An all-new, stand-alone tale of two improbable lovers, their daring secret,
and the gamble destined to alter the course of their worlds forever!
The
Champion of Barésh
Star World Frontier #1
Star World Frontier #1
By: Susan Grant
Released May 26, 2016
RITA-winner
Susan Grant is back with an all-new, stand-alone tale of two improbable lovers,
their daring secret, and the gamble destined to alter the course of their
worlds forever!
She was playing with fire...
Jemm Aves battles to keep her dreams
alive on a dead-end world. Working for the mines by day, she’s a successful
bajha player at night, disguised as a male to be allowed to compete in the colony’s
dangerous underworld where club owners will go to extremes to retain the best
players. Every win puts her one small step closer to her goal: saving enough to
escape Barésh with her family. When a nobleman from one of the galaxy’s elite
families recruits her to be a star player for his team, it's because he doesn't
know her secret. Her ruse proves to be her most perilous game yet when it puts
both their lives—and her heart—at risk.
Prince Charming he was not...
Prince Klark is eager to reverse his
reputation as the black sheep of the Vedla clan, a family as famous for its
wealth and power as it is for being a bastion of male-dominated tradition. If
his bajha team can win the galactic title it would go a long way toward
restoring the family honor that his misdeeds tarnished. He travels to Barésh to
track down an amateur who’s risen to the top of the seedy world of street
bajha, offering the commoner a chance of a lifetime: a way off that reeking
space rock for good. But his new player comes with a scandalous secret that
turns his plans and his beliefs upside down. He sets out to win a very
different prize—his champion’s reluctant heart.
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“Don’t
think so hard,” Prince Klark warned. “I can feel you.”
A
tingling across her back alerted her to his presence. Gripping her sens-sword,
she swung it around. “Good!” he said. “That’s it,” he praised when she
predicted his next move, too.
He was
never really gone for her in the darkness. Like the warmth of a slow fire, the
sense of him lingered away from the source.
“Back to
Skeet and Xirri—you stood up well to their teasing, Kes. They’ll respect you
for it, but they won’t back off. You’re wise to focus on bajha over love
interests. It will be taking up most of your time, after all. Moreover, you’re
playing catch-up when it comes to league rules.”
“What
about you? Do ya have love interests? Or, are ya married?”
He made
a scoffing sound. “Neither.”
“Why
not?” She ducked when she predicted the arc of his sens-sword. “Don’t ya ever
long for female companionship?” Why was she pushing this topic? Curiosity
killed the ketta-cat.
“If I
desire the pleasure of a woman’s body, I can have it any time day or night. For
anything more than that…finding a wife, for instance, Vash
Nadah marriages have but one purpose—to strengthen alliances between
the clans. Love has nothing to do with it, unless you get lucky, as my brother
did, but that is rare. My choices are limited to prospects my family would
round up for me. Or, I suppose, marriage candidates I might meet while
socializing at court functions—which I quite frankly despise doing. It leaves
little opportunity to match with a suitable woman.”
Suitable.
The polar opposite of her. A girl from the slums who liked the stink and grit
and solitude of driving tugs across the badlands. Who, in a heartbeat, would
choose the taste of ale over the fine liqueurs she had sampled on this ship.
And whose bad grammar and propensity to swearing would likely make any royal
faint on the spot. “I wouldn’t be wanting to pair up under those circumstances,
either. Especially if love had nothing to do with it.”
Susan
Grant is a New York Times bestselling author who enjoys being able to
indulge her love of travel and adventure by piloting jumbo jets around the
globe. Her careers as a commercial pilot and air force pilot have provided
endless inspiration for her books. Susan is the author of The Star King, launch
book of her popular Star series about a spacefaring Earth family, as well as
the RITA-winning novel Contact. Her new series debuts in 2016 with The Champion
of Barésh. Susan and her family live in the scenic foothills of northern
California.
Love to
arm-chair travel? Sit down, strap in, and visit Susan's Come Fly With Me blog
at her website
Thank you for hosting THE CHAMPION OF BARESH today!
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