Musings and Ramblings

This is the first book in the Endure Series by S.A. Huchton. I have not read this author before and typically don't read "New Adult", but something about this book caught my eye when I signed up for the Book Tour. Honestly, I hadn't planned on doing a review. My plate was/is full this last half of July and I just didn't have room for another book. And yet when I read the excerpt I was intrigued. So intrigued I had to read a little bit more. Before I knew it I was half way through the book and letting Roxanne at Bewitching Book Tours know that I wanted to do a review as well.

The story starts with Lydia, a young marine biochemist and nobel prize winner on her way to the Deep Water Research Command Endure. A goal she has been working on for over 6 years. As a brilliant, but young woman, Dr. Lydia Ashley is used to working extremely hard and projecting a much more mature demeanor to be taken as seriously as some of the others in her field. She is looking forward to working with Daniel, another prodigy in the field of computer software, who was stationed on the DWRC Endure with his father, the Captain, and who has since remained on board. Unfortunately, they get off to quite the rocky start when he forgets her and leaves her to fend for herself. Daniel figures she will be some older, boring scientist and conveniently forgets the date, since he is busy romancing a woman. When they do meet, Lydia is unimpressed with his apparent lackadaisical approach and believes him to not be worth her time.

With its combination of New Adult, Science Fiction and Romance, this is one of those books that is hard to define and lodge firmly into a niche. It's like fusion cooking, taking a little from this genre and a little from that one and creating something gloriously new and unique. I have found that if a book will give a publisher nightmares on how to pidgeon hole it, then it's sure to be a favorite of mine. And this book certainly fits that bill. Lydia was smart, funny and just a bit naive about interpersonal relationships. Daniel was smart and though a bit of a rake, underneath it all, very redeemable. While their romance was fun to watch, it was only a subplot of the true story which has to do with mutation of underwater pathogens and a nefarious plot to destroy the world. Take a psychological thriller, add a bit of action, more than a dash of romance, stir briskly, sprinkle with nautical and military terminology and set it in the future and viola - you have Maven. I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads. Yes, it was that amazing.