Smart Podcast Book Club Pick: Mercenary Instinct by Ruby Lionsdrake

We have a book for our first quarter Smart Podcast Book Club!

As I said back in January, I asked the Patreon community to suggest titles, and this one smacked me right between the eyes.

This recommendation is pretty tough to resist. I mean, read this:

“Sci-fi romance recommendations are often being requested across the Bitchery and this is my absolute favourite series in that genre by one of my all time favourite authors (Lindsay Buroker writing as Ruby Lionsdrake).

It has a brilliant heroine heading up a team of accomplished women who are starting up a new business in alien poop (yes, poop) and group of rag tag mercenaries lead by a big, broody Captain who actually uses his brain before listening to his peen! It’s hot, action packed and funny which is the holy trio of romance for me. I hope you enjoy it!”

ALIEN POOP, SCIENCE, and BROODING. This is going to be fun, especially because sci-fi romance is not a genre I read a lot of, and I’m very excited to try it.

Here are ALL the details:

Mercenary Instinct
A | BN

Skulking around in the ruins on a planet swarming with treasure hunters, slavers, and bounty hunters isn’t good for one’s health. But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.

Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.

But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.

“Oh, this sounds so cool. How do I participate?”

Easy! Find yourself a copy of the book and read it. We here at Bitchery HQ are going to read the book, and record an episode talking about it. That episode will air on March 22, 2019. If you’d like to read along with us on that schedule, you’ll be able to listen in on our discussion. And if you prefer to read, there will absolutely be a transcript of the episode, as there is for each podcast episode!

AND, if you want to share your response, you can email SBJPodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at +1 201 371 3272. Please do so prior to March 12! I can’t guarantee that every message or email will be included, but we want to hear from you if you’ve got opinions – and I’m sure that you do!

“How do I help select next quarter’s book?”

Easy, part deux! If you’d like to join the Patreon and suggest what we should read for the book club each quarter, have a look at our Patreon and join the community. The form is open to all tiers of the Patreon community, and I’ll post a new submission form each quarter.

“I have questions! Many questions!”

The answer is: blue! Kidding. Email me or leave a comment below!

I hope you enjoy this book, and our multimedia book club. Talk, listen, and read soon!

Comments are Closed

  1. SandyH says:

    It is 0.99 at Amazon.

  2. Heather Greye says:

    Omg. I’m in the middle of glomming her Lindsay Buroker books and was just looking at this series. Yay – a “reason” to buy a new book!

  3. Anony Miss says:

    Yay! Y’all kindly published a squee of mine about Buroker before, and I remember really enjoying this book too.

  4. Alison says:

    Yay! Just bought it. Looking forward to reading along with everyone.

  5. Holly says:

    OMG MY PICK GOT PICKED!!! I’m so pleased : ) and hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.
    Yay to the Bitchery!

  6. MMV says:

    Fun series and most available at Amazon Kindle unlimited

  7. Sandra says:

    @1@6: But that’s a problem for those of who don’t have Kindles. (I have a nook.) I really like the sounds of this, but its either Kindle/KU or POD for $9.99. I don’t do paper anymore, especially at that price, and reading on a phone is not an option for me.

  8. Marisa Gettas says:

    I have a Kobo (I think they are more common in Canada than the USA) and it’s not available in the Kobo store. So, my other two choices are buy the e-version from Amazon, and read it on a backlit device (which my eyes can’t do) or pay $13.50 + tax + shipping (all in, $20 CDN) to get a paper copy that I can’t afford, and that my disability may not let me read. I’m not a Patreon subscriber, so I know my voice counts for less, but I’m disappointed that I can’t participate. And, your site is always so good about issues of accessibility, that the lack of access to this book really took me aback. I’ve been excited about this book club since you announced it earlier this year. I hope the next pick is something I get to read, too.

  9. SB Sarah says:

    Cripes. I’m sorry about that. Obviously, I have no power over where an author elects to publish their work, but I should have taken the wider access issues into consideration, and I did not. I apologize.

  10. Marisa Gettas says:

    Thanks, SB Sarah ❤️
    I’m going to see if I can convince my library to buy the e-version (if it is even avaiable for libraries to buy, that is, I’m not sure how KU works). It’s a long shot, but worth a try because this book really looks like something I’d enjoy.
    Enjoy the read! Hopefully I catch you on the next one

  11. Chris says:

    This particular book isn’t available at my library (in the US), and does not even show up in the system to recommend they they add it. I don’t know what self published authors need to do to get books into public library systems, or if this is a KU limit, or the library’s limit? I have seen other self pubbed books in my library system.

  12. Ren Benton says:

    @Chris: KU requires exclusivity for ebooks (paper can be sold anywhere), so libraries are out. Self-published books distributed widely through places like Smashwords and D2D are available to Overdrive and other services through which libraries order their ebooks.

  13. Critterbee says:

    Bought! What a steal at .99USD, and it SOUNDS SO GOOD! Well picked, Bitchery!

  14. SandyH says:

    For people who don’t have a Kindle you can download the Kindle app to your computer, tablet or smartphone. It’s free

  15. Joy says:

    I echo SandH’s recommendation. I mostly use my Android tablet with the Kindle app to read books now. I personally recommend the smaller Samsung Galaxy TabS which is similar in size to my Kindle but lets me read my email, take pictures, play games, AND read my books. I read too fast to enjoy reading on the small screen of my phone but the Kindle app does work well there as well.

  16. Marisa Gettas says:

    Thanks SandyH and Joy, but I can’t read a book on a backlit device. The eye strain makes me nauseous. So all android tablets/phones, iPads or iPhones, laptops etc. with the Amazon Kindle app won’t work for me. Believe me, I’ve tried 😉 My reading life would be much simplified if I could read that way.

    I need an e-ink device — which I have, a Kobo. I just have no way to get the book onto my Kobo without literally breaking the law.

    Thanks Ren, for that info. about libraries and e-books and KU. You just saved me a bunch of time.

  17. shel says:

    @Marisa @Sandra
    and other non-kindle people

    If you want to try this author under her other name Lindsay Buroker, which IS sold at other retailers/non-amazon exclusive, you can grab the Fallen Empire Collection (book 1-3 omnibus of 8 book series) free.

    And if you feel like putting in the work for a workaround for this particular book… As far as I know, if you see “simultaneous device useage: unlimited” in the kindle description, this should be DRM-free. (I think this author does sell most or everything at amazon DRM-free).

    So, you could buy from amazon, using Kindle for PC/Mac to get your file (because I’m fairly certain amz doesn’t let you just download files, even if DRM-free, rolls eyes), then use Calibre (free desktop program) to convert the kindle file to epub.

    I picked up the Mandrake Company omnibus of books 1-4, because it’s priced very well in Canada.

  18. Marisa Gettas says:

    Hi Shel — I was under the impression that stripping DRM was illegal. If that’s changed, then many of my problems are solved 🙂

  19. shel says:

    @Marisa
    As I mentioned, this particular book (and I think all this author’s books on amz) as far as I know, do NOT have DRM.
    Your only issue with buying from amz would be to change the file to something your ereader can read (epub).

  20. ClaireC says:

    Yay!!! Love this series – my favorite is the third (?), but I will happily read any of them again.

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