Solar Heat    by Susan Kearney Order:  USA  Can Tor, 2008 (2008) Paperback     Reviewed by Martina Bexte When interstellar entrepreneur Derrek Archer and his crew encounter a pod of emergency capsules floating in deep space, he's well aware of the risk of bringing the pods onboard. But that doesn't stop him from doing the right thing and dismissing possible consequences - at least for the short time it will take to discover if the life forms inside the pods can be saved. From the first moment he sees Azsla lying in repose, he's lost - and confounded by his strange reaction to her. But medical testing by the ship's doctor erase Derrek's suspicions that he'd somehow been drugged or otherwise chemically affected by her presence. Azsla finds herself similarly attracted to the rugged asteroid miner, but now is not the time to form romantic entanglements with a man who could well be her enemy and compromise her mission. Though her ship has been destroyed and some of her loyal crew lost, she has every intention of finding another way to get to the planet Zor. She must access the renegade slaves' weapons development and stop their impending invasion of her home planet Rama. Azsla had lost everything during the slaves' first rebellion, including her beloved parents. To avenge them and regain her own position as a powerful First, she is willing to risk anything, including forming a false alliance with Archer, himself a former slave who had escaped the brutal yoke of the Ramians. Plenty of action, intrigue, divided loyalties, looming disaster, and of course, lovers' misunderstandings keep the plot of this interstellar romance rolling along at a fast clip. Interspersed is a good dash of both Derrek's and Azsla's back-stories and in Derrek's case a sub-plot that centres on his ongoing struggle to reconnect with his teenage children. Kearney treats readers to another engaging and sizzling read in Solar Heat. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Romance books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews