Review: Spark Transform by Carol Van Natta

Spark Transform (Central Galactic Concordance #6)
by Carol Van Natta

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
She just triggered a target on their backs. He’s her paid protection. Caught in a violent trap, can they find their place together among the stars?

Arco Charrascos’s pursuit of the truth is uncompromising. Determined to expose galaxy-wide corruption, the relentless investigative journalist discovers a dangerous secret threatening a military agency’s dark tactics. But when retaliation swiftly shows up as suspicious accidents and widespread destruction, she and her attractive bodyguard race to escape before martial law seizes the city in a deadly lockdown.

Faraday Brenner lives for revenge. Vowing retribution after being left for dead by an uncaring dark-ops agency and his psycho ex-boss, the former enforcer reluctantly agrees to guard the energetic reporter who saved his life. But as buildings collapse around them and systematic violence ensues, he finds the tables turned when captured by an underworld crew.

Risking everything as she tries to negotiate his release, Arco confronts her feelings for the courageous but reserved man. And if he makes it out of this ambush alive, Brenner fears continuing the fight at the side of the charismatic truth-seeker means letting go of his deserved vengeance.

With enemies hot on their heels, can they reveal secrets without dying in the process?

Spark Transform is the enthralling sixth book in the Central Galactic Concordance space opera romance series. If you like wounded heroes, fast-paced plots with expansive world-building, and slow-burn chemistry, then you’ll love Carol Van Natta’s action-packed adventure.

Buy Spark Transform to fire up a revolution today!

My Review

I was so excited for this highly anticipated next release in Carol Van Natta’s Central Galactic Concordance series. This series has a big overarching plot line with each book focussing mostly on one couple. In this book that’s Arco and Renner, but there are multiple plot lines and the couple from Jumper’s Hope plays a big role as well.

As I was so excited to start this book I didn’t take the time to re-read Jumper’s Hope and I would recommend to re-read that one if it has been a while since you last read it as I was a bit confused at first and had forgotten some things. I even had to look up some details of Jumper’s Hope to figure out what I was missing, but after that I continued. There is a big overarching plot line and it definitely helps to have some of the details fresher in your head than I did. Despite that I still managed to have a great time reading this book. And the more I read the more I remembered of what was going on and what happened to the characters and the plot in the last book.

I really liked reading about both Arco and Renner. Renner has been through a lot and it was so good to see him have his freedom and a chance for a new life. Arco’s passion for uncovering the truth and sharing it with the world through her journalism was great to see. She finds Renner at the end of the previous book and when he’s recovered asks if he wants to be her bodyguard, which he accepts. Both characters have some interesting psychic powers. I especially liked getting a better feel for how the finder and filer talents worked as well as Renner’s special talent with feeling electricity, although he doesn’t use it too often.

I liked their romance and seeing them grow closer over the course of the book. Although I had wished for a few more scenes of them getting to know each other or spending time together without being busy or on their way somewhere. I thought they were great together and I liked their interactions and seeing them grow closer. I also appreciated how while they both are a bit reluctant to confess their feelings, there is no drama or conflict in their romance besides that. They don’t confess their feelings till the end of the book and I hope we get to see a bit more of them as a couple in future books.

Besides the main couple this book has a lot of different point of views. I have to admit it felt like a bit much at times and I sometimes had trouble with the pov switches or how many different pov’s there were. I also had trouble remembering some details or figuring out why someone’s perspective was relevant. At the end of the book a lot of this all gets tied together and some of the earlier chapters form a point of view that seemed irrelevant suddenly made a lot more sense.

I liked seeing more of the couple from Jumper’s Hope. I liked seeing how they were doing and also seeing them connect and work together with Arco and Renner. There are also two point of views of a new couple, Tuzan and Samsara, or at least I think those two will end up as a couple and I am hoping they might be the next couple. I really liked Tuzan in Jumper’s Hope and it was great to see more of him here.

The overarching plot line of the series really seems to pick up steam in this book, with some big actions that CPS takes as well as the legacy that the CPS is afraid of becoming more clear and more actions being taken against the CPS as well. I am really excited where this goes next. The ending of this book feels a bit open ended, but that’s because there is still a lot next for these characters in future books I think. I do feel I can appreciate this book even more on a re-read and I definitely plan to re-read this book.

To summarize: This was a long anticipated new release in one of my favorite series and I was really excited to start reading this one. Spark Transform was an action packed exciting read with great characters. I liked Arco and Renner both as individuals with interesting personalities and psychic talents as well as a couple. I thought they were great together and I liked seeing them grow closer, but would’ve loved a few more scenes of them getting to know each other. This book was a bit tough to get into as I hadn’t taken the time to re-read Jumper’s Hope and I would definitely recommend doing that if you can as this book picks up on a lot of points were Jumper’s Hope left off. I could really feel the overarching plot line about the CPS becoming more important and taking up more center stage in this book and it’s exciting seeing how this develops. This book had a lot of point of views and it could feel like a bit much and hard to keep track of who everyone was and what they were doing and why they were relevant. I liked getting to see how the couple of Jumper’s Hope was doing and get to know more about two new characters who I think might be next books couple. The later part of this book was very exciting when a lot of threads come together and some foreshadowing pays off and it was great to see it all play out. This is definitely a book I want to re-read as I feel like I can enjoy it even more then. All in all another great installment in this amazing series and I can’t wait for the next one!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.