Changing Course is an exciting read, bringing to life a fascinating world, both awfully scary at times and delightfully beautiful too. Yet, as wonderful as the sci-fi aspect of the book is (definitely 5*), I found the romance aspect a bit lacking. I didn’t really get the emotion I was expecting.

Brey Willows is closely becoming one of my favourite authors. When I read Chosen last year, I was hooked and have been excited to read this book, which I thought would be similar but how wrong I was. I kept putting off reading the Changing Course because I wanted time to just sit back and indulge in the story a bit without distractions, but let me tell you, I shouldn't have waited because as soon as I began this book, I realised this was a phenomenal book and nothing like Chosen.

Changing Course is a wonderful book about intergalactic love between two people who were never supposed to meet and how a once chance meeting changed the course of both their lives forever.

Kylin is a beautiful soul who has endured so much in her young life, meeting Jessa opens her eyes to possibilities she shouldn't dare to dream of. Deciding to indulge in Jessa while she has the small amount of time with her is not something she can stop. Whereas Jessa is experiencing things she has never imagined before from new cultures, beautiful hidden worlds, and feelings for Kylin she didn't know existed much less felt.

We are currently going through COVID-19 here on earth, and there is no better way to forget it by escaping to another planet where Jessa and Kylin will take you on a phenomenal adventure. Enjoy!

Star Rating
5

Full review available at: https://lesreveur.com/2020/03/30/changing-course-by-brey-willows/

Stevie‘s review of Changing Course by Brey Willows
Lesbian Science Fiction Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 12 Nov 19

I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read so far by Brey Willows, especially her most recent fantasy novel. As I grew up reading lesbian science fiction, I was very keen to get my hands on this book. And it feels very much like those books I used to read with added elements of the space operas of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Imagine if you will, the pairing of a lesbian Jenna Stanis (from Blakes 7) and the lesbian answer to a young Han Solo. Throw in a thrilling crash landing and a whole host of dangers on the planet itself and you have the makings of something quite, quite special.


Captain Jessa Arabelle comes from a well-off family on a wealthy and civilised planet and makes her living transporting tourists on intergalactic cruises. When an asteroid hits her ship, she and her crew are forced to land their escape pod on a backwater world, rarely visited by outsiders, unless they’re on the run from something or someone. Kylin Enderson is an inhabitant of that world, who makes her living as a prize fighter and a scavenger, all the while trying to keep up supplies of medicine for her seriously ill father. When she hears about a crash involving a fancy ship and a number of escape pods, she rushes to the area in search of anything she might be able to sell. She doesn’t expect to encounter a group of survivors in need of her help to get themselves safely back to what passes for civilisation on Kylin’s world.

When Kylin manages to arrange transport for Jessa’s crew and says she will be travelling onward in search of more crash debris, Jessa insists on accompanying her. The two face slavers, bounty hunters, and other hostile groups, but also make some friends amongst the more reclusive and transient people of Kylin’s world before finally being reunited with Jessa’s crew and having to deliver the news to Kylin’s friends and family that their city is in danger from those outside its walls.

While Jessa and her crew await transport off the planet, Jessa becomes increasingly involved in Kylin’s life and learns an awful lot about life beyond her sheltered upbringing and equally insulated life since achieving adulthood. When rescue eventually comes, Jessa and Kylin have to figure out whether and how they can build a future together, given their very different backgrounds, especially given that Jessa has now seen the darker sides to Kylin’s life.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It had all the elements I loved in the books I loved as a teenager and then some. It also had a far more epic feel than I was expecting and I really would like to see more of these two and the universe they inhabit.

Grade: A

A great book from Willows. The tale of Jessa and Kylin is a fantastic sci-fi. Good depth, great fun.

Lesbrary review: Brey Willow's <em>Changing Course</em> opens with Jessa and her crew abandoning their damaged spaceship and crashlanding on Indemnion – a planet so ill-regarded that most shipping routes don't go near it. Fortunately for her, she and her crew are rescued by Kylin, a scrounger with a heart of gold, who takes Jessa under her wing as they fly across the planet looking for survivors.

I had very mixed feelings about this. My intial reaction on twitter was "This feels like someone's f/f Star Trek/Star Wars crossover fic," which probably coloured my read of it as someone who's only tangentially aware of Star Trek. It's hard to say how much of that feeling was based on the background politics of space (which are conveniently ignored because the protagonists are stuck on a planet that no one wants to go to), and how much was based on the fact that Jessa is supposed to be from a planet where emotions are frowned upon so thoroughly that most people are able to ignore them entirely. We don't really get to see that though, because she's quite emotional and open even from the start, instead of the emotionally repressed robot I think that I was supposed to assume she was based on her character arc. It feels like Jessa's almost a blank slate, especially compared to how involved and dramatic Kylin's backstory is in comparison. I <em>think</em> its intentional, but it does give the impression that her life now revolves around Kylin.

It doesn't help that the problems are set up and solved too quickly – Jess and Kylin run into a problem, a few paragraphs later they run into a helpful side character who can solve their problem while <em>also</em> making pointed observations about their relationship, and the problem is solved as quickly as it arrived. The structure is repeated all through the book, and it works for introducing more of the world and keeping the action moving, but it meant that it didn't feel like there was much tension. Perhaps if the narrative had really leaned into that and built on its episodic bones, it might have been more consistent! And for all that a lot of the world was introduced, the actual world <em>building</em> felt a bit scant. Not in terms of how it was described, because some of the imagery in it is beautiful, but in terms of how Indemnion is structured socially beyond "rich people live here, lower classes live here," which doesn't work for a story where at least some of the problems are of a planetary scale. And quite frankly, I have questions about the ending rhough, because all of Jessa's objection as to Kylin's life as a fighter was resolved <em>way</em> too quickly. Jessa has SERIOUS qualms Kylin's ability and choice to do violence, which feel like they're shoved to one side rather than addressed. And I'm <em>very</em> disappointed in the epilogue, because it crams so many cultural and relationship changes into a small space, when that one chapter could have been an entire book on its own. ... Also I'm assuming that "and lo the slavers are enslaved themselves due to the prison-industrial complex" is supposed to be dramatic irony, because otherwise <em>what the hell</em>.

All that said, it did move quickly and have some cool world-building and setting, and I was very fond of Asol, a young adventurer that they pick up while they're travelling. I think my biggest problem with it was that it didn't give the story enough time or depth to actually explore all of the cool things it set up.

[Caution warning: dying parent, slavery and enslavement, mentions of abuse and eating human flesh.]

Lady Business review: Changing Course (reviewed here) feels like someone's f/f Star Wars/Star Trek fusion fic with the serial numbers filed off. A scavenger accidentally rescues the captain of a crashed spaceship, who convinces her to help look for survivors. It's not necessarily bad, but the pacing is uneven and every problem introduced is solved so quickly that there's not really any tension or depth, which makes the book feel a lot lighter than I'd have expected for a story about structural inequality and the risks of enslavement. It's not quite made up for by the romance either; the captain is supposed to be emotionally distant and restrained, and we never really get to see that.

That said, it does move quickly and the world-building it did was pretty cool. I was just a little more invested in the background characters and world than I was in the protagonists themselves.

[Caution warning: dying parent, slavery and enslavement, mentions of abuse and eating human flesh.] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.]

A friend recently said that Lesfic Sci-Fi was nothing more than a romance on a spaceship. Well, not always if this novel is anything to go by, especially seeing as the spaceship crashed. Captain Jessa Arbelle's escape pod is hit resulting in them being diverted from their course and ending up on a planet not known for its friendliness. Kylin, a prize-fighter and scrounger fortunately finds the survivors before the slavers do but getting home is going to be a challenge for Jessa.

The world-building was interesting and well-imagined with not a Klingon or Ewok to be seen. The adventure and romance development was nicely intertwined with a good balance of each. The characters felt integrated into their environment which made it a good read for me.

This is a story about Jesse a ships captain whose ship went down on a planet she was unfamiliar with, after an asteroid hit it. She meets a scavenger by the name of Kylin. Together they set off across the planet looking for escape pods and parts of her ship. Jessa also finds something she didn’t know she was looking for with Kyin. Be aware this is a girl on girl story.

I read and reviewed this advanced complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley

Changing Course is overall a good book. I really enjoyed reading about Jessa and Kylin and the story shows good world-building, with a complex society, good diversity of people and species, and interesting ecosystems. My only quibble is that the science-fiction is, well, not really science-fiction. Chapter 1 in particular was odd to read, small escape pods (!) heading to another sector (of the galaxy (?!) while a "nebula slid past". But once past this, the book becomes much much better!

3.5 stars I am a big fan if this author and loved the Fury series. All three were awesome and original. This book was less so for me. I enjoyed the beginning with the asteroids and the tense drama associated with escape and crash landing. From there it was a bit less of the kind of sci fi I like or I'm used to. This author does a great job building scenes and creating worlds and the storyline is good too. The romance is what you expect when opposites attract.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This Sci-fi story blew me away. The characters, world building, romance, moral concepts, writing, all of it. I was enthralled from start to finish.
The location of this story was well thought out and supremely interesting, a planet that is off the beaten path and thusly ignored and left to lawlessness. The multiple different settings and the social dynamics were great fun to learn about and explore.
The two main characters were both really marvelous in both their differences and similarities, the connection between them and all they learn from each other was amazingly done. Jessa is quite sheltered and ignorant due to her upbringing and how she goes through life. Kylin is rough and guarded to her harsh upbringing. They most both look beyond the surface and remove previous judgements and misconceptions.
This story was well written and perfectly paced. The multiple adventures were fun and riveting.
The love story is passionate and sweet. There is excellent chemistry and both characters are amazingly loveable. Their dynamic is perfect. I disliked Jessa for a hot minute but she redeemed herself flawlessly and provided a perfect ending to this fantastic sci-fi love story, I would be immensely excited to see more stories from these characters or from this world.

3.25 - 3.50
I really do like Brey Willows as an author - her Fury series was an imaginative and original and I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. She is adept at writing outside the standard lesfic box adding Urban Fantasy and specfic twists that I particularly like. I was looking forward to her turning her hand to SF but this one sort of missed the mark for me. As expected, the book is well written and entertaining but the characters didn't grab me and there just wasn't enough depth in the societies of Indemnion I think it wasn't SF enough for what I was in the mood for.

As a light SF, this works well - with enough action and romance to keep a reader hooked. After crash landing on Indemnion, a planet outside the normal shipping routes and a rather rough society that's structured around city-states with little law and order, Jessa and her crew meet up with local scounger Kylin Enderson. After sending the crew to the closest city, Jessa joins Kylin as she continues on to see what other wreckage may have crashed. As they travel they meet up with nomads, another city state, slavers and an indigenous species who most on the planet consider to be legends. The romance builds between the two starting with a physical attraction but developing as they learn more about one another.

Despite quite a bit of world-building - Brey does create and populate an entire planet - it didn't feel like it went deep enough and some of the societal issues raised seemed to be a bit too easily resolved. I couldn't figure out why there was no communication between the cities - they had the technology but they have to travel over land and sea to get anywhere or talk to anyone. I also struggled with Jessa as a character - she's a starship captain and from a society that values logic over emotion but she just seemed too passive and accepting of everything.

I gave up at 33% in. Not the kind of futuristic SciFi I expected or like to read instead it's more like that desert outlaw planet Tatooine just with a female Aniken kind of protagonist and it seems like there won't be a change in settings anytime soon (if ever).
Not a bad book though, just the wrong pick for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldstroke Books who provided me with this ARC.

Comsos dust and prowler balls, this was good.

Jessa is the captain of a vacation/transport ship that becomes under duress as we start the book. Astroids have caused significant damage resulting in the need to hop into pods and escape. Unfortunately, her pod also falls victim to the same fate, forcing her and her crew to land on a planet that is known for it's seediness and violence.

Kylin has had to do whatever it takes to survive on the plant Indemniom. That means making deals with shady beings to get what she and her father have needed. She ring fights for money and affirmation. She scrounges for items to resale. Deep down, she has a good heart. She's just a little jaded by life and people who have disappointed her in the past.

She notices entries/crashes to Indemniom and decides to take her flyer out in search of anything worth reselling. She ends up saving Jessa from slavers who had similar ideas.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this very much. I had originally not requested this ARC because while the author's previous book 'Spinning Tales' had great world building and was well written, it didn't excite me. I chalked it up to being a genre that just wasn't for me. After reading some reviews from respected goodreads friends, I went back and grabbed this one. I'm so pleased to say that this book really captured my interest. It was just as well written as Willow's previous book, but this one had a greater sense of adventure and intrigue.

The romance is exactly what a good love story should be like. Two people from very different worlds. Coming together under unusual circumstances. Forced together to survive increasingly dangerous obstacles. Denying growing feelings in order to prevent inevitable heartbreak. Having to make difficult decisions about an uncertain future.

I liked the described landscape, walled in cities, different groups of people, the friends they make along the way. The gritty world of Indemniom as an interesting backdrop. I truly felt the danger of roaming the land outside of city walls with the ever present fear of being captured by slavers. And I really got a kick out of the various slang expressions used throughout.

Overall, this was an exciting adventure with a satisfying romance. A quick read that kept me turning pages. A story with a lot of heart.

I recommend to those who like to read romance, spaceships, adventure, loyalty, repaying debts, caring for ailing loved ones, helping those with less, and unique alien characters.

Review excerpted from my blog post over at Pan/Cis LGBT2SQ+ Romance Reviews (https://pancis.wordpress.com/2019/11/14/changing-course-by-brey-willows/)


Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Library recommendation: Recommended for public library LGBT2SQ+ romance collections.

Warning: Hereafter, you chance spoilers. I will try never to reveal major plot points, but to review any book, you must reveal some parts of the story.

____________________

Number of titles I have read by this author: 2

Love story speed: Medium burn

Relationship dynamics: The Indebted Prize Fighter (h1) / The Starship Captain (h2)

Sexual content: Some; "on-screen" and explicit

Gender Identity: Cis (h1) / Cis (h2)

Sexual Identity: Lesbian (h1) / Lesbian (h2)

Triggers: Parent terminal illness; parent death; suicidal thoughts

Acceptance Rating: 4.5 stars

Acceptance Rating Explanation: Aside from a father objecting to his daughter being with a woman because of the lack of grandchildren, this is a fairly accepting book.

Grammar/Editing: My ARC had a few typos, awkward sentences, and word choice problems.

Review: This novel hops right into the action and keeps up a quick pace. It is primarily set on-planet, with very little of the action taking place in space. The world building was fairly good, although some of the descriptions lacked some detail. The physics introduced in the novel are consistent, if fairly cartoonish (think Futurama) with regard to some of the gadgets available. I also found that while the author has developed a full complement of planet slang, not all of it was satisfactorily defined, even through context.

Kylin and Jessa are very much thrown together in a stressful situation. Kylin is a very relatable, easygoing person (even if she is the embodiment of the "prize fighter indebted to a fight-club owner" trope), while Jessa is an incredibly clingy, jealous, and needy character. Both are very much a product of their upbringing and parental role models. As a result of all of these details, much of their relationship simply feels like it is built on Jessa's refusal to be left behind, which wasn't what I would have expected from a character who is apparently otherwise a fiercely independent individual. In terms of supporting characters, some are better developed than others, but I did not find them to be terribly complex. That is, they do clearly all have backstories, but the reader isn't made fully aware of specifics.

All this being said, if Willows decided to turn this standalone into a series, I would certainly read the next installment.

Full disclosure: I received a free advance review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a decent sci-fi action with great world building and a whole lot of angst. The set up is this: Jessa Arabelle is a captain on an interplanetary cruiser that gets shot down when they get hit by a stray meteorite and her and her crew crash land on the lawless planet of Indemnion. While recovering they are rescued by Kylin Enderson, a mysterious scrounger. The two clash over cultures and attitude but have to come together when they find out that scroungers aren't the only people interested in the debris from Jessa's ship.

Brey Willows is really good at setting up her worlds in a short period of time and Indemnion is no different. Because we see the world from both Kylin's and Jessa's perspective, we get some depth to a world that could just feel like a Tatooine ripoff. But it's not, especially when Kylin shows off some of the differing peoples populating the world, and how they are affected by a slaving band that seems to have grown even bolder than before. You see some of that right at the beginning, but the people Kylin's perspective also shows that people are just trying to get by on the dangerous planet.

I love Jessa's and Kylin's relationship, mostly because they worked past the stereotypes that hang over them to see the actual person behind it. Kylin is a little on the angsty side, but she's a sweet person who is just trying to do right by her family. Jessa is well out of her comfort zone and hates that she feels so helpless without all of the rules that governed her life til she crashed on the planet. If there's any complaint - I do have to say that it's hard to tell whether Jessa's rigidity comes from her culture, her personality, or both. I would have loved to explore that aspect of Jessa's personality a little more. It also leans a little too heavily on the class differences between the two, and it made Jessa out to be a "noblewoman out of her element, being saved by the scrappy commoner". Which she was to a degree, but she literally survived a devastating crash that killed part of her crew - I'd say she's more overwhelmed than anything.

There's some great action scenes and a lot of wonderful quieter ones. The romance is hot and tense - especially since both women were finding excuses just not to feel for the other. If you are looking for a well developed relationship and world, you're in for a treat. Willows usually does more fantasy based stuff, so it was nice to see her work in sci-fi. Recommended.

Great book. My LGBT students love Brey Willows books. Her storyline and characters ignited a creative discussion among the group. I usually read the books first to ensure they meet the groups guidelines. Then the parents purchase the ebooks. We meet every other week to discuss specific books in group forum. This book discussion had all students engaged for the full time together. That's a first. :-)

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read anything by Williams before, but picked this up based on reviews, and am glad I did. This a great story, set on an interesting world (seriously, the world building was amazing). I loved both main characters, and several of the secondary characters were also great (Asol was awesome).

Ok, so, the main premise is that Jessa is the captain of a travelling ship that is damaged in an asteroid storm. She and her crew are thrown off course in their escape pod and end up on Indemnion, which is a planet not known for being hospitable. Kylin is a scrounger on the planet who saves Jessa and her crew and then sets out with Jessa to retrieve parts of the ship and see if there were any other survivors. This causes them to go all over the planet and meet a variety of people (loved the different groups they met, they were all fascinating). Along the way the two develop feelings for each other and also form a family unit of sorts with Asol.

There’s some bad guys (sorta but not really) and other plots thrown in, so there’s a lot going on, and it kept me interested all the way through, although I saw the ending coming from at least the halfway point and did think everything was wrapped up a bit too nicely. The epilogue was a bit weirdly written, I get that Williams wanted to provide a recap but there’s no way Jessa would not have already known that information, it could have been presented to the reader in a different way, like Jessa telling her mother that stuff instead, but those are small quibbles.

Overall, this is an interesting story with strong leads and a sweet romance. There’s not enough lesfic sci-fi, so this is a welcome addition. Four stars.

Well this book was bloody amazing. As I'm coming to expect from Brey Willows, totally unique and fantastic world-building; strong, resilient women finding their way; good side characters; and romance to boot.

Jessa is a space captain whose ship crashes on the planet Indemnion. She and her cremated are saved from a dastardly fate by the diamond-in-the-rough scrounger, Kylin.

Jessa is very emotionally detatched, from a planet that sees emotion as weakness. Kylin is awesomely strong and very sweet, a conscripted cage fighter to pay off debts she's incurred to help her sick father. Can two such different people find love together? I was certainly rooting for them the whole way!!

**I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Wow. I had to take a day, step back and let the meaning of this book sink in before I wrote a review. I am a die-hard Trekker since ST:TNG aired and I absolutely loved this book. It took me to another world and turned me upside down before letting me out at the end, somewhat wiser and definitely richer.

We follow the twin stories of Jessa, a luxury space-cruiser captain born into power and privilege as she crash lands on super hot and sexy butch scavenger Kylin’s planet with no way off. Against her better instincts, Kylin helps Jessa find her way back to civilization. Along the way, they encounter both the best and the worst of people, discover themselves and each other and have some smoking hot Sexytimes in the process.

The story is written in third-person with the POV switching in alternate chapters. This works well in this story because the two MCs are so intrinsically different that I never mistake whose head I’m in at the moment. The MCs both have a lot of baggage which they respectfully don’t pry out of the other, so we as readers have the advantage of knowing both Jessa and Kylin better than they know each other.

The setting and worldbuilding just took my breath away. I was fully immersed into this world from the start. The locations and people who populate this amazing planet are so vivid and real, I felt like I was there, and to be honest, a part of me is still there. Kylin’s home world is not safe or clinical, it is visceral and real, ugly and violent and true. I’ve seen SF tropes where a planet consists of a single race, one culture, one language, but this one is not. If anything, the setting is so real that the romance and characters have no choice but to take a backseat to it.

I felt this was mostly Jessa‘s story arc. Of course Kylin also learned and changed, but Jessa went from detached supervisor who never bothered to learn anything about her diverse crew, to a woman who was open to diversity and curious about everyone, also open to not only lust, sexiness and love, but also true friendship.

This story doesn’t come without some dark moments. Both Kylin and a secondary character who serves as a stand-in bratty little sister have traumatic pasts. They wear the physical and mental scars, and the violence of their pasts is never “cured” or handily waved away.

Ultimately this is a read that will suck you in, chew you up and spit you out whole and leave you grateful for the experience. The worldbuilding is excellent and the plot is fresh and fun, filled with intrigue, action and angst.

The story ends perfectly with a very satisfying finish that I was hoping for and that I was so happy to read.


TW: slavery, including non-explicit sexual slavery of women, one instance of dub-con.

My rating: 4.75 stars


I received this ARC via NetGalley and the publisher is return for an honest review.

Brey Willows' latest outing, "Changing Course," was her first attempt at telling a story in the sci-fi (space) genre. First off, I was intrigued by the title itself because I had an inkling that it may be a thematic and symbolic term to use for various characters and/or objects/places featured in the story. Let's just say that by the end of the book, I was not wrong!

In essence, it was about conditioning. Are we capable of changing course amidst all obstacles and impossibilities presented to us? Social norms vs "there is no fate but what we make." Yup, if you think the quote is familiar, it IS. It's a famous one from one of the classic sci-fi/post-apocalyptic films (for me, at least!), "Terminator: Judgement Day." Reading about Willows' carefully crafted characters from various different socio-economic, cultural backgrounds, main or secondary characters, alike, I immediately thought of the quote because what is social norm, really, but a form of conditioning that the society/TPTB puts on us within the matrix? Does it mean we're fated to live in this realm of predetermined set of rules? Is there no way out? Do we call it fate? Can we change it? And then there was fear of the unknown. Fear is also another form of conditioning...if you think about it. It's a powerful controlling tool to prevent one from deviating from the "norm." Obviously, fear can be defeated but it takes a lot of confidence, strength, and determination to overcome it. Hence, if you look at the world we live in today, there's so much fear and not enough strength, determination and confidence around to neutralise it. So, are we motivated by predestined fate and/or conditioning when it comes to what lies ahead in our future? Or are we inevitably attuned to changes, be it experienced/observed directly or indirectly?

Anyway, this story, on the surface, had the  rich girl/poor girl trope; poor girl rescued/saved rich girl, fell in love, angst, happy ending. But delved into it deeper, you'd find that Willows wanted to highlight not just the fact that Jessa was a rich girl whereas Kylin was a poor girl, but the impact and implications of their class differences in the contexts of social, economic, culture, race, geography and geopolitics.  How they interacted with each other and with different groups, their attitudes, were also subversively underscored as part of conditioning. Survival of the fittest aka social Darwinism - natural phenomenon? The development and changes observed from these characters and their circumstances, relationships, throughout the story were fascinating to see the social metamorphosis from social Darwinism (even neo-Darwinism for that matter) to more of a Weberian selection in the end.

*Disclaimer: Pardon my bollocks about these philosophical observations. Everything stated here is based on my own interpretation. Perhaps nobody reads it that way. Just me. 

Jessa, the Captain of her ship, who came from wealth, from a culture/race that didn't encourage too much human emotions. She was stoic, naive, been living in a bubble, sheltered. Whereas Kylin, on the other hand, was the polar opposite of Jessa in terms of her economic and social background, being a scrounger, essentially a scavenger, it was obvious that she came from a desolate place where people struggled to survive. So, the dichotomy established between Jessa who grew up with literally everything she'd ever wanted, wealth and security, and Kylin who grew up in the world of bleakness, having had absolutely nothing except hardship and loss all her life, surviving only by the wits about her. So when these two met and clashed because of class differences, misconceptions, prejudice, and conditioning, it was a thrill for me to explore how these two could reconcile their differences, as their relationship from saviour/saved grew at each stage of their development to eventually friends and possibly something more. Or, was it too high a price for either one of them to change course in their lives? That's where Willows' weaving of the social conditioning, fate, fear into the situations and different people these two would encounter throughout their adventures, worked to effect. And then there was the subject of love. Could love be the answer to all differences? Could love be their truth and reconciliation? Well, read and find out!

Maybe I'm the oddball here but I was more intrigued and thrilled to explore the stories of the secondary characters, namely Asol, the former slave turned dock worker turned Kylin's confidant who later became someone with status, stature and a bright future. I loved her spunky attitude, not to mention, her charming, witty, tomboyish persona! I enjoyed her chemistry with Kylin which I thought Willows developed ever-so effortlessly because I caught that natural, organic kinship between these two women from the start. The other two secondaries whom I thought was intriguing to learn more about were Liselle and Sherta, the couple whom Kylin and Jessa met in their travels, who turned out to become part of their "family unit" in the end. How Willow introduced them and expanded a little bit of their back story really piqued my interest. It'd be interesting to see if she'd consider giving them their own little spin-off in the future... I think for their characters, the romance would be more viscerally affecting and engaging. Well, that's based on my own interpretation, obvs!

Yet another intriguing world-building from Willows, I must say, which is one of her innate skills. If you read any of her books, you'll agree. I enjoyed every place that Willows introduced without it being described too much because imo, none of the situations really call for it, so the macro-description was ideal. For me, as someone who prefers to imagine the possibilities based on my own interpretation, I was gratified that Willows' descriptions left open a lot of possibilities for me to fill in my mind. Although, I did appreciate the visually descriptive fight scene between Kylin and her lethal opponent toward the end and also the mythical place called Volare, which I was intrigued by from the start. I love places, people, systems, or beliefs that may be real or just a myth because then its all up to interpretation and what you believe in, innit?

As for the romance angle, don't get me wrong, I do love me some romance in any lesfic genre but in this story, I was so engrossed in the adventures, but in particular, the exploration of the refreshingly described locales with richly diverse socio-economic, cultural, racial identities and how they merged/mixed together or set themselves apart that really tickled my philosophical intrigue in those contexts, that I thought the romance between Kylin and Jenna "got in the way" a little bit for me. I thought there was a bit too much crying going on especially with Jenna because I thought her race/culture didn't harness a lot of emotions so I was a bit put off when she kept crying at every turn. Also, I kept thinking, she was the bloody captain, ffs! Why did she have to cry at every turn?! Not to say that people in strong, powerful positions shouldn't shed tears or anything. It's just.... Nevertheless, I was a bit befuddled. Hmm... most prolly it's just me. I couldn't grasp the motivation and I wasn't expecting it. Besides, I was more interested in exploring more of the social interactions amongst different groups of people that these two encountered in their adventures as they navigated their way back to Jenna's world where Kylin could finally deliver her in one piece, safe and sound. Perhaps that's the reason because I wasn't in the "emo-rom" state of mind, so to speak. That said, I think, for those who love romance in any situation would prolly gravitate toward Jenna's changing behaviour in the emotional level when her relationship with Kylin deepened.

But the crux of the story for me is back to the symbolism of the title, "Changing Course." Besides the obvious meaning of it - Jenna's ship crash led her to change course when she had to rely on a scrounger, Kylin, to take her back home through a series of adventures in space - I thought it was more about changing course in the sense of conditioning and moving away from it for several characters as relationships were struck, prejudice, preconceived notions were broken down, new perspectives established, seemingly predestined fate overcome when fear was conquered. Changing course in the context of social philosophy. Jenna, Kylin, Asol, the mythical people of Volare - all had their course set, determined, planned out, but circumstances led them to "change course," for better or worse....well, that's in the eye of the beholder, innit? But, have no fear! Willows doesn't make a habit of writing dark, psychological stories, so... no need to spell it out here where the tide turned by the end of the book, is there?

All in all, I enjoyed exploring Willows' creative mind, this time, via a refreshing sci-fi world-building effort wrapped around a philosophically intriguing story. I always love Willows writing. Regardless of the genres or nature of the stories, her brilliant writing, visual storytelling style are always retained with the same quality and fervour. I love that she's always interested in delving into social philosophies in different social, economical, cultural and spiritual settings and conditioning as they pertain to human behaviour. You can detect that in all of her stories....well, at least for me, anyway, which is why I'm always intrigued by how she incorporates different themes into her stories.

Yes, I'd recommend this book to all fans of sci-fi and romance. I thought Willows crafted a well-written, slow-burn love story between two women from different worlds and class (even though that wasn't the focus of my interest in this story). It sure was a thrill to explore Jenna and Kylin's adventures in space getting entangled with different groups of people in different socio-economic, cultural worlds, the contemplatively subversive social commentary, and the captivating characters Willows seems to be able to juggle effectively in whatever story she tells.

**I was given, with much thanks and appreciation, an ARC of this book, by BSB, in return for an honest review.