The Seek by Ros Baxter

 From the talented and versatile Ros Baxter comes the first full-length novel in her sexy, engaging, groundbreaking SF Romance series.

When everything else is gone, all you have is hope.

The year is 2098, and the people of New Earth have been homeless for seventeen years. Ruled by a mysterious Council and adrift in a fleet of space stations, their sole mission is to survive long enough to find a new home. They call it The Seek.

Kyntura is the first and only female Avenger — one of the secret, separate elite who stand on the frontline between the refugees of Earth and a universe that would do them harm. For Kyn, fight and pain are the only things that drive out memories of the Apocalypse...and of the boy she left behind when she enlisted. But a young recruit called Mirren and a deadly mission will bring her face to face with all she has tried to forget.

As she leads a squad of Avengers in The Seek, Kyntura will have to face her demons — and the boy whose heart she broke a decade before — to confront the truth about New Earth and save the future of humanity.

If you are looking for a book that is heavy on the sci-fi and action that has just a bit of romance, then you may want to check out The Seek. Although it is the second book in the series, the first appears to be more of a prequel novella that features a couple of the characters that are from the main character Kyntura’s past and while they do appear in this book and the incident is discussed, it is more in passing and not pivotal to the plot of The Seek.

In The Seek, we learn that Earth was conquered (and possibly destroyed – I’m a little unsure on that point), leaving the surviving humans to flee the planet and begin looking for a new home. Kyn was eleven when she was forced to flee and was taken in by a neighbor who raised her alongside his own children. Seeing something within her, he pled her case to join the Avengers, which serves as the New Earth’s military force. As the sole woman in the Avengers, Kyn fought her way up the ranks literally and her skill earned her the position of Magister (trainer). What I liked about Kyn was that she wasn’t the bada$$ they thought she was because she was a woman proving a point, but rather her success was due to her using her position to work out her fury and rage at all that she had lost over the years. Because she was determined to minimize her losses as much as possible, she was hard on her trainees. She didn’t care if they didn’t like her or if they called her unsavory names, she only cared that she did everything within her power to give them the best chance at survival. Kyn comes off as cold, unfeeling, and not sentimental, but this is far from the truth. She compartmentalizes her feelings to a near robotic degree so that she can teach her squad to survive and the first mission her current trainees goes on demonstrates how good she is at what she does. When one of the settlements takes a turn for the worse and her trainees are slated to be sent to the field sooner than they are ready for it, Kyn does what she has to in order to go with them so that she can do what she can to save as many as possible. She’s a realist and understands that despite her skill, her own survival is not guaranteed but she does not care.

The Seek is an action packed read that pits Kyn against unknown forces, reunites her with friends she never expected to see again, and causes her to question everything she has done for the past decade. While the book is light on romance, this does not mean that it is lacking sex. Kyn doesn’t make connections because they are distractions, but she does have physical needs and will seek out a partner when needed. As such, readers are treated to a couple of steamy scenes. But things really heat up when Kyn’s path crosses that of a man from her past and she must confront feelings she thought had been buried long ago. Ms. Baxter has done a great job of setting The Seek up for its sequel and I cannot wait to find out what happens next to Kyn and the people of New Earth. 

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