Friends in High Places by Andi Marquette

When she finds herself embroiled in a tense smuggling operation with a lot of potential to go sideways, she finds herself face-to-face with Coalition Captain Kai Tinsdale, Torri's old bunkmate from the Academy and her first real love. Torri, our main character and fearless leader of the Far Seek, is a little bit of a trader and a little bit of an outlaw, trying her best to shed the remainders of the Coalition bureaucracy she was raised in. And even if you aren't a lesfic reader, this book will easily appeal to the most die-hard sci-fi junkies. If you're looking for a flighty romance, this one isn't for you.

Andi Marquette's concise, practiced prose takes the sprawling themes of those good space westerns of old to create a thick, dense, involved story that makes you fall hard for a romance for the ages. This book reminded me a lot of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, which I really enjoyed, which in turn reminded me of Firefly, which I enjoyed less. I know it's a popular subgenre, especially after many serial numbers were filed off Janeway/Seven of Nine fanfics in the late 90s, but I've always been drawn to more contemporary/modern lesfic stories. While I enjoy science fiction and lesfic, I've actually not read a ton of sci-fi lesfic. I'm a huge fan of this new publisher-ever since they opened, they've been wonderful to their fans, and since both this author (Andi Marquette) and another DRB author, Jove Belle, are involved in the amazing Lesbian Talk Show podcasts, there's such a wonderful feeling of lesbian/WLW solidarity in both the writing and readership. I didn't know anything about this book or the author before receiving a copy from Dirt Road Books for review. Review is also posted to GoodReads as Jess Rockeman.

Thank you Dirt Road Books for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Friends in High Places by Andi Marquette