Tina's Reading Books

Oh my. This was such a good book! I have read several other Lauren Dane books. One I just really didn't like, and two others that I thought were pretty good. This one, though, was the best of hers I've read yet.

The book takes place on a planet far from Earth in a far distant future. The first settlers on the planet Ravena who came from Earth are now known as members of the First Families. Within these families lie all the power of the known universes. They are the wealthiest, they make all the laws and are the only ones who have any voice in the governance of the day to day lives of all people. They are known as the Ranked.

The common folk are known as the Unranked. Their life and the conditions in which they live are largely at the whim of the Ranked families. While many unranked are able to work and rise to a comfortable middle or upper middle tier of life, not all are so fortunate. And even those who do well are still at the mercy of the whims of a ranked family member.

The two strata are largely separate and very unequal.

Such is the world where Abbie Hawes, an unranked barrister and Roman Lyons, the head of the Highest of all the ranked families, live. In a previous book [b:Undercover|2916555|Undercover (Federation Chronicles, #1)|Lauren Dane|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IuYC2DRAL._SL75_.jpg|2943773], it was discovered that members of two high ranking families were involved in treasonous activities that led to the death of thousands of citizens.

The fallout and suspicion that the traitors will be shielded by their rank has resulted in an unprecedented amount of unranked unrest. The unranked are chafing under the yolk of their inequities and are beginning to demand equal treatment under the law.

Abby has her own personal reasons for feeling that the Families have had too much power for too long and she has formed a protest group to fight the injustices. Her involvement leads her right into Roman Lyons' sphere as she seeks to get unranked representation on the Council.

The two of them are immediately attracted to one another and begin a passionate but doomed affair. Laws prohibit ranked men of Romans' stature from marrying an unranked woman. And Abbie refuses to be his mistress. And someone wants Abbie's protest group stopped at all costs before they can make any real change.

At it's heart this is a great love story. I get a charge out of star crossed lovers. People who are so desperately in love but can't be together for real concrete reasons, not just convenient made up ones. In the context of their world, Abbie and Roman were separated across a great divide. And Ms. Dane did a wonderful job of expressing their heartbreak and angst and coping mechanisms at the situation. At first they try to shrug it off as no big thing because they know thay can't be together. But it gets harder and harder to pretend. They briefly believe they can make it, but something else rears up that put them into doubt. Oh, these two go through whole range of emotions!

But this is also erotica. Now I have only really been reading erotica within the past three years, but really most of the books are strung together sex scenes. The better ones do have a nice love story or mystery plot to add to the mix. This one goes beyond that. Now, don't get me wrong, the sex in this book is smokin! Ms. Dane writes some really erotic love scenes that can get raunchy without being distastefully graphic. And it is great sex between two people who are madly in love and in lust with each other. But, like I said it goes a bit beyond. The world building is really very good. The futuristic setting and the nice little snippets put in here and there of how Ravena works add so many great little details to the story.

However what puts it over the top is the socio-political context that serves as the both the major conflict of the love story, but also the bigger plot of the story. It was such a welcome part of reading this that sometimes I really forgot I was reading erotica (until next smokin sex scene of course).

I highly recommend