Off World by Stephanie Vaughn

Stephanie Vaughn was introduced to me last year by a friend who suggested I read her m/m ebooks Jumping the Fence and Crossing the line. These two titles were just fabulous so when I saw Rosario had given her newest m/m ebook a good review I didn't hesitate to go out and pick it up. I was disappointed though.

I guess I had higher expectations and, even though I had been warned about the open ended, or better said abrupt, ending, I really expected more.

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Caleb Adams' best friend has been murdered in what appears to be a cover up for a string a murders that have taken place on earth. The blame for the murders has been put on Sarhaan's rogue military crew. The group of men are self made exiles and are wanted men. Cal doesn't believe this and with a small aircraft goes out to find the crew to enlist their help in finding the real culprit as well as clearing their names. He really was not expecting the crew to be so against his ideas.

Sarhaan,the leader - so to say, of the ex-military group, immediately find himself attracted to Cal but is unsure if he can be trusted. Funny thing is that it's okay to lock him in Sarhaan's room and lust after him, ultimately taking him as a lover, but not okay to trust him... hmmm, I can see that.

The scenes were definitely hot and exciting but the story that was taking place outside of the bedroom just was not coherent enough for me to enjoy this book to the fullest. There were too many unanswered questions that Vaughn maybe threw out there to make things a bit more mysterious and then forgot that they needed a closure?

Caleb appears to have been tortured at one point by a crew member but we don't know what actually happened since Caleb doesn't even remember it (he had been drugged). The resolution takes place behind the scenes, so to say, since it was more of an epilogue. We never really get to know who Sahaaran really is, just that he is decent.There was an incident in the crew's lives which led them to become rogues but we just get a glimpse here and there.

There were just so many angles that could have been flushed out and Vaughn left them all out there without a home. It was a messy story and I felt very disappointed that no one actually told Vaughn that her subplots needed tweaking. Anyway, there appears to be a sequel to this one, but I honestly am not sure if I want to go there. This one left me a sour taste in my mouth. The grade I gave this one was definitely influenced by the sensuality of the scenes and not so much for the story behind it.

Grade: C-
Format: ebook