{Review} Escape Velocity by Jess Anastasi

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: February 2nd, 2015
Finished Date: January 22nd, 2015

Publishers: Entangled: Select Otherworld 
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adult
Source: For Review
Format: EBook

Pages: 368

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

Rebuilding his life. And rediscovering love... Ilari, Brannon System, 2436At first, Dr. Sacha Dalton is simply curious about the prisoner of war admitted to her med-lab...until she sees who it is. For Commander Kai Yang—the commander of the battleship Valiant Knox—has long been thought dead. Killed in action. But after almost a year and half, he's returned home. Returned to her.Kai is recovering from his ordeal and under the watchful care of Sacha, his childhood friend and the widow of his best friend. Only now, their friendship has grown and deepened into something far deeper, and far more complicated. Yet as Kai's body recovers, his psyche remains broken. How could he ever be the man he was, and the man Sacha deserves? But an intergalactic war has a way of forcing a man to be the hero he was always meant to be...

The Review: Escape Velocity was a well written, easy to read story and although I enjoyed it, it lacked something for me.
We begin the story with two prisoners in a cell, one realises the other is dead and decides now is the time to escape….
Then we head to the battleship Valiant Knox and meet Dr. Sacha Dalton as she is informed that there is a new patient and he is a POW. We find that during the last 18 months, Sacha has lost everything she loved – her husband and their best friend and former Commander of the Valiant Knox Kai Yang, both killed in action – she is alone and just living life through her job…. Until she sees who the patient is…. Commander Kai Yang! After 18 months he has returned alive and Sacha takes him under her care, who better to watch over him than his childhood best friend? It isn’t easy going for them, especially when Kai decides her wants to be something more to Sacha, but Sacha is worried it’s just because of his ordeal. Healing is challenging at the best of times but when there’s a war right outside their window…. It can be deadly
So, as I said – I did enjoy this. I found the characters very easy to like and connect with; Sacha seemed so lonely and threw herself into her work to combat that. We see a different side emerge when Kai returns but we also see a lots of emotions surrounding the loss of her husband and her feelings for Kai, she struggles with these and with the boundaries of the doctor/patient relationship. Kai himself struggles to deal with his life as it is now, it’s going to take time to heal but everyone around him thinks he is worse than what he is although he does struggle with PTSD. He knows his own mind and what he wants but Sacha seems to think that he shouldn’t be making decisions about his future at this time. There are a lot of pent up feelings between them and it’s clear to the reader that they are ‘meant’ to be together but both are struggling with their issues to be able to make a life changing decision to be together. They bring some lovely sexual tension to the story as we witness their will they/won’t they struggle where at times they let some passion through and you really want them to get a happy ever after.
Most of the story is the making of the relationship and dealing with the fallout from Kai’s imprisonment & Sacha’s grief, it’s easy to forget that there is a war going on around them. In the beginning when Kai is escaping, it was great – full of tension, anxiety and action. I was excited to see where it would go as he was chased….but it fizzled straight out and we didn’t even read of him being rescued and took back to the ship. That is all of the action we get until most of the way through the book when an event happens and I think – ok, here comes the action…..but it doesn’t and I was left deflated again. Then in the last part of the book we do get some action but it’s resolved too quickly and still not enough for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the relationship aspect of the book but I was expecting more from the overall story, they were at war! Where were the battles? Where were the fighter pilots? Where was the main bad guy? And that is what the book lacked for me, I wanted Kai to take his revenge on his captors but we dealt mostly with emotional issues and that to me wasn’t what I thought I would be getting. So, whilst I liked most of the book, it just didn’t excite me, it never took off, excited me or amounted to much… yeah it kept me reading because I was invested in the characters but other than that it was meh! 

3.5 flowers!

Thank you to Entangled: Select Otherworld for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.