'Polaris' by Mindee Arnett

Amazon / Goodreads

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of mercenaries are pulled into one last high-stakes mission in this breathtaking sequel to Mindee Arnett’s fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi thriller Avalon.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. The ITA, still holding Jeth’s mother in a remote research lab, is now intent on acquiring the metatech secrets Jeth’s sister Cora carries inside her DNA, and Jeth is desperate to find the resources he needs to rescue his mother and start a new life outside the Confederation. But the ITA is just as desperate, and Jeth soon finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing him and his crew—dead or alive.

With nowhere to run and only one play left, Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he’d see again: Daxton Price, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. Dax promises to help Jeth, but his help will only come at a price—a price that could mean sacrificing everything Jeth has fought for until now.

The conclusion to the story Mindee Arnett began in her acclaimed novelAvalon, Polaris is a dangerous journey into the spaces between power and corruption, life and death, the parts of ourselves we leave behind, and the parts we struggle to hold on to.

The characters were really interesting. We got a new girl named Aileen Stock. We have more on Jethro. We have more about Marian his mother. 

We got more about Jethro. His mom comes back. He is forced to wear an implant. He gets both happiness and loss at the same time. Yet, he's still unmoving and staying strong. He won't accept the Axis until he is completely forced to. (And I'm not sure when this happens in the book.) Jethro has the mental battle with the Axis. Refusing to become someone he wasn't, he resisted the Axis, trying to pull him in. I liked reading his emotional turmoil. That sounds cruel, but it's true. People deal with those situations in different ways. Jeth just wanted to protect his family and their secrets. That's all. I admire that. He's brave to keep fighting. 

Aileen Stock. She was an interesting character. I don't want to give too much away, though. She was deemed badass in my mind. Until I started reading more. Her backstory was fascinating, though. Her personality? Not so much. I thought she would be sly and coy. But she was more snappish than I cared for. I didn't really like her entirely. Only parts of Aileen was interesting. No offense to her, of course. She's a bit more sarcastic than I care for. 

I thought Marian wasn't a very good character. You might wonder why. It's because she seemed too obsessed with the Pyreans. She cared more about an alien race than her own family. Though I'm not a big family person, that still is extremely rude in my eyes. I know that the Pyreans were important, but she could have lied. Making your family think you're dead is a complete trick. I didn't like that. Marian, while devoted, wasn't a good character overall. 

That action...

We are plunged right into the action. This was fresh and new. It has been a while since I read a book that thrust you into the action. We start off with a casino job. The crew is trying to sell something.

What happens next?

This action is pulse-pounding. You want to know what happens next. You can't not know. It's a yearning.

The fighting sequences. It gave me the chills.

Bam! Punch! Smack! 

I truly loved the action. It's been a while since I got this type of action. 

I really liked the emphasis on family and friends. You typically just get romantic relations. But this book had siblings and a mother. (Has anyone noticed the recent influx of orphans in young adult?) I liked this. Emphasizing familial relations is great. It shows another type of bond. You don't just get kisses and sex. You get sisters toying with brothers and mothers teasing sons. We have that all. It's nice to see how characters as unemotional as Jeth react in situations with their family members. It shows another side of them. You see them without their walls up. Or maybe they are more secretive. It all depends. 

I didn't like the romance. I didn't agree with Jeth and Sierra as a couple to begin with. They weren't very cute.

And I definitely didn't need to know that they had sex. (Really didn't. Don't tell me those things.) 

They didn't have chemistry. I didn't see anything between them. Physical contact. The only one who took it far enough to make me even notice was Sierra when she promised to kill Jeth if he was getting out of control. I admired that moment. But that's more of Sierra's personality than their relationship. 

Their relationship wasn't the best. Stolen kisses. Sleeping together. I didn't feel much for them. I could have cared less if they were torn apart. I didn't enjoy this relationship. 

I didn't like the ending. It could have  been better. I felt like the Pyreans are too god-like. They're gods in this series. They can make Jeth not do things when the implant, a dead Pyrean, tries to make him do things? Uh... I'm not sure how that works. Not sure how the mind control from the implant world at all. But that seems...odd. Doesn't it? I actually wanted to see if he could do it. Or if his love of his family was too strong. Too bad the Pyreans intervened. 

I thought this was a duloagy. But the ending gives you a question. A very important one, if you ask me. What next? Will they make it to Empyria? What happens when they get there? You are left with questions and no answers. 

Weather:

Sunny with a 50% chance of rain

3/5