The Game of Luck: Felicia Sevigny, Book 3

Who you know trumps what you know in this slightly racy family drama (following 2017’s The Chaos of Luck) spread out across the solar system. Felicia Sevigny, a fortune-teller from Nairobi, is now on Mars and head of the Venus redevelopment project for One Gov, the sole legal ruling power. She’s also married to Alexei Petriv, head of the rival Tsarist Consortium (aka the Russian mafia), and trying hard to get pregnant. Her family members, including her father, are disappearing, and her tarot cards tell of treachery from someone close. When her trusted grandfather, Under Secretary Felipe Vieira, is nearly assassinated, war between One Gov and Alexei’s syndicate is declared, and Felicity must choose between her career and her husband. Cerveny serves up a comfort stew of SF and romance elements (genetically engineered superman leads humankind to the stars, biologically evolved superwoman yearns for motherhood), mixing in some spicy sequences to add some heat, though the sex scenes flirt with (and in one instance involve) coercion. Readers with a fondness for active female protagonists will enjoy Felicity’s take-charge attitude. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (Oct.)