Blog Tour Review: Paradise 21 – Aubrie Dionne

Paradise 21 by Aubrie Dionne
Series:  A New Dawn #1
Release Date:  August 2, 2011
Publisher:   Entangled Publishing
Page Count:  248
Source:  Provided by Publisher
Buy the book at: Amazon 

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew-a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.But Aries has other plans.When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates-humans who escaped Earth before its demise-are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.The life of the man she loves.

How would you feel if a computer picked your “perfect” job and mate?  What would you do if your “perfect” choices weren’t what you wanted?  These are questions that face our heroine, Aries in Paradise 21.

Born and raised on the spaceship, New Dawn, Aries is one of the “chosen” lifers who have been selected to repopulate Paradise 21 with perfect human specimens after fleeing from a destroyed Earth.  While she was always seen as being compliant, Aries questions the direction her life is taking.  She plots her escape after her best friend died in a faulty attempt.  But when she finally gets off the New Dawn, it’s to crash in Sahara 354, a desert planet with scorching sunlight 24 hours a day.  It’s there she meets Striker, a human man who was stranded there 5 years prior after his crew mutinied and left him for dead. 

Striker combats every prejudice Aries has ever been told about the pirates that took over the last outpost before Earth was destroyed.  He’s the exact opposite of her computer chosen “mate” but she finds herself wanting to be with him.   Even when hiding from lizard men and sandworms, he makes her happy.

Striker wants to find a planet he’s named Refuge and colonized it for all of those that were left on the space station.  He’s also determined to hatch the eggs of the angel like race he found in their deserted space craft on Sahara 354.  Striker is very emotional and guards himself from feeling the kind of hurt he did when his girlfriend and fellow crew members stranded him.  But there’s something about Aries that breaks through his hardened heart and makes him want to try love again.

If you’re looking for a hot romance, you won’t get it here.  Instead we get an interesting sci-fi storyline where a strong willed woman goes against the grain to do what she feels is right for herself rather than walking the path preordained  by a computer.