Tag: authors Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen

Review:  Phase Shift (Chaos Station Book 5) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen 

Rating: 5🌈

Phase Shift brings the epic saga of the crew of the Chaos, specifically that of the damaged super soldier Zander Anatolius and his partner, Felix Ingesson. Felix, former prisoner of war, engineer and co-owner of the Chaos, carries his own trauma from the war inside, mentally and emotionally, and on his body. 

After all Felix and Zander have been through, along with the rest of the crew of the Chaos, it’s far from over as Project Dreamweaver, the failed AEF super soldier experiment that continues to haunt Zan, rises up to threaten them all again. 

Characters Qek, Elias and Ness who are such a fantastic, integral part of this series and as Felix’s found family, are here in their own emotional roles. The Guardians, an enigmatic race that’s a guiding force for the known species introduced here, seem more relatable by the dramatic impact brought on by the circumstances as created by the authors and wrought by the human race’s need for more. 

As we know, the emotional, damaged and highly complex nature of the men involved and the very nature of the themes involved in the series makes finalizing all the threads and storylines a complicated process.

But in this action packed, grab your tissues, heart pounding finale, Burke and Jensen bring their couple and series to a resounding satisfying conclusion.  And then gives the reader a fabulous honeymoon short story to go along with it at the end. 

There’s a few things that I wanted a tiny bit more exploration but this universe is so vast, the potential for more stories so full that it’s never really going to be enough. At least for this reader. 

But for now, I’m happy.  Especially after that gift of a short story where I even got to see my favorite aliens, the Resonance, one more.  

So satisfying and this one is a series and book that’s definitely on my recommendation list.  Happy reading!

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale 

Buy link:

        Phase Shift (Chaos Station Book 5)

    

Blurb 

Zander and Felix’s relationship has always pushed boundaries—personal and professional alike—but their love and commitment is stronger than ever. So strong that Zander’s ready to ask commitment-shy Felix the question of a lifetime when he’s interrupted. The Chaos is being hacked, and crucial, top secret information about the project that created Zander—and his fellow super soldiers—has been leaked.

Neither man could have expected the enormity of what’s discovered at the end of the data trail: an entire colony of super soldiers run by the very doctor who changed Zander’s life forever. And now she needs them both—Zander to train her new crop of soldiers, and Felix’s new crystalline arm to stabilize their body chemistry.

With help from the unlikeliest of allies, Zander, Felix and the Chaos crew must destroy the project and all its ill-gotten information. But when the team is split up and Felix is MIA after a dangerous run, galactic disaster is a very real possibility…and Zander may have missed his chance to ask for forever.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (August 27, 2024)
  • Publication date: August 27, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 352 pages

Review:  Inversion Point (Chaos Station Book 4) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen 

Rating: 4.5🌈

Inversion Point is the penultimate book In this five story series and it’s one exciting, compelling story, perfect to lead us up to the series finale.

It’s so much more about the men’s lives and their pasts, especially the deep trauma that Felix endured as a stin prisoner of war, one that has left an indelible legacy on him with his physical, mental and emotional scars.  It’s also about Zander new life, his own guilt over Felix and inability to help him heal, and the intergalactic interest his return has brought himself and the crew of the Chaos. 

However the authors, Burke and Jensen, paint on both a broad and intimate narrative canvas. They introduced a mystery species that arrived in the shared space that might upset the tentative peace recently achieved.  That’s a huge storyline that’s got a myriad of other plot lines attached to it, suspenseful ones and some full of action sequences and dramatic moments.

That’s the wider scope of the story. But then again there’s the intense emotional component that’s always been the heart of the series, the relationship between Zander and Felix. Here the stress and tension between them and others is at an all time high.  Old boyfriends reappear in important roles, old enemies also return to make the worst memories of Felix’s life return, and the stress of their relationship with everything that’s happening becomes overwhelming.

It’s a white knuckle story, at every aspect, on every level, featuring every detail and character’s deepest traumas.  

The end is absolutely satisfying.

Still has the irritating Fix, Fixer, Flick. Felix usage for Felix but the rest of the story is stunning. Highly recommended. Now onto the finale!

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale 

Buy link:

        Inversion Point (Chaos Station Book 4)

    

Blurb 

Zander and Felix’s relationship has been to the brink and back: the Human-Stin War, imprisonment and an actual death/resurrection. Zander’s death, to be specific, and the experience has left him…changed. The mysterious race known as the Guardians chose to revive him and appointed him as their emissary. A high honor, but he could do without the group of would-be cultists following him around the galaxy.

When a recently discovered species destroys a stin probe, Zander’s new role soon commands all of his time and focus. The human ambassador—Felix’s ex-lover, much to Zander’s annoyance—pulls them into strategy talks aimed at preserving galactic peace. Soon everyone is relying on Zander’s Guardian tech to telepathically communicate with the strange aliens.

Only Felix seems concerned with the strain piling up on Zander, but he has his own resolve tested when the very stin that imprisoned him show up to a summit. Zander and Felix will both have to find a way to face their doubts and preserve their love—while preventing another galaxy-wide war.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (August 13, 2024)
  • Publication date: August 13, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 308 pages

Review:  Skip Trace (Chaos Station Book 3) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen 

Rating: 4.5🌈 

Skip Trace had several hurdles to overcome just by being the book that followed Lonely Shore, a novel that was full of huge emotional storylines, momentous moments, and blockbuster payoffs in terms of narrative development and character development.  

Skip Trace picks up after Lonely Shore’s events , which saw the return of Zander Anatolius and the highly emotional reunion that is still unsettled between Zan and Felix. 

Felix/Fix/Flick (this constantly changing name is a frustrating element here) is a man of numerous talents and untold problems. He has never dealt with the time he spent as a POW in a stin prison, the torture he endured and the long term effects that it’s had on him, like his mangled hand. And he hasn’t had time to process emotionally the impact that Zander return, his physical condition and abuse suffered has had on his mental health too.  

The authors do a great job of writing a man who is mentally, physically, and emotionally under siege. The stress is unbearable, he’s not communicating with Zan or Elias or any of his friends/crew of the Chaos and he’s breaking down. 

Zan, who is dealing with his own mental and physical issues, has some of the same challenges in that his own life is far more problematic and complicated. As written, he’s not a type of person who seeks understanding, or in terms of Felix, doesn’t understand the scope of his breakdown because there’s been a severe lack of communication. 

The narrative has this complicated challenging relationship that’s trying to sustain itself amid a tangled galactic conflict between species and the world governing body still trying to hide its experiments on the soldiers.

Skip Trace starts off a with establishing the events of the last book and then dives right into the emotional state of Felix and Zan, and the crew as it tries to accomplish the missions and hold onto both men and their ship.

I enjoy how tough and realistic this story is about the effects of trauma and the need for healing and help. That time isn’t enough to overcome the horrors that war has inflicted upon the world and individual.  Felix the Fixer isn’t fixed. But he realizes that he needs help. And to communicate.

Burke and Jensen don’t forget about the other aspects of their series arc as new characters and development are added to come together in another absolutely satisfying, dramatic climatic ending.  

It’s not perfect. As I mentioned earlier, the ongoing usage of multiple names for the same character is frustrating and often irritating. While I understand that each is chosen to separate a different section of his life and where someone might stand in his life by what they call him, having to deal with a series of names for Felix in just a paragraph is annoying.  It’s book three.  By now this aspect of his story could have been explored and put away. 

Two more books to go and a whole new adventure has just begun. 

Can’t wait and I’m definitely recommending this for all lovers of science fiction adventures and romance. Read them in the order they are written.

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale

Buy link

        Skip Trace (Chaos Station Book 3)

    

Blurb

Zander Anatolius has been revived from the fatal effects of the super-soldier program, but now he has to face his estranged family and tell a story few would believe. With his lover and the crew of the Chaos at his side, Zander returns home to a media frenzy, threats from the military and pressure to join the family business.

Felix Ingesson still struggles with the horror of believing Zander dead. And no matter how strong their emotional connection is, Felix feels out of place in the glittery world of Zander’s rich family. His lover would be better off without a broken, low-class ship’s engineer holding him back.

When the crew receives word that another of Zander’s former teammates needs rescue, Felix travels with the Chaos…setting Zander free. But when Zander is arrested for treason, the men realize they need each other as much as ever—not only to survive, but to make their lives worth living.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (July 30, 2024)
  • Publication date: July 30, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 319 pages

Review:  Lonely Shore (Chaos Station Book 2) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen

Rating: 4.75🌈

The journey of Felix Ingesson, his broken ex super soldier partner , Zander Anatolius, and the rest of the crew of the ship, Chaos, continues in the fantastic novel, Lonely Shore.

The novel picks up after the events of Chaos Station, Zander has become a part of the crew but the effects of the alien stinn poisoning are increasingly felt throughout his system and he’s functional less and less as himself.

This heartbreaking story thread is viewed by multiple sources as the story is told by multiple points of view, not just the main couple.  The crew members are a space going found family of mixed species and peoples that are still coming together for the reader. So it’s equally important to feel Zander’s breakdown by each one’s perspective, not just Felix’s.

For Felix, Zander know it will be shattering. And he will be correct.  So it’s evasive maneuvering as far as communication goes between them for much of this story when it comes to the reality of Zander’s situation.

The authors weave an impending sense of disaster in this story even as they are building a romance and multiple relationships between the characters within the ship’s crew. 

Agrius Cartel , a criminal organization that’s been pursuing the crew because of various reasons, steps up its efforts to bring them down, it’s set against the personal drama of the fight for Zander’s survival.

Did I cry? Oh yes I did.  Get a box of tissues ready.  The authors pulled my emotional strings here and I was exhausted from the first to the last paragraph. Extremely satisfying to be honest, but wrung out.

And very ready for the next book to see where the crew and adventure takes them. 

A great read and totally engaging book. One I highly recommend, but read the series in the order they are written.

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale 

Buy link:

        Lonely Shore (Chaos Station Book 2)

    

Blurb 

All they can do is live day to day…

Felix Ingesson has returned to his duties as the Chaos’s engineer with Zander Anatolius, his ex-boyfriend-turned-broken-super-soldier, at his side. Hope means something again. But there’s nothing Felix can do to battle the alien poison flowing through Zander’s veins, or his imminent mental decline. With each passing day, the side effects of Zander’s experimental training are becoming more difficult to ignore.

When the ruthless Agrius Cartel seeks their revenge—including an ambush and an attempt to kidnap the Chaos’s crew—Zander is pushed over the edge. He can no longer hide his symptoms, nor does he want to. But hurting Felix when he’s not in control of himself is Zander’s worst nightmare—when it nearly happens, he agrees to seek help. Even if that means trusting the unknown.

As Zander places his life in alien hands, Felix appoints himself his lover’s keeper. And though he tries to be strong, he can’t ignore the fact that he might lose Zander…forever this time.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (July 23, 2024)
  • Publication date: July 23, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 318 pages

Science Fiction Romance 

Science Fiction Adventure 

Review:  Chaos Station (Chaos Station Book 1) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen

Rating: 4.5🌈

I’m absolutely hooked by this universe.  A science fiction epic romance adventure, originally published in 2013, authors Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen have released this marvelous series again, starting with their first novel written together, Chaos. 

I missed this first time around so I’m so excited to read this series and book now.  The tale of the journey of the crew of the space ship Chaos, specifically two men who have a long way ahead of them before they can find their happy ending, gets a remarkable launch here.

Told from several perspectives of the crew and found family involved in this  epic science fiction adventure, it begins with a mission.  

The universe the authors introduce us to is an intergalactic postwar one, which is still slowly rebuilding from the devastating impact of a war that saw millions of lives and stations lost.  That cost is seen on a smaller darker scale through the wounded, damaged characters that are Felix Ingession, the ship’s engineer, and Major Zander Anatolius, a covert operative during the war against the alien stin. But they aren’t the only ones who have been affected.  And the ship’s crew reflects the fascinating multi species universe of this series and found family.

Zander and Felix were long time friends, both growing up and at the Academy. But the war separates them just as romantic feelings became known.  It’s nine years when they dramatically meet again as the story begins. 

Burke and Jensen’s story is compelling and action packed.  Terrific characters and dialogue, with vividly detailed scenes and astonishing wonderful world building. It’s full of criminal organizations filling the void that the war created, malfunctioning experimental super soldiers, POW torture ( both sides), and a war that might start again.   All threaded through with the relationships , romantic and otherwise, of the crew of the Chaos. 

That of Zander and Felix aka Flick will be long and torturous.  This is the beginning of their reunion and they’ve each been through so much personally that just a hug is a tremendous thing. 

The books are all available so I’m thrilled to read them together without any waiting for a release date.

I’m happy to recommend Chaos Station (Chaos Station Book 1) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen and I’m on to Lonely Shore next!

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale 

Buy link:

        Chaos Station

    

Blurb

“You’re not real. Felix Ingesson is dead.”

The war with the alien stin is over, but Felix Ingesson has given up on seeing his lover, Zander Anatolius, ever again. Zander’s military file is sealed tighter than an airlock. A former prisoner of war, Felix is attempting a much quieter life keeping his ship, the Chaos, aloft. He almost succeeds, until Zander walks on board and insists that Felix isn’t real.

A retired, broken super soldier, Zander is reeling from the aftereffects of his experimental training and wants nothing more than to disappear and wait for insanity to claim him. Then he sees footage of a friend and ally—a super soldier like him—murdering an entire security squad with her bare hands and a cold, dead look in her eyes. He never expected to find Felix, the man he’d thought dead for years, on the ship he hired to track her down.

Working with Felix to rescue his teammate is a dream come true…and a nightmare. Zander has no exit strategy that will leave Felix unscathed—or his own heart unbroken.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (July 23, 2024)
  • Publication date: July 23, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 351 pages