Review: Mission to Mahjundar by Veronica Scott

Posted July 31, 2017 by Lola in Coyer, Fantasy, Review, Romance, Sci-Fi / 10 Comments

LolaReview

Mission to MahjundarMission to Mahjundar (A Sectors SF Romance)
by Veronica Scott

Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Science Fiction Romance

Blurb:
An attempted assassination left Princess Shalira blind as a child and, now that she’s of marriageable age, her prospects are not good because of her disability. She’s resigned herself to an arranged marriage rather than face life under the thumb of her cold stepmother. But then she meets Mike Varone, a Sectors Special Forces officer sent to Mahjundar by the intergalactic government to retrieve a ship lost in her planet’s mountains. After Mike saves Shalira from another assassination attempt, she arranges for him to escort her across the planet to her future husband. She’s already falling hard for the deadly offworlder and knows she should deny herself the temptation he represents, but taking Mike along to protect her is the only way she’ll live long enough to escape her ruthless stepmother.

Mike, for his part, resists his growing attraction to the princess; he has a mission on this planet and rescuing the vulnerable but brave princess isn’t it. No matter how much he wishes it could be.

But what should have been an easy trek through Mahjundar’s peaceful lands swiftly turns into an ambush with danger around every turn. Shalira’s marriage begins to seem less like an arranged union and more like yet another planned assassination. The more they work together to survive, the harder it becomes to stop themselves from falling in love. Caught in a race against time, can they escape the hostile forces hunting them and make it off the planet?

My Review:
Before I started this book I had read two short stories by this author that I enjoyed and I was eager to give one of her full length works a try. I picked this book up when it was discounted and as I was in a sci-fi mood I decided to start this one. Sadly I have to say this one missed the mark for me. The story didn’t quite work for me. This is mostly because of me having wrong expectations about this book and I was unable to really care about the characters or get caught up in the story.

Mission to Mahjundar is a sci-fi romance, but at the same time I feel that doesn’t really describe the feel or genre of this book well. Yes the male main character is a Marine from the Sectors and does missions to other world, but 95% of this book takes place on Majundar. A backwater planet with basically no technology and the male main character and his cousin only use some blasters and some minor tech. It almost would fit better to describe this book as a fantasy or even military romance, even though neither of those is quite right either as it does have a small sci-if aspect and there is a bigger world out there. I had expected a sci-fi romance and sadly this book didn’t have as much sci-fi as I had hoped and therefore didn’t fit my mood as well as I had expected.

It’s not a bad book, but it just didn’t quite work for me. There were parts that I did enjoy and it was a nice read. The story did flow nicely and the pace was pretty well done for the most part. The book is pretty story driven but at the same time could feel a bit slow at times or maybe that’s because I didn’t quite care about the events that were happening.

Beside the book not fitting my expectations I has some trouble with the story. The story didn’t quite keep my attention and I wasn’t fully happy the direction the story took at times. I also am discovering a new pet peeve of mine, books were there is too much trouble. It felt like in this book the characters went from one bad situation to another. Or they were right before or after a bad situation. It just got tiring and I wanted them to have a few more moments of peace and quiet to enjoy each others company or were we could get to know the characters better. There was a nice scene at the start were they had a bit of a sort of quiet temporary moment which was nice, but it was very short lasting.

Besides there being few moments of peace, I had a hard time caring about the story. It felt like little details or bit of information were missing here and there that could’ve made the plot feel more complete. Only about 60% in the book we finally find out a few basics of the “mission” Mike and Johnny were on and even then it’s hard to grab the relevance of this mission. We get a few details later, but it’s too little too late. The new information just makes me have more question about the information and the things that happened before this book. I guess I would’ve liked to get a bit more information about this mission. And there are also some parts of the story I would’ve liked to get more details about. How this planet and culture worked and the tribes and why the special agents weren’t aware of certain things going in. A few things just seemed a bit too convenient, usually for the bad guys, and other parts just didn’t fully make sense or come alive.

So what did I enjoy about this book? For the most part it was well written and I liked the writing style. Even though I struggled though it at times, it also had some scenes and parts that I did enjoy and some chapters that I easily read through. I also liked the set-up for this book, a military guy who on a mission to a planet falls in love with a local blind princess. With how they are both from such different words, but find common ground. I also thought it was nice to see a less advanced planet in a galaxy that also has more advanced planets, I just would’ve liked to see more of this contradiction. How the sectors people experienced this people or how foreign the technology was to the people there. I would’ve liked to get to know the customs of this planet a bit better.

While I liked the idea of the romance, sadly I didn’t quite feel the romance in this book. It seemed their feelings for each other developed quite quickly and while they spent some time together I would’ve liked to see more scenes where they really connected or got to know each other. Sadly the romance didn’t really work for me. I was happy how there was no miscommunication or other big issues in the romance as the more gently style seemed to fit the book.

The characters were nice enough, but I had a hard time really caring about them. I did enjoy reading the story, but at the same time had a hard time really connecting with or feeling like I got to know the characters. I would’ve liked to get the characters a bit better as I think that would’ve made me more invested in the story. I thought the princess had an interesting backstory, I was just a bit disappointed with how something surrounding her was handled later in the book. And I would’ve liked to know what really happened to her those years ago, I had hoped we would’ve gotten to know that in the end.

Concerning the world building, there was very little of that, but at the same time it is obvious there is more in this universe. With what we did get to know it was obvious there was a whole galaxy and more stories out there and I did like that feeling of how the author build a whole world even though we only get to see a little piece. I just wished we would’ve gotten more than a glimpse of the rest of the galaxy in this book. But that’s probably also because I was in the mod for sci-fi and this book very light on the sci-fi aspects.

To summarize: this book didn’t quite work for me. There were parts I enjoyed and parts that didn’t work for me. I ended up rounding up my rating as I do feel that it’s not a bad book, but I just went in with wrong expectations (wish I had read a few reviews first) and I didn’t really care for the story. The book was story driven, but at the same time it could feel a bit slow and like these tiny pieces of information were missing that would’ve made the book read smoother. The characters were in a lot of trouble and bad situations in this book and I would’ve liked some more quieter and happier moments to break up all the bad things. I didn’t care for the direction the story took at times, but I was happy with the ending. There were a few questions left unanswered that I had hoped to see answered. The book is very light on the sci-fi aspects and reads more like a fantasy or military romance at times. I didn’t feel the romance in this book and didn’t care for the characters. But I did like the set-up for the romance and how they both came from different worlds. I also liked the feel the author created of there being a whole galaxy out there and the world seemed thought out even though we only got to see a very small piece of it.

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last book you read where you felt mixed about?

Tags:


10 responses to “Review: Mission to Mahjundar by Veronica Scott

    • It wasn’t a bad book, but it didn’t quite fit my expectations :(. It’s too bad when a book leaves you with mixed feelings.

  1. I’ve read a few of this type of sci-fi where it’s so mild that it almost doesn’t count. And too much action without development has put me off books before, too. Glad the writing was still good and the overall world of the series if not this specific book.
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Terran by Cara BristolMy Profile

    • It was just a bit of a shame as I was hoping for a good sci-fi romance and this one turned out to be very light on the sci-fi. I am hoping I’ll enjoy the next book I read by this author more as I do really like her writing and the world. I think this one was just a bit of a miss for me as I had wrong expectations.

    • I had hoped for more sci-fi parts and I guess this book wasn’t quite for me. I do plan to read some of this author’s other books as her writing is good.

  2. LOLA. I feel like neither of us has been commenting as much, and I miss you! I’m sorry this book didn’t work out so well though. Sci-fi and fantasy can have such a blurred line sometimes, so it can be hard to figure out if it’s going to suit your mood. And story-focused but slow-paced doesn’t sound like the best combination. I don’t mind the bad things continually happening though. I like when authors don’t go easy on their characters. But then I usually like when the characters eventually get a moment of peace to do something fun, though I can generally wait until later in a series even for that. I guess it depends. Books with things constantly going wrong can be exhausting.

    • I hope I can make some more time to comment soon as I also miss visiting your blog :(.

      I just wish I would’ve known in advance this book was more fantasy as then I would’ve picked it up when I was in the mood for that. It just didn’t meet my expectations as I was hoping for a good sci-fi romance. I am planning to pick up more books by this author as there are parts that i do like, just feel like this book wasn’t quite for me.

      One the one hand I don’t mind it when character have to go through a lot, but it does have to flow well and be believable. And especially in a romance I also want some scenes where the characters get to spend some time together and get to know each other. And that’s also a good point you make about series, if you have to wait for those more quiet scenes till later that’s okay too. In this case, this book was a standalone.

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.