Love in Retrograde by Charlie Cochet

LoveInRetrogradeLG

From Dreamspinner:

Enthusiastic, play-it-safe Kelly Sutton is an American intern at the Photonic Royal Society in New London. He’s been working on Project Mars for over a year, a mission kept so secret by the society even Kelly doesn’t know exactly what it is. What Kelly does know is his contribution to the task will benefit mankind, and that’s enough for him.

Kelly’s world turns upside down when concerns over his mentor’s behavior lead Kelly to investigate and stumble upon a wicked truth. What is supposed to be a project to advance human life turns out to be an endeavor capable of mass destruction. The terrifying reality forces Kelly to choose between looking the other way to keep his job, as he’s always done, or risking his career and even his life to do the right thing by saving the man who’s captured his heart.

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Kimi’s thoughts:

This is a short at 73 pages but it packs a lot of  story into those few pages. Kelly is  living his dream, working for a multi-discipline scientific organization. The project known as Project Mars is a government project, one that is very hush hush. So much so that he nor anyone else seems to know much about it, each section being assigned only a piece of the research and the larger details left to higher ups with a need to know.

The day comes when Kelly’s curiosity leads him to stumble upon the truth and it places his life in very great danger unless he goes along with what has been requested of him. Even worse, it quickly becomes apparent that an ethical line has been crossed and he can either risk his career and life or stand by and see a very great wrong perpetuated. The fact that the wrong being committed centers on a man he has come to love makes the dilemma especially difficult.

Covering subjects such as government corruption, scientific oversight, and bio-engineering, this is a romantic tale that is out of the ordinary. It hits all the right buttons (despite my brain at first trying to figure out what photons had to do with it all, haha) and ends with a HEA that isn’t too saccharine. Definitely, a set of characters I’d love to revisit in a longer work.

Rating: 4.5