On this deep space pleasure cruise, love is in the recycled air.
Sunastara Jeka is passionate about meeting the needs of the varied species who holiday aboard her interstellar pleasure cruise during the day, and avoiding attachments when the occasional guest meets her needs at night. Sunny’s life is simple, straightforward, and safe until a former one-night stand becomes her newest crew member.
Freddie is ecstatic to see Sunny again, until she tells him she never dates coworkers. Determined not to lose this confident, sexy, hysterical woman again, Freddie pursues a purely professional relationship with Sunny when they’re on the clock, while he slowly charms her senseless after hours.
As Sunny breaks her own rules about workplace romance, her tragic past and a heartbreaking betrayal thrust her orderly life into chaos. When a hostile species holidays aboard the ship, endangering VIP guests and even the known universe, Sunny and Freddie must decide. Will they let the gravity of their pasts keep them apart, or risk it all for love and fight for their future together?
Content Warning: Prior to the events of this book, the main character lost a child. She continues to process this loss throughout this story.
On this deep space pleasure cruise, love is in the recycled air.
Sunastara Jeka is passionate about meeting the needs of the varied species who holiday aboard her interstellar pleasure cruise during the day, and avoiding attachments when the occasional guest meets her needs at night. Sunny’s life is simple, straightforward, and safe until a former one-night stand becomes her newest crew member.
Freddie is ecstatic to see Sunny again, until she tells him she never dates coworkers. Determined not to lose this confident, sexy, hysterical woman again, Freddie pursues a purely professional relationship with Sunny when they’re on the clock, while he slowly charms her senseless after hours.
As Sunny breaks her own rules about workplace romance, her tragic past and a heartbreaking betrayal thrust her orderly life into chaos. When a hostile species holidays aboard the ship, endangering VIP guests and even the known universe, Sunny and Freddie must decide. Will they let the gravity of their pasts keep them apart, or risk it all for love and fight for their future together?
Content Warning: Prior to the events of this book, the main character lost a child. She continues to process this loss throughout this story.
The Argosian farmer took up most of the bed, his massive arm slung over Sunny’s waist, pinning her in place like a nova beetle on its back. Surveying his snoring face—and extremely naked body—she wondered, Did I actually fuck him last night? And if so, how? Physically, how was it even possible?
Her Viewchip (VC) comm pinged inside her head, alerting her to an incoming message: <Sunny, where are you? You’re late.>
Sunny moaned, then froze as the Argosian stirred. <Wrong number,> she told her assistant, Elanie, over the comm in her mind.
<Do not.> Elanie was evidently in no mood. <I’ve laid an outfit out for you on your empty, unslept-in bed. We have a staff meeting to welcome the new Languages and Customs expert in twenty minutes. Please get your ass to your pod directly.>
<I don’t appreciate your tone, Elanie. I am very hungover.>
<Really? Because you sound like you’re still drunk. And I did say ‘please.’>
Gingerly, Sunny scooted back toward the headboard of the Argosian’s bed and sat up. Elanie wasn’t wrong. She was still drunk. Argosian ripple didn’t take any prisoners.
<What is it that you want?> Sunny asked.
Elanie’s sigh gusted between Sunny’s ears. <Please, for the love of all the stars in all the skies, bid farewell to whatever disaster you’ve wrought upon yourself and make your way to your pod. You do not want to miss this meeting.>
<Roger that.> Sunny pinched the purple skin of the arm squishing her belly. “Ahem, darling? Wakey, wakey.”
A deep and resonant rumbling erupted from the enormous man whose bed, she presumed, she was currently trying to escape.
“My sentiments precisely,” she muttered. “Would you be so kind as to remove your arm from my waist? I’m rather late.” She was also rather worried she might break in two when she tried to stand up if what she feared happened last night actually had.
The Argosian rolled onto his back, taking his arm with him.
Air flooded her lungs. “Much better.” She slid off the bed. “I’ll just find my clothes and—”
“You will not find them,” he grumbled, propping his head on an elbow and smirking sleepily at her. Golden tattoos embellished his expansive chest and firm stomach: a scythe, harvest moons glowing over a field of grain, exquisitely detailed seeds—images meant to pay tribute to the agricultural life that drove his planet’s economy.
“I can see that. Happen to know where they are?”
“You wore no clothes when I found you.” His smirk stretched into a full-fledged grin.
Sunny blinked. “I’m sorry? Can you repeat that?” She enjoyed a wild night here and there, but she had never once in her entire sordid career lost her clothes. Well, unless she counted her shoe, but she’d given that away.
Scratching his chest between his stunning pectorals, he said, “Argos makes a strong drink. Do not feel ashamed.”
“Did we…? Did I…?” Sunny gulped.
He shook his head, rueful. “We did not join. We were not worthy of each other.”
A profound relief buckled her knees. Worthy, on Argos—where males tended to outweigh females by one hundred kilos or more—referred to the way body parts might or might not fit together between two partners. Sunny offered a silent prayer of thanks to the sweet gods of fermentation who had blessed her with complete amnesia of the evaluation of said worth.
“Apologies, dear man.” She clicked her tongue. “Anatomy strikes again, eh?” Snatching his yellow coveralls—the preferred outfit for all Argosians—from the bed, she wrapped them around her body like a robe.
“No. Those are mine.” His deep voice reverberated through her ribcage.
“Yes, well, I can’t very well walk back to my pod in the nude, can I? I’m sure you understand. I will have my assistant return your garment to you straight away. You have my word.” Her hand reached out awkwardly to pat his big toe, which he wiggled playfully under her palm. She straightened, ran a hand through her hair, and recited her customary closing remarks. “I trust you are enjoying your stay aboard the Ignisar, and I sincerely hope you will look no further than LunaCorp for all your future holiday and interplanetary travel needs.”
With a curt nod, she scampered from his room while he laughed at her, shaking his gigantic, golden-tattooed head.
***
Holding up the too-long legs of the Argosian’s coveralls, Sunny stumbled as gracefully as she could into the elevator, packed full with two canoodling, sunglasses-wearing Ulaperians, one quad-armed guest from Gorbulon-7—two of those arms busy teasing his hair straight up—and one rather handsome Blurvan. The Blurvan, leaning his humanoid torso against the back wall of the elevator while his gelatinous lower half jiggled above a tapping, seven-toed foot, took one look at her outfit and smirked. “Rough night?”
Sunny pushed the button for deck twelve, mumbled, “No rougher than usual,” and wished for the umpteenth time the crew had their own elevator bank.
After passing a party of hopping, one-legged guests from Vorp on her way to her pod, Sunny winced because there stood Elanie, blocking her door, scowling with her arms crossed tightly under her disgustingly perfect bionic cleavage.
“Staff meeting is in ten minutes, Sunny. I hope it was worth it.”
AI with DNA spliced between the wires, all bionics were designed to emulate the pinnacle of their particular species’ beauty. Elanie, for example—with her silky brown hair, perfectly straight nose, and big brown doe eyes—always looked as fresh as spring rain. Sunny, on the other hand, felt and likely smelled like the refuse compactor on jettison day.
“Is that a pair of Argosian coveralls?” A look of pure horror overtook Elanie as she realized who Sunny had shacked up with last night.
Always endeavoring to project the appearance of having her shit together, Sunny replied, “It is, and it was completely worth it.” Her brow cocked. “Another satisfied customer, if you ask me.”
“An Argosian? You could have been killed.”
Sunny snorted, waving her off.
Elanie’s fist landed on her hip. “You are not a prostitute, Sunny. You are a hospitality specialist. You do not need to sleep with all of these men—”
“And women,” Sunny interjected with a finger raised, sliding past Elaine into her room.
“—to be good at your job.”
Oh, the naïve little woodsprite. “At the risk of shocking your bionic sensibilities so thoroughly you’ll need a hard reboot”—Sunny threw off her coverall robe and donned the outfit Elanie had picked out for her—“I will say only this: life is far too short not to do what you love as often as you can.” Her smirk was salacious.
Elanie’s groan was lengthy. “You have nine minutes.”
Sunny strapped on a pair of kitten heels, tucked a white button-down into a black pencil skirt, and pinched her cheeks. She waved her hand over her body, head to toe. “Yes?”
Elanie frowned. “No. Your hair looks like a trestal’s nest.”
“Right.” Running water from the sink over her hands, she wetted down her jagged blonde hair, then ducked underneath her QuikDri. A dehydrating film made of millions of microscopic sandguppies dropped from the device, clinging to her head and sucking before peeling itself off with a satisfied sigh. “Better?”
One of Elanie’s shoulders rose a fraction, the gestural equivalent of I can’t even begin to describe how little I care.
Sunny’s eyes narrowed. “Elanie, darling, are you all right?”
“Fine. Why?” Elanie replied flatly.
“You seem even pricklier than usual, if that’s possible. Any chance you finally decided to install your upgrade?” The hormone simulation upgrade had just been released for all bionics generation twenty-six and older.
Elanie shuddered. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Sunny’s brows waggled. “Could be fun, you know.”
“I tried the trial version, momentarily. It was not fun. It felt…” Elanie’s face pinched in disgust like she’d just sucked the slime off of that elevator Blurvan’s seventh toe. “Messy.”
“That is a fair assessment. But you should do it anyway. You may find it won’t kill you to participate in something other than categorical disdain every once in a while.”
“Well, Sunny, as someone once said, ‘Life is far too short not to do what you love as often as you can.’”
As Elanie walked into the hallway with a flip of her perfect hair, Sunny burst into laughter.
Love in the Time of Wormholes takes place on the Ignisar, a luxury cruise line that caters to fun, relaxation, and pleasure to the galactic inter-terrestrial species. The staff of the Ignisar form the bulk of the story and have entertaining camaraderie
Sunastra Jeka AKA Sunny is a hospitality specialist with a commitment phobia who works hard and plays even harder. When she walks into a staff meeting to see the newest employee of Ignisar, Sunny comes face to face with Freddie, her one-night stand, who rocked her world multiple times and left quite the impression.
As Sunny and Freddie navigate this new relationship as co-workers and fight their feelings for each other, the Ignisar gains new occupants that could spell danger for not only the staff but everyone aboard. The romance was very subtle and sweet, centering on Sunny's inability to commit to a relationship based on her traumatic past and Freddie's determination to win her over.
I enjoyed the multitudes of emotions throughout the story from the fun light-hearted banter with the crew, to a deep resounding feeling of loss and lastly the feeling of danger on the horizon.
The stand-out for me has to be the cast of diverse, complex, and unique variety of characters. Each character had such phenomenal development that I am hyped for the future books to see what's in store. My only qualm was that the dialogue felt a bit monotone and I wanted more layers of intricacy with the plot.
Love in the Time of Wormholes is a highly entertaining novel featuring immersive world-building, rich description, and vivacious characters. It is a story of love, loss, sacrifice, friendship, and second chances.
Thank you to Reedsy Discovery for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.