AMoRaR Book Review: Chasing Howe

A Month of Rain and Reads Reviews5 months ago5 min readAdd comment

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

This is a guest review for Chasing Howe by J. F. Miev as written by J. Tomala.

Aiden had everything—his dream career, a comfortable life and a fiancée he loved. But when she is murdered during a business trip to Mars, his perfect world shatters.

An investigation and a trial soon follow, and the space smuggler, Darren Howe, is quickly convicted. However, when no motive is supplied and Howe is given a life sentence instead of the death penalty, things don’t add up. No matter how hard Aiden tries, the authorities refuse to explain their decision, leaving him with no choice but to seek the answers elsewhere.

Two years later, Aiden secures a job as the warden at Jupiter’s Horizons Space Prison. The plan is simple—find out the truth and kill Howe. But things get complicated when he approaches the charismatic man who awakens in him urges he hasn’t felt in years.

The truths Aiden uncovers as he fights the attraction between them will reveal secrets he might not be ready for and make him question everything he knows about the life he’s lived so far.

Chasing Howe is an enemies-to-lovers MM sci-fi slow burn romance mystery about an ex-architect who will stop at nothing until he avenges the death of his fiancée and the prisoner who will turn his world upside-down. It serves as an easy introduction to the low sci-fi genre and features hidden identities, a generous dose of mystery, high stakes, slow burn, pining, obsession and an intriguing plot. It is Book 1 in the Forging the Stars duet.

Aiden’s fiancée, Claudia, was murdered, and he can’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t just a random act of violence. He needs answers. Needs to know why her murderer didn’t get the death penalty when it was such a clear-cut case. After two years of plotting, scheming, and investigating, he finally finds a way to get into the prison her murderer was being held in.

The only two things he wants from Darren Howe are answers and to kill the man. But the more time he spends with Darren, the less the man seems like the monster the media and Claudia’s parents had painted him to be.

Aiden hates Darren but knows he is the only one who can help him find the answers to his questions. Soon Aiden finds himself neck-deep in a conspiracy that spans years and could cost him his life. The only thing he can do now is trust Darren Howe to keep him alive.

This book is a murder mystery on the surface, one that is set in space. A good chunk of the book we spend with Aiden and Darren at Horizon, a prison in space. Both Aiden and Darren are wearing masks, and neither is willing to show their cards. The characters are well written, their backstories rich and interesting. The book doesn’t have a lot of side characters we need to care about, but those we have are fun and provide some much-needed levity to the brooding and frankly angry broken protagonists.

The mystery unfolds at a good pace. We know from the beginning that Darren killed Claudia, but we don’t know why or why her family covered it up and lied to Aiden about it. The mystery and conspiracy are the main factors that drive this novel, and it kept me reading. I wanted to know why and if I, and Aiden for that matter, could forgive Darren for killing Claudia.

This first book does not give us all the answers, but it doesn’t leave the reader with an evil cliffhanger either.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Prison Break, Star Trek and also likes conspiracy stories about evil corporations and doesn’t mind a slow-burn MM romance subplot.

You get spacecrafts, different planets, advance AI, virtual realities and more, that I won’t get into here, because it would be a spoiler.

This is a very well written book that keeps you at the edge of your seat.