It's a tale of outer space but not about weird green aliens. My heart ached repeatedly for Gryffin. He is experimented on and treated as non-human (though he is about half). Those who operated on him without thought of the human pain he would feel were monsters! Love the bit of romance

I loved this very much! The characters, the actions and even the plot itself! Very inspiring for my own book too!

Disclaimer: I am appreciative to the publisher, BooksGoSocial, for providing a review copy of this book.

"Ares" is the first book in the Nomad space opera series by K.A. Finn. This books is a successful combination of several literary genre and concepts that results in a nicely readable space opera adventure. The rocky and steamy relationship between between the two main characters, Gryffin and Terra was straight out of a Harlequin romance. Other parts of the book adopt the best of the old west cowboy genre. Gryffin's character develops nicely through the book as we learn more about him, and he opens up. Terra's character is a very believable "girl next door" who happens to be a highly competent officer on a Foundation spaceship. Most of the characters are very understandable, and as the novel progresses, the many long standing relationships that are revealed between seemingly unrelated major characters make for an interesting and complicated situation.
"Ares" had everything one would expect in a space opera: a seemingly good but increasingly ominous "Foundation", Foundation admirals and captains of varying levels of decency and loyalty, rogue outlaw groups that initially seem like dangerous motorcycle gangs, who turn out to be quite moral, "old west" style colonies complete with gun battles, a sadistic mad scientist with a love for inflicting painful surgery, exploding spaceships, portals allowing faster-than-light-travel, and more.

After the first half of the book lays the foundation and firmly introduces the characters and scenario, the last half of the book was an exciting and enjoyable pleasure to read.