"exciting action-packed science fiction romance"

Being the daughter of a murdering Circe witch who killed her father has hurt Lilly as much of upper society starting with her uncle blames her from the moment of her birth almost as much as her mother though Lilly was born after the homicide. Two decades later her uncle, Sovereign Alexander of Oasis still holds her culpable for his brother's death due to her mother's actions; still he assigns Lilly as his representative to the senate with war beckoning that could destroy the world.

Ravigans attack her ship and her bodyguard Krebb is killed. Desperate she frees a cyro-prisoner Phoenix, whom she already held a telepathic chat with, from his frozen cell that stated "Do not revive without authorization". The prisoner was to be dumped in the deepest known hole for murdering five Senate soldiers. He sees his actions differently as he was avenging the murder of his parents. He is an anomaly as an unprecedented male surviving descendent of the Circe witches, but agrees to protect Lilly. As they fall in love, they have doubts about the underlying reasons for the upcoming war and investigate how he survived the Circe witches when they kill male infants immediately.

STARGAZER is an exciting action-packed science fiction romance in which the worlds envisioned by Colby Hodge seem so real the audience will believe she is an ET from one of them. The story line hits hyperspeed immediately and never decelerates until the climax. The mystery of Phoenix adds depth on a personal level to this fabulous outer space tale that in some ways feels like a medieval historical tale as love and war are enhanced by trust and betrayal respectively.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 10, 2005

Summary

Do Not Revive Without Authorization Those were the words stamped on the cyro tube holding the prisoner. Gazing in fascination at the bulging muscles of his arms, Lilly wondered if the heavy cables binding his wrists and ankles would be enough to hold him when he awoke from his enforced sleep. Nor was she reassured by the crime committed by her fellow passenger: murder. Or his sentence: life, in the deepest hole the Legion could find.

Yet even sensing the rage and frustration within him, she tied her fate to his when their ship was attacked. Chased by Ravigans across the universe, she had no choice but to put her trust in Phoenix. But how was he able to penetrate her mind, filling it with teasing suggestions and hotly sensual images, when that talent had always belonged exclusively to the generations of grey-eyed women in her line? Was the devil with the silver gaze the key to saving her beloved garden planet of Oasis or just a common criminal out to take for himself whatever he could get his hands on?