Deep in my reading slump, I picked up this ARC, and I'm immensely happy that I did - I absolutely loved this book! I haven't ever read anything like this before, and that made me very happy. I laughed and cried while reading this, and every book that succeeds with that is a perfect book, in my opinion.

It's romantic, fun, funny, sexy and action-packed, but with the perfect balance and handles serious topics with respect and grace as well. There were relatable and well-rounded characters, AND it has a good plot AND subplots.

I loved the world building; it was made with enough details to feel real, but not as much that it made me feel overwhelmed and/or stupid. Every fact and detail blended together flawlessly.

Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC.

genre: sci-fi romance

Sunastara Nex is the hospitality specialist on board the Ignisar space cruise liner. She's thrown herself into her job as a way to [not] process the grief from her past, and her job is making sure the passengers on the cruise have a pleasant journey. Boundaries are not her strength, though, and she uses the Squee hookup app to find pleasure where she can, with whomever she can. This is how she meets Joshua, with whom she has an exquisite one-night stand, which is great until three months later she sees him walking into her staff meeting as their new languages and customs officer... his name is Freddie, and Sunny is going to have to really test her professional boundaries.

This was tough for me for all the reasons that other readers will probably end up loving: it's a contemporary romance set in space with the window dressings of sci-fi. Written in first person, there's a cinematic quality to the book, and there are times I was convinced I was in an episode of Star Trek DS9 or Babylon 5. For those less comfortable with SF worldbuilding, Sunastara and the Venusian is an easy entrypoint into some spicy fun in space. I found the pacing difficult - Hardy spends time detailing flashy tech and giving readers that cinematic feel, then focuses on the romance, and then focuses on the external conflict, rather than connecting all of those components. I think this will strongly appeal to readers who grew up on Star Trek but don't read much SF. The space cruise gives the book a cozy feel, which will appeal to many readers looking to slowly branch out of a comfort zone and into some science fiction.

This wasn't for me, but I can imagine it'll work for a whole lot of readers looking for big feelings, a spicy romance, and some outer space fun.


CW: death of a child off-page prior to the events of the book

This book was an utter delight from start to finish. Our FMC is dealing with grief but living her life bringing the holiday dreams of passengers aboard a space cruise to life... while also coming face-to-face with the best one-night-stand of her life when he comes aboard as the new language expert. Throw in cruise ship shenanigans and a political plot to add some action and it was a fun ride from start to finish. Absolutely loved it.

Sunastara & The Venusian, A Space Cruise Romance Book 1 by Jess K Hardy is a book that has it all from faded romance to a kidnapping to holidays in space. Sunny is the event planner on a space cruise ship and has never found the one. She generally gets her dates off of a dating app and that is how she meets “Ben,“ who unlike all the other aliens rocks, her world. they don’t share any personal details so when she meets the new translator that has just been hired on her team, she is shocked to see not only is his name not Ben but Fred, a man she cannot stop thinking about. for someone not so keen on being in Love she doesn’t have time to contemplate what to do about the new situation because special guests are coming aboard and before she knows it. Their son sigh has been kidnapped. I have really skipped a lot of details for this brief overall summary of this great story. Not only is it a great alien romance it is not packed full of sex scenes, but it has an actual story attached and I learned recently there will be a book too, so yay I cannot wait! it seems when it comes to the different alien races. The author has thought of everything from drinks to dances just to everything this book was so good and I really loved it. It was so funny and I mean hilariously funny and a book I definitely absolutely 100% recommend. They do have some detailed sex scenes, but not enough that it takes you out of the story and not so long that you can’t just pass them up, if that is not your cup of tea like I did. #NetGalley, #JessKHardy, #SunastaraAndTheVenusian,

This was a fun read by Jess K Hardy!! I wish I would’ve known about this before the title change. I don’t usually grab many sci-fi stories but I’m so glad I was able to get a copy of this one. Sunny and Freddie were a hoot. Jess’s ability to draw the world for me was pure magic. Would recommend.

🌌 Her POV
🌟 Sci Fic Romance with a dash of suspense
🌌 Outer Space setting
🌟 One Night Stand
🌌 Workplace Romance
🌟 Neighbors
🌌 Coworkers
🌟 Close Proximity
🌌 A Proposition
🌟 Third Act Breakup with their almost relationship
🌌 HEA
🌟 A Perfect Gentleman
🌌 Mention of lost loved ones

Sunastara and Freddie shared one night together, and they hadn't seen each other until the company hired a new employee. YUP! You guessed it! They shared chemistry during their one night and at their workplace. Sunny is an amazing employee when she goes above and beyond for her guests. Sunny was not ready for a relationship with anyone yet. However, Freddie was a patient man for Sunny until she was ready. I'm not gonna lie. Sunny got me frustrated a few times, but she finally gave him a chance.

It's sad on who they lost in their lives. It became understandable for the hesitation of the relationship. I'm glad Sunny was able to give Freddie a chance after realizing their feelings for each other. Sunny and Freddie seem perfect for each other 💛

I really enjoyed reading about Sunny and Freddie's love story with great side characters.
I love the side characters because they have a great relationship with each other. A found family. Sunny has a found family after taking a job a few years ago. Freddie fit in their dynamic pretty quickly. When Elaine got her update, I felt for her since she was new to feelings and hormones. I really liked the possible relationships forming throughout the book with the side characters. I hope they get their love stories as well. There are some action and suspense moments in this book as well. 💛
🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠

I love Jess K Hardy's Bluebird Basin contemporary series, so I'm happy to follow her into space. And this is such a fun read.

It's a classic "the best one night stand ever is my new colleague" workplace romance, but aboard the loveboat in space, with malfunctioning pleasure pods, political intrigue, and a daring escape (it makes sense in context). For a book that feels mostly fun and lighthearted, I ended up crying for a significant portion of it. Because Jess is so good at balancing grief and romance. And it's a high heat book too! It's just so much fun.

I can't wait to read more in this series.

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

This book was so interesting, and engaging. I'll admit, confusion was part of the engagement, but that added to the fun as well.

If I've read a story about people/beings on other planets that felt like it could be true before, I certainly don't remember it. This book, while fantastical, also read as something that could happen in the future.

I very much enjoyed it, and would recommend it.

NetGalley allowed me to read this via ARC, and I thank them for the opportunity.

Here’s what I know: I can absolutely 100% put my trust in Jess K. Hardy to write something I don’t even think I’ll like (sci fi) and she’ll have me in the palm of her hand by the end of the story. Did I expect to find myself crying in the middle of a book about an outer space pleasure cruise ship? No, no I did not, and yet that is the beauty of Hardy’s writing—she takes you through all the emotions from laughter, to sexy times, to grief.

Sunastara and the Venusian on the front end, is not what I would typically envision as a romance due to its setting, and yet it had the most wonderful heart a romance reader could want. It was a breath of fresh air to read a romance in a futuristic universe and I loved all of the quirky sci-fi world building elements, many humorous and most fascinating. Sunny is the Hospitality Director for the Ignisar, a pleasure cruise on one side of the worm hole. When her one-night stand “Joshua” shows up as the newest crew member, Sunny cannot believe the odds that she would ever see the most memorable night of her life again face to face. Sunny is a modern woman. She doesn’t do relationships, she never dates a co-worker, but she sure knows how to have a good time. Fortunately Freddie, aka Joshua has a proposition that might ease Sunny into the idea of entertaining something more with him.

Jess Hardy is excellent at writing “book boyfriends”; men that women love and fall hard for, and WOW! is Freddie at the top of my list. Sure he’s handsome, intelligent, and charming, but he also really wants to woo Sunny, he genuinely listens and remembers things about her, he is a caretaker and kind to others, and also great with kids—basically the whole package. There is a beautiful moment between Sunny and Freddie where he helps her through her grief that I will probably never forget (see above mentioned sobbing) and he’s so patient with Sunny as she processes her loss. This book is also smoking hot, from their dating app hook up to the malfunctioning pleasure pods, Hardy knows how to write steam. The emotional investment combined with stellar storytelling make Sunastara and the Venusian a book that I know I will continue to think about after the last page has been read. I received an early copy. All opinions are my own.

CW: child loss, loss of a spouse and grief surrounding this

This book was absolutely beautiful. I took my time because I am someone who grew up on Star Trek and this felt like a Star Trek book. I adored every minute and did not want it to end fast. The chemistry between the main characters. The friendships made. The character developments and the world. I cannot wait to read more of what this author releases in the future. I hope many more books with these characters will be releases. This has become one of my all time favourite books. Thank you for the copy from Netgalley. It is how I was able to read it. I will be buying the book too.

I was really excited to get a copy of this book, but unfortunately I do not think Sunastara & the Venusian is for me. I'm just not into the main characters and don't buy into the angst/tension of their relationship. I'm just a little bored. DNF @ 30%.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I read this book after completing a space opera retelling of Ceasar and Cleopatra. I thought this would be a fluffy, trope-heavy romance that happened to be in space. And for about 1/3 of the book, it was. But it started to unravel. It felt 500 pages long, and not in a good way.

The book stars Sunastara (I kept reading Sunastra) or "Sunny" working on a pleasure cruise ship in space. She has a fabulous one-night stand while hiding a deep, dark tragic past. The author is really bad about drawing out this tragic secret and the details come out at weird intervals and in odd amounts. Also, brings down the tone of an otherwise light and spicy romance. A few good spicy scenes, and varying amounts of description.

Anyway, months after the one-night stand Sunny's cruise ship gets a new team member: her hot fling, Freddie the Venusian! Aka: he's from Venus. They're both humans, no cross-species fun here. Alien races and planets and organizations are not explained well at all, FYI.

Sunny tries to keep him at arms-length, they're massively attracted to each other, the usual. But at the same time, there is a galactic senator's family on board. Also, some violent pirate (like Klingons, but basically human) aliens are soon to visit and everyone hates the idea.

This is where the plot tries to do too much and loses the emotional balance. There's intrigue, adventure, and motherly emotional turmoil. None of that is in the first half of the book. The story would've been plenty entertaining with just the space romance of balancing an interspecies team and crazy passengers. A rom-com, not an adventure story.

As a liberal, I was still annoyed at the clunky inclusive language. Star Trek and Firefly manage to be inclusive and still entertaining. Characters say "what in the worlds" and "you're a great being" instead of "what in the world" and "you're a great guy". LGBTQ couples, duh, but a lot else seemed shoehorned in.

Finally, the tech. Non-sci-fi authors should keep that vague and not do too much. Digcards, comms, hover chairs, and sonic cannons were not explained much until 3/4 through the book.

You had us at space romance. The perfect mesh of sci fi and romance! This was cute, funny, and a fun take on an office romance. Please give us more of these!

Book: Sunastara and the Venusian by Jess K Hardy
Themes/Tropes: Recovering from loss, HEA, Found family, Romantic comedy

Sunastara and the Venusian starts off like any other romance book with a chance meeting in a bar or restaurant followed by a romantic encounter but this book is so much more than that. I didn’t know what to expect from this one but I was sucked in so quickly by the humor of the dialog, charm of the characters and the world that Hardy has designed. This novel reads like a work place comedy meets a sci fi adventure story.

I didn’t want it to end I wanted more with these characters I loved how each character we are introduced to in the crew is very much a real character and not a 2D background add on. Sunny and Freddie’s romance is less of a “when will they” and more of a “come on already just be happy together” which I loved. Their love story was simple and felt real for two people just excepting another person for everything that makes them who they are.

The sci fi setting reminded me so much of 90’s era Star Trek that I wanted more! The different species, planets and such were mentioned in ways the reader felt like they understood the lore without a long paragraph detailing exactly why there was a New Earth or what a bionic exactly is or the Kravaxian species.

I highly recommend this one, I was recommending this one before I even finished this book.

The most relevant description I have for this story is “The Love Boat meets Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets”

In a time far into the future, lives Sunastara, aka Sunny, aka Phoebe, Nex; a hospitality director on an intergalactic cruise ship that carries passengers from different parts of the Known Universe. She is 40, traumatized but in denial about her own issues and thinks that burying them under a mountain of one night stands is gonna make them not bother her.
Enters Freddie, aka Joshua, the one night stand she has a fantastic connection with and is unable to forget even months after their encounter. The relationship between Sunny and Freddie starts off like a “fated mates” situation; they hook up in the beginning after a great date and have a mind blowing one night stand, both expecting to never see each other again.

Months later, surprise, surprise, Freddie joins Sunny’s workplace and now they have to maintain a professional relationship while Sunny manages her attraction towards him and start confronting her own issues and past trauma.

Freddie is a green flag guy; not only because he is nice, kind and respectful of her wishes, but also refuses to allow her to bury her feelings in bouts of meaningless sex. Watching their relationship blossom into something solid was beautiful to watch. I can’t even tell if I like Phoebe and Joshua more than Sunny and Freddie or not lol.

The side characters are fantastic.

Sunny had internal monologues a plenty, and that can get boring or repetitive but Jess regularly gives something happening in the background to keep the reader entertained.

This is the second book I read for Jess K. Hardy after Come As You Are; and she delivers every time! I highly recommend it.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

We are on the Ignisar traveling through space on our way to Portis.

Sunastrara “Sunny” Nex has been the hospitality specialist on this ship for the past 5 years. Running away from an accident and her past, she tends to find solace in staying out late and different beds at night.
When an encounter with “Joshua” as “Phoebe” during her stay at LunaCorp headquarters leaves her desperate to find the same distraction back on her ship for 3 months, she can’t believe her eyes as to who the new Language and Customs Expert is.

Fredrick “Freddie” Caruthers aka Joshua can’t get Phoebe out of his mind. When she walks into the morning staff meeting, he wants her. Not just her body but also her soul and mind. Sunny declines and has her reasons, but cannot open up to Freddie for she’s afraid of moving on.

The banter between Sunny and Freddie, the colleagues is amazing. Great writing. A sweet love story for the elder millennial/Xennial generation. Not many books that have 40+ FMCs.

Can’t wait to read more adventures from the Ignisar!

🙋🏻‍♂️He falls first
🤫Secret identities
📊Workplace romance
🚀Space romance
🪢Kidnapping
😢Loss of child/family member

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

If you're looking for sci-fi romance with a side of trauma, you've come to the right book. Sunny (aka Phoebe) meets Freddy (aka Joshua) through a hookup app and they spend an amazing one night stand together. A few months later he shows up on her ship as her new coworker. He's totally ready for a relationship, but Sunny definitely is NOT.

I feel like a big grump because I love science fiction and I love romance, but sci-fi romances often miss the mark for me. This is fine as a romance (one night stand to lovers! coworkers to lovers! let's keep it casual!), but it felt extremely flimsy as SF. A lot of the cultural references felt rooted in the 2020s (like the hookup app I mentioned above).

I also cried A LOT while reading this one because of the specific trauma in Sunny's past (check CNs, it was not a surprise to me, but it certainly hit me in the feels). I think this book will work for you if you're looking for a cozier version of Jessie Mihalik or Constance Fay's sort of sci-fi romance, despite the trauma. After all, this is a book about (space) cruse ship coworkers falling in love.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

This laugh-out-loud workplace romance in space will have you applying for a position on a pleasure cruise of your own.

This is a laugh out loud, romcom, with compelling main characters and super interesting supporting characters. I have so many highlights from this. The story is creative and the worldbuilding is unique enough to feel fresh, but also pulls on tried-and-true tropes that are central for romance lovers like me.

There is also a low-key critique of corporate culture that threads throughout this story which I loved.

A few of my favourite quotes:
"For the last time Sunny, I will not dislocate your shoulder to get you out of this training. No matter how much you beg."
"Like he was a G-spot psychic"
"Don't take this the wrong way Sai, but you're a teeny bit terrifying"

This is a full story, no cliffhanger, but the secondary characters are so developed that I hope we get to return to this ship and keep exploring love with them. I am especially interested in the twins who are the head of security.

This is my first Jess K Hardy book but it will not be my last.

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC.

This book is best read after the pleasure pods on your ship malfunction, you'll definitely need some recovery time.

Sunastara & the Venusian by Jess K Hardy is a great space cruse romance!
I'm a big fan of Hardys previous work and she never disappoints.
This book was a lot of fun and dealt with some heavy topics.
I loved the characters and the setting was amazing.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book! It was a little slow going at times but I was invested in the main character’s relationship from the start. Definitely worth a read for sci-fi romance lovers!