This was a ok story.
Unfortunately it was very slow in places which made it very difficult to finish.

Excellent debut character-driven novel

This is Merethe Walther’s debut novel and what a debut it is. The story is great, with good pacing and fascinating well fleshed-out characters. The action scenes are excellent and I liked the political overtones. There is even some romance. While science fiction created the backdrop for this story, it takes a backseat to excellent character development, which is a strength of the book. I look forward to reading more books in the series.

Aralyn Solari can't seem to catch a break. Fresh out of prison, Ari is trying to settle one final courrier job before switching carreers. Of course, nothing will go as planned when she finds herself with an absent buyer, holding some very illegal contraband and being picked up by the police. To add insult to injury, her old flame and partner in crime is now an officer of the law and holding her leash. The adventure to follow will include chases through outerspace, breaking into prisons and a blackmail scheme from which none of them may escape. This is a light science fiction romp with a cast of complex characters. Ari is at times fierce, but also shows compassion. Caden's motives become clear as the story progresses and Kita is just a ball of energy and spunk. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to the second one. For fans of Ann Aguirre.

Mercury in Retrograde is very much a romance novel - yes, it has a sci fi setting but all the romance conventions are here: lack of hard science, no edginess, sweet personalities, misunderstandings coming in the way of true love, and a focus on relationships rather than conflict. It made the writing problematic for me: about half way through, too many plot points felt either very deus ex machina or completely unlikely/unrealistic/unlikely. As a result, i couldn't get into what felt like fake characters in a very bog-standard tepid romantic genre plot. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate romance in the sci fi genre. But I also expect the intelligent and intricate plotting as well.

Story: Aralyn is a small time smuggler who ran away from her family's fortune in order to chart her own course in life. Bitter after a betrayal by her lover landed her in prison for several years, she's now free and about to do a job for a former prisonmate that will give her enough money to start again. Unfortunately, things are never as easy as they seem - she'll have to partner up with another con, face her former lover who now works for the law, and deal with betrayal after betrayal as she finds herself deep in over her head.

We have three main characters - Aralyn, her ex boyfriend Caden, and Kita (a hacker, natch, because this is sci fi) - but the POV is only from Aralyn. We're expected to believe that she had a very hard time in a top prison yet Aralyn seems pretty well adjusted and surprisingly trusting. I just didn't believe she'd have lasted five minutes there - and even then, not so emotionally stable afterwards. Caden, as a love interest, is fine if bland. It's obvious from the onset that he's a good guy and that she has completely misinterpreted the situation. That she doesn't trust him at all but seems to trust every other person blindly didn't make sense other than to set up a reason for her and Caden to not get back together again immediately. Of course, it's yet another case where one person just telling the truth would make this a 10 page book instead of 300.

The deus ex machina was strong here. From a prison that they immediately escape easily (through a person-sized pipe in their cell ceiling?!?) to Aralyn happening to partner up with a hacker in the same cell- just the person she needs to fix her problems and ensure the second part of the escape. It was incredibly convenient all around. Of course, both Kita and Aralyn have perfect excuses for being on the wrong side of the law; I miss the days when we could have an antihero or a character with depth and a questionable conscience. Both women were pure enough to have little birds braiding their hair in the morning, Disney fashion.

I have to admit, I just got bored half way through. I couldn't invest in the plot or the characters because they felt too much like archetypes. Plotting 101 and romance novel heroine and hero 101. That doesn't mean this is a terrible book; I think for undemanding readers, it would be an enjoyable Summer read. But I've read enough books now to want more than the bog standard that is Mercury Retrograde. I hope for a hook or angle to make the book unique and not another romance novel retread: character names and settings changed. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

"Aralyn stared up at the stars above them. Once a place that had held untold fortune and adventure, she'd recalled the delight at setting out on her first run; tightness and happiness and fear warring in her belly. "

* * * *
4 / 5

What an unexpected gem of a book! I requested this book on Netgalley because of the plot, but when I came to read it was put off (stupidly) by the cover. But I am so glad I read this. Mercury in Retrograde has unpredictable action, unbelievable heists, and an unlikely crew of rag-tag criminals that I grew to love. It's funny, delightful, made my heart race in parts, and tackled some difficult issues like human trafficking and slavery.

We are thrown straight into the action. Aralyn Solari fresh (and battered) from a stint in the galaxy's worst prison, Tartarys, steps off her spaceship only to be arrested by her ex-boyfriend for being a known runner of illegal goods. Shortly after being cleared from custody, Aralyn is set up and arrested for one of the most illegal crimes in the solar system: orachal smuggling. Orachal is a drug used for subduing people for human trafficking. And this is just the beginning of Aralyn's bad fortune; her story winds its way across the solar system, following the trail of a woman who seems to want her dead, an encrypted tablet with vital information in a court case, and a team that really does not know when to quit.

Helen nodded. "Foolish sheep think ... they think a wolf won't eat them if he's fed, but the wolf has many mouths to feed. Always hungry."

Aralyn is bold, gutsy, and handy with antique Earth guns. She's also broken: three years in Tartarys has taken its toll on her psychologically, and her heart is broken by Caden Madigan, ex-partner and, well, ex-partner-in-crime who seems to have flipped sides from law breaker to law enforcer. I liked Aralyn's sensitive side; she's cool in a crisis and keeps a level-head most of the time, but she's also only human, and who wouldn't break down after being chased from planet to planet? She's also hilarious and not in that horrendously snarky manner that female main characters seem to be nowadays. Aralyn is genuinely amusing.

"Or my ship," said Kita. "I've got supplies on it. I guess we could part ways there. I can give some money, if you want." "You got caught selling fake creds..."

The rest of the crew is made up of amateur hacker Kita, Caden, and Kita's ex-lover Riordan. Caden is a bit of a flat character to be honest, the weakest person in the cast in my opinion. He's got an interesting backstory, but that's about all he's got going for him. Otherwise I found him arrogant, stubborn and overly protective. There's not wanting someone you care about to go into danger, a very reasonable reaction, and being stupid about it.

"Settling down hadn't seemed like a good idea when they'd had the galaxy at their fingertips"

What I did like was that Aralyn and Caden already had history. There's no chance of instalove, just the slow rekindling of an old flame as two people, both of which feel uncertain and betrayed, learn to trust each other again whilst realising that they can't regain the relationship of their youth.

She had only cared to help these people once she'd seen the lengths of depravity they were willing to go to
The plot is the strongest point of this book. There's a sensitive and moral exploration of slavery, touching on a very important point about how we can be so apathetic in the face of what we clearly perceive to be moral injustices. But there's also lots of fun heists, prison breakouts, blackmailing, double-crossing and gun fights. There's also spaceships and hacking. Overall, Mercury in Retrograde is a fast-paced sci-fi novel with a dynamic cast that I definitely recommend people try.