Jessie Mihalik

When the Quint Confederacy and the Kos Empire went to war—again—Queen Samara wisely kept her Rogue Coalition out of the conflict. But staying neutral in a galactic war doesn’t pay the bills, not when both sides refuse to trade with neutral sectors.. With her people on the brink of starvation, Samara hatches a daring plan to snatch the kidnapped Kos Emperor from the Quint mercenaries holding him. The Kos Empire will pay a fortune for their emperor’s return, enough to feed the Coalition’s citizens while they wait for the return to a begrudging peace. But when her plan goes sideways, Samara finds herself evading Quint mercenaries with the very man she intends to capture. And the more time she spends with Valentin Kos, the more she realizes that he’s not the coldly indifferent villain she imagined. Torn between duty and desire, Samara must decide if saving her people is worth giving up the one thing she’s always wanted.

The Queen's Gambit

Lover of Romance 

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance

  
    
  




The Queen's Gambit is the first book of this author's debut series. And as I fell in love with her Consortium Rebellion trilogy, I was super eager to try out this other series of hers and yep I fell in love with this book. I think even just a couple years her writing has improved vastly, but I quite had a blast with this book and it had so many laugh out loud moments. We have two strong protaganists that melted my heart in every way. You have our hero, who is the emperor and a new one at that. His father died and named him his replacement and he is the younger son, so had no clue why, and now dealing with all his advisors seeking his death including his brother. Then you have the heroine, Queen Samara. Her people are starving and she will do whatever it takes to see to their welfare including kidnapping Emperor Kos to get a ransom out of it. But the chemistry between these two is explosive and soon they join forces against their true enemies and build a peace between their two peoples, but their journey is just beginning. 



Overall I couldn't seem to get enough of this book, at first, I wasn't quite a Samara fan to be honest. Kos had my heart from the get go, he just has such a solid foundation of goodness and honesty and a bit of craftiness and sometimes Samara wasn't the best to him. But she thoughout the story, did win my good will once again and I grew to admire her as the main focus of this trilogy and I am excited to see what becomes of her and Kos in this trilogy.

Sarah Escorsa

Original rating (serial): 3.73896 stars.
New rating (book version): 2.96864 3 stars.

Okay. Until I read The Queen’s Gambit, my experience of online serials had been limited to the somewhat slightly awesome Innkeeper Chronicles. So when I read The Queen’s Gambit after its official release, I thought that one of these most unfortunate accidents must have happened:

a)	I was drunk as a high-strung puffer fish when I read the online version.
b)	I was drunk as a high-strung puffer fish when I read the final version.
c)	I was drunk a high-strung puffer fish when I read both the online and final versions.
d)	All of the above.

I mean, the main plot of the story was the same, but the serial read like SF with some romance thrown in, while the book read like Allergy-inducing Romance with SF thrown in.



My thoughts exactly.

My Wannabe Nefarious Daughter (WND™) Little One seems to be of the wrong opinion that this was indeed a case of flammable liquid-induced amnesia. Mostly because her beloved father didn’t experience Multitudinous Super Hot Body Descriptions-Related Anxiety Attacks (MSHBDRAA™) while we were reading the serial, as she expected him/her/they/it/whatever to. Anyway, as every barnacle knows, kids are always wrong and you can’t trust a single thing they say, so I promptly proceeded to disregard Little One’s erroneous hypothesis of the misguided judgement. 

Still, I thought this deserved further investigation and went off to, um, you know, investigate and stuff. Meaning I compared some of the passages in the book to those in the serial. And the results of this far-reaching, in-depth analysis are:

a)	There is indeed a lot more romantic crap stuff in the final version than in the serial.

b) Yes, there were a few seizure-inducing Hot Bods Descriptions in the serial. But they were a complete joke compared to the Multifariously Extreme Super Hot Bod Descriptions of Doom and Oblivion (MESHBDoDaO™) featured in the book: we’ve got golden skin! And hard muscles! And flat chests! And sculpted chests! And shirts that stretch nicely across muscled (view spoiler)[
  duh
 (hide spoiler)] chests! And defined abs! And sexy v-shaped muscles! And muscled-this! And muscled-that! YAY! (view spoiler)[
  

  

  
 (hide spoiler)]

c)	The serial had more bite. A bloody shrimping lot more bite. There was more tension between the two main protagonists. Their feelings and attitudes were a lot more ambivalent. Everything was more kickass. And more exciting. And less conventional. And the story didn’t feel like a HEA of Complete and Total Annihilation of All Life on the Planet (HEAoCaTAoALotP™) waiting to happen *shudders dramatically*

d)	I was drunk a high-strung puffer fish when I did the above-mentioned far-reaching, in-depth analysis.

➽ And the moral of this This Book Ain’t Bad It’s Just Too Full of Lovey Dovey Crap for my Black Withered Heart Superiorly Crappy Crappy Non Review (TBABIJTFoLDCfmBWHSCCNR™) is: if you’re looking for a light, entertaining insta-lurve/attraction/whatever story set in space, then The Queen’s Gambit is for you. If you’re not, then it’s not. 

 

P.S. Huge kudos to Jessie Mihalik for creating a homosexual couple that doesn’t feel like a bloody fishing gimmick. Move along no token gay characters to see and stuff. Most welcome and refreshing and commendable and praiseworthy  indeed this is. And much grateful for it the murderous crustaceans are. 

· Book 2: The Queen's Advantage - serial in progress



[Pre-review nonsense]

Ugh. Either I was high on top quality stuff when first read this story my ever-failing memory is failing me big time, or there is a lot more romantic crap stuff in the final version of this story than there was in the serial.



➽ Full Valentin Kos You're Super Hot and Super Muscled and Super Sexey and Super Bloody Shrimping Everything Yes Yes Yes We Get It Thank You Very Much Crappy Non Review (VKYSHaSMaSSaSBSEYYYWGITYVMCNR™) to come.



[ February 21, 2018]

Actual rating: 3.73896 stars. And a quarter. For now. I'll probably change it when I read the final version and stuff.

So this was pretty cool and fun and entertaining and stuff. Ergo, I kinda sorta liked it.

The temporary end. I shall return when the ebook is released and stuff. 





➽ Free online SF serial available here (weekly instalments). 

It's pretty entertaining and stuff. Also, it comes recommended by someone called Ilona Andrews. Not sure who that person is, but I hear she's written a good book or two and can be trusted. Ha. 

💀 I'm going to bump the fish out of this review as new episodes are posted by the author. Don't say I didn't warn you 💀

➽ Feb. 19, 2018: the final chapter is up!!!



➽ Feb. 15, 2018: Chapter 13, part 3 is up!

➽ Feb. 12, 2018: Chapter 13, part 2 is up!

➽ Feb. 10, 2018: Chapter 13, part 1 is up!

➽ Feb. 9, 2018: Chapter 12, part 2 is up!

➽ Feb. 5, 2018: Chapter 12, part 1 is up!

➽ Feb. 1, 2018: Chapter 11, part 2 is up!

➽ Jan. 29, 2018: Chapter 11, part 1 is up! Ha! I knew something like this was going to happen! Woo hoo and stuff!




➽ Jan. 25, 2018: Chapter 10, part 2 is up! 

➽ Jan. 22, 2018: Chapter 10, part 1 is up! 

➽ Jan. 18, 2018: Chapter 9, part 2 is up! 

➽ Jan. 15, 2018: Chapter 9, part 1 is up! I smell war, political scheming and delicious backstabbing. YUM.



➽ 
  Previous chapters
:
· Chapter 8, part 3
· Chapter 8, part 2
· Chapter 8, part 1
· Chapter 7, Part 2
· Chapter 7, Part 1
· Chapter 6
· Chapter 5, Part 2
· Chapter 5, Part 1
· Chapter 4, Part 2
· Chapter 4, Part 1
· Chapter 3, Part 2
· Chapter 3, Part 1
· Chapter 2, Part 2
· Chapter 2, Part 1
· Chapter 1

When the Quint Confederacy and the Kos Empire went to war-again-Queen Samara wisely kept her Rogue Coalition out of the conflict. But staying neutral in a galactic war doesn't pay the bills, not when both sides refuse to trade with neutral sectors. With her people on the brink of starvation, Samara hatches a daring plan to snatch the kidnapped Kos Emperor from the Quint mercenaries holding him. The Kos Empire will pay a fortune for their emperor's return, enough to feed the Coalition's citizens while they wait for the return to a begrudging peace. But when her plan goes sideways, Samara finds herself evading Quint mercenaries with the very man she intends to capture. And the more time she spends with Valentin Kos, the more she realizes that he's not the coldly indifferent villain she imagined. Torn between duty and desire, Samara must decide if saving her people is worth giving up the one thing she's always wanted.

The Queen's Gambit

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