Why did I love this book so much? It has: a kick-ass, super trained merc as the heroine, aliens, a sexy cook that is suspiciously too well trained at handling a gun, a trader ship that gets into WAY too much trouble for a trading ship, a dodgy and cranky captain, a giant bird that pilots the ship, and most importantly, ROMANCE! The romance is not that big of a role in the first book but it does get developed loads more in book 2 and 3.
If you’re looking for a good Sci-fi romance, this series will not disappoint!
Happy readings!
<3 Izzie
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Live The Cute Life: Episode #12 – Fortune’s Pawn Paradox Book Review Transcript
Izzie: Hello. Welcome to Live the Cute Life. We’re back with our book reviews! My name is Izzie.
Coco: And I am Coco.
Izzie: Today, I’m really excited about this book we’re going to review because it was so good. The book is called “Fortune’s Pawn” by Rachel Bach.
Coco: It’s in the future and a sci-fi book. It’s about this kick-ass girl, Devi, who is a mercenary and she fights in her own suit. She’s got this suit that gives her extra powers and she can jump really high and fight and has all these weapons. She is in love with her suit, which is really cool.
Izzie: I love that part. She adores that suit, modifies it, keeps adding components to it. She really has survived because of her suit.
Coco: That time in the future, soldiers, mercenaries and people who fight have these suits so they were like super soldiers. Her goal in life is to be a Devastator who is a type of soldier for the king.
Izzie: Yeah. It’s the best job you can get if you’re in the military. Devastator is the highest rank you can get so that’s Devi’s goal. Devi is young and a woman, but she still has risen through the ranks of a mercernary company really quickly.
Coco: She’s been promoted super quickly but she wants to become a Devastator as soon as possible. So her friend tells her “If you are a security detail in this spaceship called “The Fool,” with this captain called Caldswell, then in just one year should give you enough experience to become a Devastator. “
Izzie: Exactly.
Coco: So Devi signs up with this ship and it turns out to be super adventure. It is not just a trading ship, it’s an undercover operation that’s actually trying to save the universe from all these monsters. So the book is about her adventures as she is going through fights in this spaceship and how she falls in love with a guy in the spaceship.
Izzie: What I really loved, is the romance. And there’s three books – it’s a trilogy. It was so good. I think I read all three books in a week. I loved even more the second and the third books because the romance is more prevalent.
Coco: I also, absolutely, fell in love with the series. I was so in love with the series that the next five books I read I was like, “This is garbage compared to The Paradox series.”
Izzie: Yes. You kept complaining about the books and like, “I don’t like it.”
Coco: “That’s not good enough.” But Fortune’s Pawn was amazing. I fell in love with the characters and I’m a sucker for strong female characters that are mechanics.
Izzie: Yeah.
Coco: Devi was a mechanic who is fixing her suit all the time.
Izzie: Upgrading it.
Coco: She was super was strong warrior. And just the relationship – so spoiler alert – we’re going to talk about the book now.
Izzie: Yeah, a little bit.
Coco: What I love about her relationship is that she falls in love with the cook in the spaceship – let’s start there. Supposedly he’s just a cook, but it turns out he’s not just a cook. He’s a Symbiont?
Izzie: Symbiont.
Coco: Symbiont. He’s got an alien –
Izzie: Kind of like a parasite alien that makes him super strong. He’s kind of like a half human, half alien. And the alien side, when he’s fighting, it turns into a black scale suit.
Coco: I was imagining something very similar to the alien they portrayed in the movie, “Aliens” with Sigourney Weaver. Something similar like that but not as ugly because it’s supposed to look kind of like a lizard with those black scales that give him something like strong armour – very strong, and he’s very smart.
Izzie: He’s like an undercover agent. He’s really not just a cook.
Coco: He’s in a government program. Because there are these monsters that use the energy in the universe and in the galaxy and they’re eating up worlds.
Izzie: They’re like these black holes coming in. They’re just sucking in and they’re destroying whole planets. So the cook, Rupert, is part of the government agaency that is fighting against this. But the way they’re fighting against it is morally, ethically wrong because they’re using these poor children.
Coco: It’s little girls. If a little girl has this power to control a force in the universe called “Plasmex” then they are candidates for this program. Obviously you’re taken by force, they don’t get to volunteer.
They’re taken from their families and then these people, they can erase the little girls. The girls just become these weapons that the govenrment uses to try to save planets from getting devoured by these monsters.
Anyway, all this develops in the second and the third book.
Izzie: In the first Paradox Series book you don’t really realize what the fight is. They just say the ship doesn’t seem what it is, the captain is not who he seems to be and the cook is suspiciously good at weapons. The author explains it more in the second and third book.
But what I really like about the main character, Devi, is that she’s not a whiny character. She does what she has to get done. “I have to fight. Am I going to die? Who cares? I got this. I’m going into battle. This is what I’ve been training all my life for.”
She is very black-and-white “This is good. This is bad.” She is certain that “Using kids this way is bad.” She’s doesn’t agree that the ends justify the means. She always sticks to her guts. I really like that.
Coco: That sounds like such a convoluted plot. But when you’re reading Fortune’s Pawn and the rest of the Paradox Series, you’re really on board. It’s not complicated. It’s the way she sets up the world.
Izzie: And the world building is not complicated.
Coco: The conflict and all that. You’re like “I’m on board,” and I can see how the other people in the government program felt that “Well, we don’t have any other choice. We can’t just let these monsters devour our planets.” They actually think that they’re doing something right so she’s fighting people who think they are fighting for a just cause.
It reminds me a little bit of “Firefly”, how the assassin that was going after them thought that he was doing the right thing until the very end when he sees the video how the government destroyed the world and created monsters called Reavers.
Izzie: Yes, exaclty. Devi, finally she convinces everyone like this is not the way –
Coco: Not until she saves the world. Everyone was against her all the way ‘til the end that she finally saves the world.
Izzie: Everybody’s fighting her all along.
Coco: And then they’re like, “Okay we see it but we can’t take the risk. What if you were wrong?” Whatever. It was awesome.
Izzie: Very cool.
Coco: I fell in love with the book. We keep trying to get into and get distracted about the relationship between Rupert and Devi. It is amazing.
Izzie: You know what’s funny? While I was reading a couple of good reader comments and some people were complaining, “Oh I didn’t like the second and third because there are so much romance,” and I’m like, “I’m going to love it!” “Yes!”
Coco: “That’s why I love it!”
Izzie: Well, I’m looking for it to get even more.
Coco: I know, I loved it. I also like the way it ends in the second book, Honor’s Knight. Because Rupert thinks that he’s doing the right thing by protecting the program that’s saving all these worlds from getting destroyed. He actually was going to kill her or take her in to just be used as a weapon. He was going to sacrifice Devi for the greater good.
I was like, “How could he betray her like that?” Then on the third book he’s like, “You know what? Screw everything.” He’s, “Screw everything. I’m in love with this woman and whatever happens, happens and I’m just going to help you do what you think is right.” I was like, “Oh my god. I love this book so much.”
Izzie: He betrayed her in the worse possible way. He was willing to kill her, sacrifice her and you think you would never –
Coco: He was never going to kill her.
Izzie: Yes.
Coco: He was going to take her into the program.
Izzie: There’s the simulation where they asked Rupert to kill Devi and he did.
Coco: Oh, that’s true.
Izzie: He didn’t really kill her. It was a simulation.
Coco: It was a hologram.
Izzie: But he thought it was her. He was willing to kill her. Devi has seen all these and I’m like, “You just can’t forgive that.”
But the way the author develops it and how Ruper later behaves, you are on board with forgiving him. You’re like, “No. This guy’s got to go down.”
Coco: I love the way she was decisive – because that’s something that bothers me in books. The characters keep flip flopping, “I don’t know if I love you.” I hate that.
Izzie: Yes. I find that annoying and you keep going on and on about it. It’s so frustrating.
Coco: That whining over and indecisiveness is so annoying. But this Deviana is, “No. I’m not going to forgive you,” and “I’m not even debating this.” But then once the Rupert proves himself she’s a pragmatist.
Izzie: Yes, she was very practical, I loved it. She thought, “You know what? Obviously I’m going to be dying soon.” Because in her line of work and the other stuff that’s going on. So she decides, “I love this guy. I need to trust him and I don’t want to spend my last couple of days away from him.”
Coco: Because she’s always about to die.
Izzie: Yeah. She’s always on the verge of dying.
Coco: I don’t know. I really love the Paradox Series. I recommend it to anybody who likes sci-fi and romance. It’s just awesome. Actually I have warning that when I started it, just the very first pages I was hesitant, “I don’t know about this lady.”
Izzie: Oh god.
Coco: “Devi had too much attitude. She was too sassy.” Her personality of “I’m the shit, I’m the best,” was hard to get on her side.
Izzie: She was a shit. She was ridiculous.
Coco: But once you get into the book you understand, “Oh no, I can see this person has that attitude because they really have been kicking ass over and over again.” And you kind of need to be that type of mercenary to make those decisions work.
If you read the first couple of pages and you’re like “Oh I don’t know…” Keep going! Because you’ll love it!
Izzie: I think you’ll end up loving her. You’ll end up loving Devi.
I remember you telling me and I’d urge you, “This book is really good. Keep reading, you’ll see.” I was so disappointed because we disagree in a lot of books, but Fortune’s Pawn I just really like. I really like this book.
Coco: You’re right. I am so glad I kept going because I love this book.
Izzie: I don’t know why. It just never really caught my attention but this book had been picked for the Vaginal Fantasy book club. There was one of the months it was picked and I didn’t read it. It just didn’t catch my attention but I see why. It was a great pick.
Coco: It was a great pick so we loved Fortune’s Pawn and the rest of the Paradox Series: Honor’s Knight and Heaven’s Queen by Rachel Bach. You go check it out. Let us know what you think in the comments and subscribe to our channel.
Izzie: Bye, guys. Nice seeing you again.
Coco: See you next time.