Ghost Ship
by Veronica Scott
My Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF
Blurb:
After losing his Space Navy career due to an unfortunate accident, Theo Knox is looking for any opportunity to distinguish himself as an officer aboard the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr. When they come upon a derelict freighter, he’s happy to lead a small crew to salvage the ship and bring her to port. But once he’s boarded the little ship questions pile up. What happened to the original crew? Why is the lifeboat still docked? Is the ship haunted? What’s in those mysterious crates in the cargo hold?Security Officer Jayna Evans has complicated feelings about Theo so she’s pleased to be assigned to his salvage crew. She hopes they can work out their future while bringing the derelict to port but the uncanny events aboard the abandoned vessel pile up and she can’t trust anyone, not even Theo.
Can Theo and Jayna salvage the ship and their relationship? Will anyone survive a cruise on the Ghost Ship?
This 38K word Star Cruise novella is the latest installment in the ongoing, connected series. Have you booked your Star Cruise yet?
My Review
I like Veronica Scott’s books and bought this one when it released. I buddy read this one with Sophia. Ghost Ship starts on board the space cruise ship that multiple of this author’s stories take place and there are a few recurring characters form previous books, but this one easily works as a standalone. The cruise ship stumbles upon an empty freighter cruising through space and they decide to investigate. Leading the investigation is Theo and among some other crew members is security officer Jayne, the two have had some steamy nights together, but she keeps him at a distance while he wants more.
Ghost Ship mostly is a plot based story about the crew who gets aboard the abandoned freighter and attempt to bring her to the nearest planet. Strange things happen onboard and the crew members get affected by the ship, hearing voices, seeing things that others don’t and more. It’s quite the spooky and creepy situation. It’s a bit creepier than I usually like in my books, but I have to admit I was invested and curious about what was going on. Just as I was afraid the hints and strange occurrences would go too long there is a reveal and the story progresses.
The last part of the book is quite tense and I wanted to know how the crew would deal with it all. It all gets wrapped up well and I thought the reveal and solution was well done. Though I was a bit sad at some of the things that happened and I would’ve liked a bit more info about how the other crew members did.
The romance takes a backseat to the story and rightfully so, it wouldn’t feel right for them to be more busy with the romance than the plot given the situation they’re in. Even though I would’ve liked more scenes between them throughout the book that just didn’t make sense. I liked these two together. They made for a great team and a great couple. I think it helped they already knew each other and going through this dangerous mission together brings them even closer. I liked seeing how their romance got wrapped up as well as finding out why Jayna kept Theo at a distance at first.
To summarize: This was another solid read in this universe. This book has a bit of a spooky and creepy vibe as the characters investigate a ghost ship. The romance takes a backseat to the plot as the character have to stay aboard the ghost ship while strange things occur. The hints and creepy occurrences don’t go on too long before there’s a reveal about what’s going on. The book is a bit too creepy at times for my taste, but I was invested in the story and wanted to know what happened to the ship. It also gets a bit sad in places, but the ending is a happy one and I liked how things for wrapped up. I liked the couple and while I would’ve liked to see more of their romance throughout the book it made sense given the plot why most of the romance doesn’t happen till later.
I had such a good time buddy reading this one with you, Lola. It was borderline horror and I agree that their situation made it hard for the romance side to develop.
I also had a lot of fun buddy reading this one with you, but yeah this one did get close to horror and was quite creepy at times.
Great review! I’ve only read Aydarr by Veronica Scott and haven’t had a chance to read any more.
Rolé @ Hooked By That Book recently posted…Review: A Vocation of Violence – by kerrigan Byrne
I’ve read a bunch of her books and enjoyed most of them :). I read Aydarr last year, but haven’t continued the series yet.