Feature Friday - Alliances by S. Usher Evans

My Feature Fridays have started to have more of a review tone to them because I thought that might help me understand why I liked what I did, as well as giving others an idea of whether or not they would like it.

This weeks Feature Friday is the second in the Razia Series, Alliances. The amazing S. Usher Evans has done it again, bringing readers an adventure that had me at times laughing, at times tearing up, and other times having all the feels for Razia that are some mix of compassion and empathy and IDon'tKnowWhatElse. If you have not yet read it, Double Life is Book 1 in the series, &&you need to get on that (below may contain some spoilers, you've been warned).

We catch up with Razia about a year after the ending of Double Life. No longer on pirate probation, she's been doing a commendable job bounty-hunting, but getting none of the commendations. She is just as stubborn and unwilling to hear anyone out when they are saying anything she doesn't want to hear. When another female shows up in her territory, it's ON! Despite the unlikelihood of Razia joining forces with anyone, her and Lizbeth begin uncovering an operation much larger than either of them expected, and what they find will send them for a loop. 

Pros:

• Duo of strong women characters with their own set of strengths and weaknesses, as well as readily-equipped with witty banter.
• Idea that being feminine doesn't equal being a whore. (Evans talks about this on her blog, too.)
• Along those same lines, it's nice to have a story whose main character is female and her main interest/concern/motivation is not romance.
• It's a fun/tense adventure!
• Said fun/tense adventure is not without an emotional journey of self-discovery and brutal truth-slaps.
• Nice comic relief.
• I like that we get the results of Razia's searches in tables, it makes it more immersive (probably even more effective when not read on a phone...).

Faux-Cons:

• I don't think I'm going to make it until October to read Book 3...
• There are times you want to reach out and slap Razia and tell her to listen.
• (Putting this here until I can test out my theory that this is device-specific) some of the tables used so that we can see what Razia sees were too wide for the page, not really a con, and not enough to really affect the experience.
• There is a geeky part of me who wishes to delve [even] further into the naming system for the planets, how the time system works, the science of the space travel, and other science-y things. This is good, because that means the story is interesting enough that I want to know more.

Cons:

• I didn't really have any "cons" about this book, but to each their own. :)