Wanted and Wired Series, Book 1

February 13, 2017
In this steamy near-future escapade, set in a debilitated world in which Texas has seceded and the U.S. is on the verge of civil war, tough Texas hit woman Mari Vallejo and her passionate posthuman partner, cybernetics professor Heron Farad, go on the run after Mari is set up to kill the wrong target. Both are simmering in complicated, conflicting emotions. Mari took the job to try to save the scientist father she hates; Heron is besieged by “a toxic mix of love and lust and anger” directed at Mari. She often takes the lead in saving and seducing him, giving this fast-paced adventure a feminist twist. With a vicious war on the horizon, Heron and Mari prove they have plenty of sizzle left for future feats of sexual and intellectual derring-do. As their torrid courtship proceeds through superhero adventures and near-death encounters with the villains, Heron tries to keep Mari safe with his technological skills, such as piloting his orbit-capable airplane, while Mari, who’s always been mystified by machines, uses her tough fighting moves and her brassy Texas idiom to undo their enemies. This unusual combination of romance and science fiction tends to predictability in plot, but its lead characters are sympathetically drawn and generally convincing, giving readers an easy trip into a not-so-distant world of technologically enhanced humans ruled by their indefatigable and inexhaustible hormones. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary.

March 15, 2017
Raunchy Mari is an expert assassin, simply unparalleled as a sniper. But things go wrong when the clone she thinks she is taking out turns out to be the human husband of a senator. She manages to escape with Heron, her technologically enhanced partner, taking shelter in his armored home, but an attack and hack of his enhancements force them to seek help from the Queen of Chiba on her space station. Though the story runs a little thin in the first novel in Jackson's Tether series, she does succeed in building a terrifying futuristic dystopia where technology and biology are mated. Full of contradictions, Mari, the daughter of a genius professor, uses abominable grammar, and though she claims to abhor cyber-enhanced post-humans, she does adore Heron. Jackson's sf romance becomes more interesting as a backstory develops about Mari's father, Heron's history, and the secession and independence of Texas. Ultimately, Jackson leaves the reader anticipating the next installment and wanting to learn more about her nano-fae.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)