled heroine.
  • Stand back and watch him work!

I love cyborgs. They’re part man, part computer/machine and are the ultimate alpha male. But when they meet their Ms. Right, they fall hard. In most other sci-fi romances, cyborgs are created by an evil government who use them as soldiers and force them to fight. I wanted to offer something unique. My rough and tough cyborgs are operatives, undercover spies on a mission to save the galaxy from terrorism, which was inspired by present day threats.

In Mated with the Cyborg, Kai Andros is a cyborg operative who goes undercover as android on an enemy’s space station. His mission is to get the intel that will bring down the reclusive terrorist leader. When he discovers that the enemy general intends to kill his own daughter, he’s forced to choose between his mission and saving her life.



Excerpt

Her father pushed back his chair and patted Janai’s head before rounding on Mariska.

She dropped her gaze to the floor. Her stomach was already there. Show no fear. Show no fear.

“Stand up,” Obido ordered.

She attempted to rise, but her feet tangled in her skirt. R981’s arm shot out as if to keep her from stumbling.

“What are you doing?” Obido glared at the android.

“I am performing my duty and assisting her,” he replied.

“Your duty is to report to me.” Her father confirmed what she’d suspected.

“She was about to fall.”

It sounded like R981 was arguing. The general must have thought, too, because his eyes narrowed on the android, but then he jerked his attention back to her. “Remove your scarf.”

No one had seen her face since she was a child teased to tears by her siblings. It had been a relief to be ordered to wear the veil to spare the sensibilities of others and escape their horrified looks. While bathing, she avoided the reflection glass and its taunting reminder of her ugliness. Stomach clenching into a hard knot, she released the opaque fabric from one side of her headdress.

Her father grimaced, and Janai, who’d never seen her naked face, gasped.

Mariska held her head high and stared straight ahead.

HOLY HELL! KAI Andros almost fell over. This was what Lamis-Odg considered deformed, ugly? Fortunately, his black contact lenses concealed most of his shock. Intel intercepted by Cyber Operations had reported the fifth daughter of one of the most infamous terrorists had a “significant facial defect.” Her eight sisters had been married—mated was the term these people used—but no one wanted her, fearing she would produce hideous offspring.

He hadn’t seen her face until now.

In the genetic game of chance, Mariska had been dealt a royal flush. She was fucking gorgeous.

Don’t gawk! A real android wouldn’t react, but as a cyborg, a red-blooded heterosexual man working undercover as a robot, how could he not?



About the author

auMulti-published, Cara Bristol is the author of more than 20 erotic romance titles. She writes science fiction romance, contemporary romance, paranormal, and spanking romance. No matter what the subgenre, one thing remains constant: her emphasis on character-driven seriously hot erotic stories with sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine. Cara has lived many places in the United States, but currently lives in Missouri with her husband. She has two grown stepkids. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and traveling.

Author links: Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Newsletter






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10 comments:

  1. Thank you for the review and for hosting me. I'm glad you enjoyed Mated with the Cyborg. I'm writing book three now, Captured by the Cyborg. Dale Homme will be the hero of that one.

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  2. What book do you want to make sure you read to your children?

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    Replies
    1. I would read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, which was my favorite book as a child. And of course, I'd read them the Harry Potter series.

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  3. Enjoyed the excerpt and the posts, sounds like a great read, thanks for sharing!

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  4. This sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing :)

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  5. I loved the entire post! Oh, how I wish we could create our own cyborgs! Thank you!

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