It was good.

Dex and Ben fall in love, but this is forbidden While it was interesting, in the end I was not very interested in the series that follows.
I still recommend that anyone interested in sci-fi stories and steamy romance read this book as a starter.

I requested this on NetGalley as a test to see if I would like it being it's a MM romance. I've only read one other of this type before and as a general rule it's not my cup of tea. This story though grabbed me. It kept me engaged with the forbidden of two men together in this sci-fi world. Be warned it's a cliffhanger series and this is definitely just a prequel! You have to read the whole series in order to get the full story. I'm putting the box set on my wish list to catch if and when it goes on sale. The other reason it captured me is because it's about two best friends and I love that trope. These guys are from different nationalities who are on the brink of war. They are both at the top of their race's special skills groups. I'm intrigued to see how this story evolves.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

2.5 stars. This MM erotic romance short story is a prequel to Laura Navarre's MMMF Astral Heat series. As such, it's supposed to whet the readers' appetites and make them head straight to their book venue of choice and pony up cash for the rest of the series. I'm afraid that I'm not likely to do so. I found the author's writing style lacked the descriptive exposition I enjoy. Ben and Dex (the only characters one meets on page) have the frantic emotionalism of extreme youth though they graduate into full adult status that year. Also, whose bright idea was it to throw the young elites of at least two separate antagonistic worlds together for training? Just not for me.

I read this as an arc an am giving my honest review.
Upon reading this book, I noticed it was one of many and quite enjoyed it. It opened up some answers and information the other books had not have. All in all it was a nice read.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


This is a short novella prequal. I read it after reading the series and feel it was more enjoyable to me to read as a flashback to the past. However I’m sure it would be good as first up reading also. There are some revelations that occur that are not disclosed in the later books that were surprising to me. Now I’m intrigued to know more about what happens after this book between Dex and Zoren and Ben and Kira. High steam - open door as usual. 5/5

I am going to preface this by saying, I have only read this book in the series, and will talking only about the book itself and not the extract from intrasellar angels at the end. (However I did appreciate that and thought it was a good touch to include)

I would definitely consider this a quick read, being able to finish it in an afternoon, (I'm also dyslexic so may be quicker for others). It's also nice and fast-paced, it doesn't feel like I'm waiting for the story to start.
The writing was not bad, the author did some good world building considering it was on the shorter side. She built up some nice tension in the beginning and left it on a cliff-hanger, but obviously this is a prequel to already published books. However, there was not much character development in this, so as a stand alone read, the only real character traits for these two are 'sex' and 'secret sex', but it is a book about sex so I'll give it that.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me this novella to preview. I read this before any of the others in the series, so that might have been a mistake even though this is technically a prequel. It was hard to jump in to the story when I don’t know who the characters were or what world they were living in. But if you’ve enjoyed the series and want to know about Dex and Ben getting together, you might like this. But it might be worth putting a note in the front of this book the intended reading order. I also just prefer not to read books that take place in fantasy worlds where LGBBTQIA+ couples are discouraged from being together. We get enough of that in the real world. But that’s just personal preference.

I got through this all in one night and I wasn't the biggest fan. The steam was very good, but the writing quality was below average. I had a hard time getting through the book because of this, and by the end I felt like I was skimming just so I could finish and review the book.