One thing I can count on in every Jess K Hardy novel I’ve ever read is that I am going to be taken on the BEST sort of emotional rollercoaster. Her latest, ELANIE AND THE EMPATH, is no exception.

Elanie is a bionic, made of flesh and bone and metal and circuitry. Originally created to work long hours and endless days with emotionless intelligence, things go haywire when she gets a hormonal upgrade to her system. Like a teenager, everything becomes dramatically and uncontrollably emotional. Trying to navigate her first attempt at a sexual relationship—to a useless dumbass of a bionic boyfriend named Blake—Elanie decides to seek help from Dr. Semson (Sem), the ship's doctor, a handsome empath from a blue-skinned species known as the Portisans.

Unable to read emotions from bionics, Sem is initially unsure he can effectively help Elanie with her, ahem… issues. Her blunt questions about sex and his overwhelming attraction to her test the limits of their doctor patient encounters but he manages to keep it professional. It takes a late-night encounter with an out-of-control Elanie and an unplanned ride in an escape pod to a faraway planet for Sem’s resolve to cave. In an actual cave, it just so happens. Have these two found a paradise where a bionic and an empath can live in peace, or will they find there is more going on than they first realize?

On finishing Elanie and Sem’s story (which had me choked up at the end—boy can Jess K Hardy write a tearjerker of an HEA), I’m left wondering why there aren’t more sci-fi romances out right now. With topical themes such as capitalism, dehumanization, worker’s rights, and AI running throughout, it seems like the perfect time for this story and others like it. It had me hooked from the start and I can't wait for the next book in the Space Cruise Romance series.

Thank you Victory Editing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Elanie & The Empath follows Elanie, a bionic - half humanoid and half machine. After installing a puberty upgrade, she is suddenly overwhelmed with new emotions and body changes she doesn't understand and seeks the help of Dr Semson, the ship's physician. Sem is an empath, a useful trait in aiding his patients, but he can't read bionics - Elanie might be the first patient he doesn't know how to help.

I'm a sucker for a romance in space and this story achieves that brilliantly. The worldbuilding is straightforward yet vivid, I could easily picture the world around them. The story felt very unique to me with Elanie being a bionic being, yet she was so relatable. I loved how direct she was which was a great balance to Sem's initial awkwardness.

"Holding Sem tightly in my lap, I realized that for the first time since I'd been commissioned, the first time in my living memory, I had absolutely no idea what would happen next."

Elanie's journey is written extremely well, this is a great example of how to handle inexperienced characters. Elanie never comes across as naive or exploited, Sem shows the perfect amount of patience and understanding to help Elanie blossom into her own person and learn what pleasure means. Together they have a wonderful journey.

"I would stay with her. We were bonded now, on this frozen tundra. We were ice melting and reforming. We were snowflakes swirling through the air, our crystalline branches reaching out for one another, spanning space and time until we finally made contact."

This story really encapsulates romantic sci-fi but it's so much more than that. There's humour, tension and at the very heart of the story, it's all about choosing to be who we are, not what we're expected to be.

Elanie & The Empath is the second book in the Space Cruise Romance series. I hadn't read the first book, Sunastara & The Venusian (and I will be immediately rectifying that!) but felt this worked great as a standalone.

This might be the most perfect sci-fi book I’ve read in a very long time. Swoony, funny, wacky, tense, sexy, romantic. It was such a well-plotted book, I was so intrigued to see where the story was going. It seems like it will follow a familiar path, but the places it goes are quite surprising. The last half of the book really ratcheted up the suspense, and I finished it in one day. The ending made me squee with joy. Highly recommend this fantastic ride, wish I could give it 6 stars.

Jess loves to make me cry, and I say thank you every time.

Sometimes when it comes to interconnected standalones that feature new MCs in every book, I have a hard time connecting, especially if I connected with a specific MC in particular. However, Jess has this amazing way of writing her books that makes me feel connected to every character. There has yet to be a time when I saw one of her books and thought, "Nah, that character didn't really do it for me." I loved Elanie in SATV, and getting to know her in-depth through EATE was so rewarding. She was complex, she was relatable, and I firmly believe that she asked all the questions that so many women and girls are afraid to ask out loud but absolutely have had. And Sem was an absolute delight to read as well.

This story was gripping, romantic, exciting, and even more than I'd hoped it would be. Easy 5 stars and endless recommendations from me on this one. A+, Jess!

Elainie is a bionic, which means that she is part AI and part organic. After receiving a hormone upgrade, she begins to feel desire, so she goes to Dr. Semson, the doctor for the wild cruise on which Elainie must perform indentured servitude, to have her questions answered. Sem develops a fierce desire for Elainie that he must hide. Over the course of the book, the two embark on a wild adventure, which involves interplanetary travel, intense survival scenes, and the overthrow of a dystopian regime.


Although the last sentence of that summary makes it seem that this book will be intensely serious, this book actually offers the readers a romping and often whimsical experience. If you love Star Trek episodes with eccentric characters and wild scenarios, you will adore this book. The chemistry builds strategically, and although the hero and heroine are markedly different, their longing for each other is engaging and sweet.


Even though this book is definitely fun, it also provides sharp and relevant insights into labor and AI. In an age when people are exploited and AI looms as a threat, this text allows the reader to contemplate both topics while still also enjoying an enchanting romance. Not an easy feat!


I admire Hardy’s remarkable ability to craft captivating plots in wildly different genres, and I would recommend this to any sci fi fan. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity!