This book is listed under Science Fiction at Fictionwise but it’s definitely a romance.

Alicia Thomas’s review of The Key by Pauline Baird Jones
Science Fiction Romance published in ebook and print 14 Apr 07 by L & L Dreamspell

Sara Donovan of Project Enterprise is shot down on an inhospitable planet. She manages to land, alive but unconscious. When she wakes up she meets Kiernan Fyn who had crash landed on the same planet quite a while back. He’s a member of a resistance group called the Ojemba who don’t bother going back for members left behind. He’s also the least talkative hero I’ve even read.

From the blurb:

A mysterious, hidden city on the planet brings Sara closer to the answers she seeks–about her baffling abilities and her mother’s past. She has no idea she’s being pulled into the same danger her mother fled–the key to a secret left behind by a lost civilization, the Garradians. The Dusan and the Gadi want the key. So do the Ojemba. They think Sara has it. They are willing to do anything to get it. Sara will have to do anything to stop them.

read an excerpt or two

podcast of Pauline Baird Jones reading from The Key

For the SFR buff this is a must read. Don’t bother if you are looking for futuristic erotica.

The characterization is good and the romance is compelling. There is plenty of sexual tension but little actual sex. There is adventure and suspense. Also, something I personally require, there is an HEA. If you like a few nanites and ray guns in your romance you should pick this one up.

Grade: B+

[ed. note: check out Duodecimal: Devon’s 12 Days of Speculative Romance]