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Rimrider (Rimrider Adventures – 1) by L.A. Kelley

Teenager Jane Benedict is awakened by her father and ordered to memorize a mysterious code. Hours later, Mathias Benedict is dead and Jane and her brother, Will, are wards of United Earth Corporation. To evade the company’s murderous clutches and uncover the meaning of her father’s last message, Jane leads Will on a desperate escape across the galaxy aboard the Freetrader smuggler ship, Solar Vortex. Tangled in the crew’s fight against UEC, Jane saves the life of young smuggler Maclan Sawyer and learns her father’s code identifies a secret cargo shipment that may spell doom for the entire Freetrader cause and the extinction of an alien race.

Piracy, intrigue, romance, and a daring rebellion from Earth wait on the planet Rimrock. Will Jane answer the call to adventure and find new purpose on the galactic rim or will death for high treason be her fate?

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 Right now you can purchase Rimrider on Amazon for $.99.

Author’s Bio

I live in Florida where the heat and humidity have driven us all slightly mad. I’m easy to spot as I’m the palest person around. I avoid the sun and love air conditioned comfort. On the plus side, my skin will never look like badly laid roofing shingles.

My favorite writing genre is fantasy, but I’ll read just about anything except technical instruction manuals. All my stories have fantasy, humor, romance, and a touch of sass. In my spare time I enjoy phoning in Bigfoot sightings to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. They are heartily sick of hearing from me.

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My Review

4 stars

Jane is awoken in the early morning by her father’s insistence that she remember a code. The next morning both of her parents are dead and it’s up to her to keep her brother, Will, safe and get themselves out to the Rim. The Rim is where the mining for Bentite, the main material for weapons and space ships, is mined and where her aunt has been banished to after being convicted of murder.

Jane’s father book both of them transportation on a Freetrader ship. While there she learns that the code is a special delivery that could be the end to the Freetraders and an ancient race of aliens. Jane finds herself in the middle of a fight between Freetraders and The United Earth Corporation.

This book is full of everything: a great story, action, adventure, the loss of family, an evil corporation, pirates, aliens, and everything in between. Jane finds herself in the middle of the Freetraders and UEC war. Both are trying to make her a pawn for their sides.

This is a first book in a series and has an ending with a great opening for the next book. Now I can’t wait to get my hands on the second book, Outlaw Jane.

I received Rimrider from Sami at Roger Charlie and L.A. Kelley for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.

Giveaway

L.A. Kelley is giving away a $25 Gift Card. Make sure to check out the link and sign up.

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Guest Post

FINDING RIMRIDER’S STORY

Readers often ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” In the case of Rimrider, I wanted to write a space opera about a girl’s evolution from typical teenager to space pirate. Sometimes inspiration is nearer than you think. While Rimrider is set in the future, the story’s roots are anchored firmly in the past, influenced by my first relative to come to America. She joined the flood of Eastern European immigrants who braved the trip across the Atlantic in the late nineteenth century. Barely sixteen, she traveled alone with no knowledge of English or American customs and culture. She had no money, few skills, and carried nothing more than a few beat-up suitcase held together with rope and a burning desire for a better life.

As I thought of her, it struck me a girl crossing the ocean in 1900 might have a lot in common with an interplanetary settler. Both trips would most likely be one-way, and communication with people left behind difficult and certainly not as instantaneous as a phone call. Expense and political unrest might make return visits impossible. The scariest part for past and future travelers is the same; abandoning all that’s familiar and loved. Whether leaving home for a new land or a new planet, only the most adventurous spirit dares to say, “Let’s go!”

Once I had a handle on my heroine’s personality, I fleshed out the story and decided to make Rimrider a loose parallel to the American Revolution. On Earth, the colonists are considered pirates and outlaws, plotting against legal authority.  Meanwhile, the Freetraders see themselves fighting tyrants who make harsh laws, ignore legal rights, and treat colonists as exploitable labor.

I especially wanted to add lots of interesting female characters. For most of American history, women’s contributions were hidden or dismissed. They couldn’t vote or participate in politics or military campaigns. Times have changed, but even now, many science fiction or adventure stories have only one or two female characters in a leadership role. Too often, they are similar in temperament, attitude, and voice to the males as if something is wrong with being a girl. The gender gap in space still skews decidedly toward the y-chromosome. The girls and women in Rimrider are part of the fight for freedom from the beginning. Their voices are not only decidedly female, but loud and clear.

What I didn’t want was a dark, hopeless tale full of gloom, doom, and a heroine who constantly whines. (Waah! Where is my specialness? Waah! Why doesn’t anyone see how special I am? Waah! What else can I complain about?)  Rimrider is fast and fun with plenty of both humor and adventure and not a mopey puss in sight. The full story of Jane Benedict couldn’t be told in one book, and so became a series. The second book, Outlaw Jane, is out now. The third, The Boneyard, will be released in 2017. At least two more are planned after that.

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