Back in July, I reviewed the insanely fun but also somewhat problematic book Max Seventeen ( A ). I have now read the sequel, Max Seventeen: Firebrand and I loved it, despite some problematic elements (so many rape threats, sigh) that lowered the grade. It has all the elements that made the first book fun, including a fantastic romance, but it has less of the problematic stuff from the first book – there’s still some, but much less. This is a gritty (and very violent) science fiction story. Spoilers ahead for Max Seventeen.

When we last left our intrepid couple (Riley and Max) they were separated from the crew of the Eurydice and getting to know Riley’s family and Max’s biological family. Riley was born rich, ran away to join the military, and ended up being an engineer on a beat up space pirate ship (the Eurydice). Max had a complicated backstory but ended up on the Eurydice as the computer/hacker/programmer person. Riley is big, smart, and from a stable but boring background. Max is wiry, smart, and spent her earlier life since early childhood running from place to place, committing various petty crimes and scrounging barely enough to eat. Max and Riley fell in love and here we are.

When Firebrand begins, Max and Riley are still madly in love and everything is great. We see them navigate conflicts both between each other and within each other’s families, and they are wonderful with each other – mutually supportive, funny, sexy, and understanding of each other’s considerable emotional baggage. Then, and weirdly enough, this is not a spoiler: Riley’s mother pays Max a huge amount of money to leave Riley and disappear, which Max does. Some of the plot involves everyone looking for everyone else, and the rest involves crime both large and small and Riley, Max, and the ever-expanding crew of the Eurydice trying to locate and defuse an extremely unpleasant weapon. It’s as though Quentin Tarantino directed Firefly.

This is not a romance in the same way that Max Seventeen is. The structure is more space adventure than romance. However, I would shelve it with my romance novels anyway. It fits my criteria of having a happy ending and of making me care more about the romance between Riley and Max than anything else. Their rapport is so strong in the first couple of chapters that once they separated I panicked and had to skim ahead to see if they were going to be OK.

Then I backed up and read all the stuff I had missed. It was good stuff! There were giant sharks AND mosasaurs! Max’s extremely sheltered sister, Priti, turns into a total badass! Max has a cat! This last both comforts and annoys her. She can’t believe she’s stable now after years of running constantly. “I have a pet,” she keeps saying, with disgust. There’s adventure and action and humor.

There’s also some explicit violence and a lot of rape threats, so watch out for that if you prefer less Tarantino in your space adventure. I truly can’t even begin to sum up the plot in detail. Frankly sometimes I just let all the jewel theft and tea parties and decapitated heads sort of wash over me, metaphorically speaking of course. A lot happens.

There’s a secondary romance that is so unexpected and delightful that I refuse to spoil it. Suffice to say that this book is all about sexual empowerment and getting in touch with your feelings, but not always with the same people or at the same time.

At its core, this book is about trust – trusting yourself, trusting your friends, and trusting your true love even when you know that your true love is a professional liar. It’s also about accepting the limits of the people around you and understanding what those limits are instead of trying to fix your friends or crewmates or partners. Max will always want to steal shiny things. Riley will always be a teensy bit of a prude in public. Learning to accept that is crucial to the relationship, and there are also models of people realizing that they need to leave relationships because they can’t accept their partner’s behavior.

There is a subplot in the book that is potentially problematic as hell and I still can’t decide what I think about it. It is revealed that Riley has a twin sister who has a disability. Because of genetic engineering, disabilities are incredibly rare and stigmatized. Riley’s sister is exposed to all kinds of ableist emotional and verbal abuse from her parents and her husband, which could be incredibly triggering for some people. She does, however, wreak sweet, sweet vengeance upon her abusers, and that was pretty satisfying, let me tell you. I feel like I’d need to read the book again in order to make a firm decision about that storyline, but as someone who is slightly disabled myself, I decided to interpret this storyline as mostly a plus. Mileage will vary, and it does bring the book’s grade down to a B-. The rape threats brought the grade down as well although they are plausible for the setting in which they occur.

Overall, I loved this book, especially the character of Priti who is a total badass and who I’m sure would be my very bestest friend. My only warnings to readers are to approach the rape threats, violence, and disability plotline with caution if those are triggery for you.