LynneC’s review of Stud (Cat Star Chronicles, Book Eight) by Cheryl Brooks
Futuristic Romance published by Sourcebooks 7 Feb 12
I haven’t read any of the Cat Star Chronicles before, and I plunged right in with this book, Book Eight of the series. I had few problems picking up the world and the characters, and I enjoyed the read. However, it isn’t everything I hoped it would be. I was in the mood for something different and this book certainly delivered that for me, but even though I don’t read much SF or fantasy, some of the customs were familiar to me.
The hero, Tarq, is a cat-person, and he is good at sex. Very, very good, and it helps that he has—extras. Long blond hair and pointy ears don’t usually turn me on—even when it’s Legolas—but he did have some interesting quirks, like his inability to read the menu. Not to mention his Magic Peen. He’s a very wealthy whore, who no longer charges for his services. After his world was destroyed, he is doing his bit to increase the numbers of his kind. He thinks the only thing he is good at is sex, because he’s dyslexic. The word is never used, but from the first page it’s obvious what his problem is, when he admits he can’t read the menu. I like the way Tarq copes with his problem, and it does seem realistic – learning ways around confessing his problem and thinking of himself as stupid because of it, but I don’t like the way it’s left hanging, with Lucy realizing what it is but little else.
The heroine, Lucy, is a waitress when we first encounter her, and she works in her father’s diner alongside a down-to-earth alien cook and a hermaphrodite, who is too lightly drawn for my liking. The hermaphrodites were by far the most interesting aliens for me. The beginning reads like a waitress in a category romance, with the father who shouts a lot, a notebook, albeit an electronic one, and the diner atmosphere that would be worthy of anything in the USA. She doesn’t recognize Tarq at first, but realizes her mistake when she sees an ad on the TV for his services. He works in a brothel and has produced hundreds of children. With his race under threat, it’s his duty as well as his pleasure. I think Tarq’s character is a little thin. Apart from his magical, athletic peen, which seemed to produce gallons of lubrication and ejaculate, here called snard, which tastes of chocolate and cream – which is described in huge detail and often – I find Tarq a bit of a cipher. His motivations are a little too straightforward, for a person who has lost his homeworld.
Lucy is a tiny bit irritating. At first she is a Cinderella, straight out of the story, and she only decides to run away when she gets pregnant. Her pregnancy doesn’t impinge much on the story, apart from a bit of morning sickness, and most of the story is, in fact, a road novel. She and Tarq decide they can’t stay together, even when circumstances change, and I feel that conflict becomes progressively weaker as the story goes on, and less believable. It turns into a big misunderstanding before it’s finally resolved.
There isn’t a romance and courtship in this book. Tarq recognizes Lucy as his mate from page one, and Lucy is dazzled by this glamorous, famous creature, famed for his prowess with sex. I don’t know why she falls in love with him and I’m not entirely convinced that she does.
This is a light read, an amusing one rather than anything involving or angsty. One or two things niggled me from the start. Lucy? Really? This book is set thousands of years in the future and they’re still using American-style diners? Furthermore, some of the cultural references are closer to our time than they are to anything futuristic. Kentucky Fried Chicken and the diner culture, together with some inconsistencies in the world-building. No communicators clipped to belts? With the ubiquity of cellphones, I would have put them in, but then, the second half of the book wouldn’t have been possible.
However, this is a fun read and light read, one you don’t have to concentrate on to find out what a tflwt is, or how F’rty is related to the clan Yu’oki. One for the long flight or the train journey. Or, as I read it, a late-night read before going to sleep.
Grade: C
Summary:
Even for a Zetithian, Tarq Zulveidinoe’s sexual prowess is legendary. Believing it’s all he’s good for, Tarq sets out to perpetuate his threatened species by offering his services to women across the galaxy…
BUT ONE FORCE CAN BRING THEM TOGETHER…
Lucinda Force is the sensitive dark horse in a self-absorbed family, repeatedly told that no man will ever want such a plain woman. Lucy longs for romance, but is resigned to her loveless lot in life-until Tarq walks through the door of her father’s restaurant on Talus Five…
No excerpt available.
