Amateur Amalgam

November 4, 2026

Hello! I’m back again with a series that I read a few months ago, and while it’s technically a trilogy, there is a prequel novella that I read before I started the main books.

Do not be fooled by the Sci-fi tag on this, it is most definitely a romance first. Love is most interesting when life is going on – and life is most assuredly going on.

I’m not gonna lie to you, this was sooo much fun to read, I might just have to go back and read it again. The characters are so interesting and they all blend together really nicely personality wise. The background plot was also just interesting enough that it created real problems, like you could absolutely take the romance out and build it up some more to get a robust sci-fi adventure story out of this. But as stated above, we are here for the romance only.

The series follows the crew of a bounty hunters’ ship, captained (and crewed) by former Galactic Federation soldiers – picture Americans, that’s the general vibe. Now, all of this takes place several hundred years in the future, where we have made contact with an alien species! Unfortunately that contact was war (the one our crew is veterans of). Said aliens look almost exactly like humans just with a wider colour range for skin, hair, and eyes. Oh and various telepathic abilities that come into play at critical moments throughout the story. A group of these aliens makes up the other half of our cast of characters and so begins our story!

New word: Recalcitrant
[ ri-kal-si-truhnt ]
adjective

1. resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant
2. hard to deal with, manage, or operate
3. (botany) not viable for an extended period; damaged by drying or freezing

Spoilers Ahead!

Honor & Shadows

Captain Octavia Zarola aka Tavi needs credits (money) so she takes a job tracking and embezzler on a little planet (on the human side of space). Picture like an old west style town. The guy who hired them is, unfortunately, evil and the embezzler is not as he seems so instead of turning him in, our crew saves him and helps him and the daughter of the guy to run away together.

A really cool prequel to the series that sets up the world really nicely and gives us a glimpse into the lives of our 3 main crew members. We also get a brief glimpse into the way the world is set up. We end this one right as we begin the next one.

Hunt the Stars

Tavi accepts a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy (😏). Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire on a mechanic and she knows that she can’t refuse-no matter how much she’d like to. Torran and his crew insist on joining them – her ship is big enough for all of them and then some so it a not a space issue but a diplomacy issue. These people do not like each other. Like war crime levels of dislike.

Anyway, our girl reluctantly agrees after some negotiation and the pay is gonna be great. Unfortunately, this is the point where the plot shows itself cause there is stuff happening in the background that quickly becomes the foreground. Peace (new peace mind) between the Valoffs (the aliens) and the Humans is being threatened – someone is trying to restart the war.

Obviously in the time we have been hanging out together on our little mission everyone on the crew has softened to each other and they begin to see the shared humanity in each other – right as the drama kicks in to ruin it. Through various shenanigans we uncover the plot before misunderstandings make fools of us, fall in love (in like 5 days mind you), and then an almost death brings about the long awaited confession of eternal love!! They’re engaged btw.

Eclipse the Moon

Kee Ildez is our main character for this one. Continuing on where we left off from last time, she decides to do what she does best as a hacker and try to hunt down the people behind the plot. Varro Runkow is the Valoff who decides to join her on this mission – the weapons expert on Torran’s team. The ship is known, as are it’s occupants so they disembark on station and that’s better for her anyway since that masks her activities being on such a congested network.

It quickly becomes clear that the person they are tracking has military backing so it’s getting a bit dangerous. Varro watches her, but ignores all of her flirting so she thinks ‘Obviously he’s not into it so I’ll be platonic about this’. Naturally in his POV he’s already gone for her.

Through a happy coincidence there is a big fashion show happening – the first of it’s kind collab between Human and Vallof, so there are many important people in attendance, and Kee manages to get an in – which means she’s there when it’s attacked and ruins the attackers plan, sort of. Varro (who followed her cause all these men are down bad) and Kee are sneaking around trying to figure out what’s what.

We get back to the ship just before station lockdown – via an insane manoeuvre involving jumping out of the station into free space btw – and a misunderstanding results in Varro being like “we can never be together” so Kee is like “guess I have to live life with a broken heart now” A wild ride start to finish. Obviously they are also engaged, but man was it stressful to get here.

Capture the Sun

Our final book follows Lexi Bowen, an on again off again member of the crew and our resident recovery specialist (read: thief). My favourite of our main men, Nilo Shoren (who holds the same position on Torran’s team) has some history with her – a misunderstanding where each side only has some of the info – meaning she does not like him, but her new job says she needs to steal something on Valovia, where he is. So the plan is get in, get the job done, and get out.

This of course, does not go according to plan. While the crew is dealing with the disaster on Bastion station (from the last book), Nilo and Lexi are on Valovia and they hear of a thing, and make plans to meet the crew on Rodeni (the source of the war crimes that both ended the war and allow bad feelings to fester).

The ship disappears from all scanners though, so they start by actually looking for them when they get there. The drama! Lexi is the most ‘get’s in her way’ of the three main ladies, cause she keeps pushing Nilo away even though they are both very obviously into each other. I will say that all the pairings are really good for each other, I feel their personalities match. Anyways – we catch the bad guy, stop the plot, and things are looking up! Also engaged btw.