No Holes Barred: The Awakening

In a last ditch effort to save her people, Britenia has arrived at the No Holes Barred Spa and Nightclub to try to develop emotional feelings. She is the Crown Princess of a planet full of people who have no emotions because of a curse by a sorcerer. This playground of beings from all worlds in the galaxy was full of emotions, especially those of passion.

Jicar was a regular at No Holes Barred – he even had his own suite – and this lovely, emotionless woman intrigued him. He is certain that he will be able to awaken her emotions, while, at the same time, remaining uninvolved himself. After all, the rule at No Holes Barred is “twice a date, thrice a mate,” and Jicar surely will need only two encounters to make Britenia feel emotions. What he doesn’t count on is his own unruly heart ...

No Holes Barred is an interesting series – it’s like an inter-dimensional singles’ bar where one can find the mate of one’s dreams, no matter where in time or space he or she may be located. Each story is written by a different author, so the style of each story is different. I liked this episode, because author Whiting has a nice, descriptive style that brings the scenes to life. There are a lot of characters in this novella, so the scenes do seem a bit crowded at times, but that contributes to the singles’ bar atmosphere. It took me a while to warm up to Britenia as a character, but that doesn’t seem odd because of her non-emotional state. I did like Jicar, whose feelings definitely grew and changed over the period of the story. There are some very graphic and sexy love scenes in this story, but the author is good at balancing the love scenes with the other elements of the story. I definitely enjoyed this story, and recommend it to other lovers of science fiction romance.

Reviewed by: Jean