Heart Fire

The telepathic cats come off best in Owens's mediocre 13th far-future fantasy romance (after Heart Fortune). On the planet Celta, lowborn architect Antenn has just been commissioned to build a cathedral for a minority religious sect, and First Level Priestess of the quasi-Celtic majority cult Tiana Mugwort is trying to mix spirituality and ambition. She assumes that her unknown HeartMate has refused to seek her out because he personally dislikes her, but Antenn simply sees a HeartMate as a distraction from his professional objective. After they unwillingly collaborate on the cathedral project, however, the sexual tension starts to throb, and the HeartMates overcome wicked Traditionalist plots as well as their deep-seated psychological misgivings about commitment. Celta's talking houses, sentient interstellar ships, and mind-reading FamCats provide playful interludes between the requisite bodice-busting and trouser-straining passages. Tiana's scruffy FamCat, RatKiller, single-handedly almost makes up for the hackneyed motivations and fragile characterizations that Owens ladles onto this conventional chase to the bedroom. (Nov.)