Review: Heidi Ruby Miller - Ambasadora

Heidi Ruby Miller - Ambasadora

Review done by Stef

Pub. Date: June 2011
Publisher: Union City
Publishing Format: Ebook
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

If everyone told you love wasn't real, would you still be willing to die for it?

Sara Mendoza and Sean Cryer are.

In their multi-partner, caste-ruled society, love and jealousy are considered emotional fallacies, nothing more than fleeting moods and sentiments biased by hormones. Relationships and conceptions in this world obsessed with celebrity, beauty, and power are based on DNA and lineages...or should be. But not everyone believes in the ruling traditions of the all-powerful Embassy. A quiet rebellion prowls the dark underground of this shiny world where techno-militants calling themselves fraggers grow in numbers and bravado. The Embassy intends to silence the fragger movement before the heresy of equality spreads throughout the system.

Sara Mendoza is part of the Embassy's plan. Captured, tortured, and falsely accused of treason, she is given a chance to win back her freedom. She only needs to charm information from one of the fragger leaders, then kill him. But by the time she figures out the Embassy's intel is flawed and that Sean Cryer is her true mark, she's already in love with him.

Sean knows why Sara is on his ship from the start, but as a lonely, anti-social doser, he doesn't value his life, only his ideology within the fragger organization. Against his better judgment, he becomes her protector, each day caring more about a future he was always afraid to hope for.

I really, really enjoyed this novel. The world building was superb, introducing a caste-ruled society that is heavily reliant upon physical beauty. You have your first lover, who after a courtship presents you with a piece of specific jewelry, and the first is called your Prime. After that, in an effort to continue to expand ones "Family Circle" as they are called, they have other lovers and will have children by them, thus increasing their Family through polyamorous means. This is what is most important to this society, that's one family becomes large and prosperous, and remains a part of the Upper caste so having your ability to bear children intact is paramount. Those who are found to be sterile, well... life doesn't necessary end up so rosey for them.

Sara is a socialite, and a true beauty. She is after her first Prime in the beginning of this book, and mistakenly believes she found him. It turns out she's very wrong. She is accused of something terrible, and thus she ends up in the clutches of the Embassy. In an effort to allow her a "second chance", she's sent out on a mission to draw out a potential fragger, or enemy of the Embassy), and instead falls in love him. This story takes you through their discovery of each other, and their discovery of how corrupt the Embassy really is. Ultimately, is a story about political intrigue and gain, and most certainly about a love worth dying for.

What I liked:

• I really enjoyed some of the new concepts introduced in this novel, specifically that of the intra-tat. It sounds so cool. :) There's a LOT of detail and it's done really well.
• I liked that this was a fast paced read, I did NOT want to put it down, I started and finished it in the same day! I had to know how it ended!
• You're hit with new terms as you often are with sci-fi books, but they were presented in such a manner that you were able to follow along and not feel too tripped up in the "science" part of the fiction.

What I didn’t like:

• I don't want to give away a lot about this book, but there's something that happens to Sara that completely changes her. Later on in the book, she's found a way to sort of "erase" it, and I felt like that took away from where she draws her strength, and while I understood it and it made sense... I liked her having the original background instead. (Sorry to be obtuse, I really don't want to ruin this for anyone!)
• I'm used to reading solid fight scenes, the ones in this book aren't terrible by any means but I wish they'd been kicked up just a notch.

Bottom line: Definitely a worth-while read!

Rating:
4/5 book nuts!!

BIG thanks to the author for providing us with a copy of this book. This review has been Stef's honest opinion! I have to tell you that right now my life just got insanely busy so I will be forever grateful that she's on the team here!! THANK YOU STEF!