Rikki's Star (Hearts of ICARUS #8)

The galaxy is a big place and the Thousand Worlds, though less than a tithe of its vastness, is still enormous beyond imagining, full of wonders and horrors, as well as expressions of good and manifestations of evil that almost defy description. The berezi of planet Jasan, destined soul-mates of triplet male sets of that world, have encountered evil in many forms, and have been its target again and again. But, never in the two decades since Lariah Daniels became Jasan’s first berezi in a millennium, have any of these extraordinary women faced the kind of monstrous evil that threatens to overwhelm and destroy Rikki Bearen.

Rikki, an exuberantly sunny young woman studying art on a distant world, returns home unexpectedly and in obvious flight from some unknown and terrible threat, no one having heard from her for months. She is half-starved, exhausted, hunted, and carrying a tiny baby in her arms who is undoubtedly her child, yet who could not have been born and reached her present age in the time since Rikki was last seen by her parents. Once on Jasan, Rikki quickly encounters her Rami, the male set with whom she is fated to be joined.

Kyrus, Kash, and Kasper Bearen have longed for a family for well over a century. They are excited the moment they realize Rikki is their berezi, then immediately fly into a rage when they see the child. Jealous of the man who they are certain has been with the woman destined for them, they terrify Rikki who takes the baby and runs, resolved to leave Jasan and make a life for herself and the child on another world.

Why isn’t Rikki safely attending classes at art school instead of appearing on Jasan like a fugitive? How did the child even come into being? What happened to Rikki and her child? Why are they both so scared? From what evil does Rikki flee?

As answers to these question are slowly revealed, Rikki and the Bearens struggle with the powerful attraction that draws them irresistibly into each other’s arms in the face of the fear and anger that drive them asunder. Further, as Rikki begins to tell her story, the outlines of a deeply malevolent scheme begin to take shape: one that demonstrates the unspeakable evil that lives in the hearts of some human beings, and that shows the hand of the greatest enemies to the peoples of the Thousand Worlds--a hand seeking the destruction or enslavement of all of its people.

Rikki’s Star is a full-length 119,350 word reverse-harem novel--just what fans of Laura Jo Phillips ordered for the New Year. With a story as big as the galaxy and as intimate as a lover’s heart, Rikki’s Star delivers the goods that Laura Jo’s fans expect and, yes, even crave. It is the eighth installment of the “Hearts of Icarus” series and the first installment of a “trilogy within a series,” telling the story of the new generation of Bearen sisters, shifters from birth and each endowed with astonishing and unexpected psychic gifts, as well as profound gifts of courage, grit, and determination. Many readers will also be interested to know that, in this book Laura Jo cranks up the heat and turns on the kink, weaving into Rikki’s enthralling and compelling emotional journey a highly-charged eroticism that will get the heart pumping and blood flowing to all the right places, hearkening back to The Dracons’ Woman, Laura Jo’s first novel.
Anyone who has enjoyed any of the works of Laura Jo Phillips, as well as any aficionado of reverse harem stories, will find Rikki’s Star to be an involving, exciting, heart-rending and--dare we say it--arousing read, fun and satisfying for long-time fans and readers who are new to Laura Jo’s work.