Even in sci-fi….one night stands lead to ooops we work together. In this case a few months after an amazing ONS, Sunastara - who is your “Love Boat Cruise Director” in space learns her new coworker is none other than the man she can’t forget.

Corporate Holiday Shenanigans
ONS
Co Workers
Love Boat in Space
Grief - check cw
Cinnamon Roll hero
Found family
Intrigue

This was a really fun, lovely story. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It touched on how we can see ourselves broken or unworthy of love, forever changed by tragedy. But also how it feels to find the one person who just fits - body and soul. And how you can help heal each other.
Jess K. Hardy writes characters that are so relatable. I love seeing characters that are a little older, in their 40's and beyond. I will read anything she writes!

3.8 ⭐

This was by no means perfect, but I loved it so much!! 💖
The story is intriguing, the romance is both really hot and really sweet and deep.
The secondary characters are really interesting from the robot to the giant aliens I've loved them all.
<b>
: ̗̀➛Spaceship romance 🚀
: ̗̀➛grumpy x sunshine ☯️
: ̗̀➛adult content 🔥
: ̗̀➛sarcasm 🥸
: ̗̀➛mourning 😢
: ̗̀➛aliens 👽
: ̗̀➛she likes to play cupid 💘
: ̗̀➛he's a walking green flag 🟢</b>

My only problem with this book is the slight confusion (especially during the first half of the book) at the mention of every tech name, alien race etc. I would suggest a page with a summary of those looking forward to the second instalment of this adventurous story!

The author achieved a perfect balance between adventure, plot, love story, back story, and side characters in less than 300 pages.
She managed to go deep with heavy topics (deaths in the MCs backstories) but also made me laugh out oud.

Now I can't wait to know what happens next... especially to our beautiful AI robot/assistant with her latest upgrade...that's going to be a lot of fun!

Ⓟⓡⓔ—Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ

So excited about this book, it has The 100 vibes but add aliens and smut.

Ch2. They meet on alien Tinder
Ch3. They're about to do very dirty business....

I'm very intrigued 😏

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for allowing me to read this arc. All opinions are/will be my own.

I absolutely loved "Sunastara & the Venusian"! From the glamorous setting of a luxury space cruise to the heartfelt romance, this book hooked me from start to finish. Sunastara (Sunny) is such a relatable and well-rounded character—strong yet vulnerable—and her chemistry with the mysterious Venusian love interest was electric.

The world-building was incredible, with vivid details that made me feel like I was right there, sipping alien cocktails and watching cosmic sunsets. The story perfectly balances humour, adventure, and emotional depth. Beyond the romance, I loved how Sunny’s journey of self-discovery added a deeper layer to the story.

Jess K. Hardy’s writing is fresh, witty, and so engaging. The pacing kept me turning pages, and the romance was everything I could’ve hoped for. If you enjoy sci-fi with a heartfelt romance, this book is a must-read. Five stars, no question!

There's a current trend of nostalgic, beloved children's/pre-teen shows having a comeback, and if not a comeback- a podcast. This is exactly what I would have wanted from a Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century reboot. It's the adult Lizzie McGuire show that Disney wouldn't cosign because it had adult themes and *gasp*, SEX. This was so much fun, and I gobbled it up. There's neuro-com systems and alien tinder yet office politics. This scratched that itch (cat pun intended).

I absolutely adored this space romance by Jess K Hardy! I have loved everything I've read of hers so far and this did not disappoint!

This book contains:
👽 Space-themed romance, how quirky, cool and interesting! The world was super believable and felt myself fully immersed from the start!
💖 Likeable MC! Sunny was confident, fiery and had some serious shit she was dealing with but she 100% felt like the badass BF everyone needs.
🔥 Hot love interest! Totally crushed on Freddie. He was hot and such a decent guy! It's so refreshing to have hot guys who are not even a little bit problematic in romance!!
🗺️ External plot keeping you on your toes! Loved all the suspense and supporting characters!
🌶️ Nice spice!
❤️ Seriously falling hard!!
💧 Deep issues presented with care and love

If you're looking for something a little bit different to add to your book pile and you love space and aliens, you can't go past this!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing a DRC of this title for review.

Fun! Very here for more sci-fi romances. My first Jess K Hardy, but it definitely won’t be my last. 4/5 stars.

5 ⭐ 3 🌶️

I love Jess' stories so much and Sunastara was no different. This was hilarious, spicy and emotional and just so dang good. I loved that they were older MCs, and I loved the overall storyline; we get a little mystery, action and betrayal along with our laughs.

The way Sunny and Freddie started had me so giddy, I just loved Phoebe and Joshua and their instant chemistry. The spice was absolutely perfect, sweet but hot and the pod malfunction had me rolling.

I adored the side characters too. I'm so excited that Jess isn't done with the Space Love Boats and that we'll be getting Elanie's story. I'm really hoping we get Tig's and Chan's and everyone else's too.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc.

This is giving love boat in space. I felt like I was transported to a different realm while reading this- it was such a fun twist on your typical romance story.

Where can I get a Freddie?! He was the perfect male love interest.

This was a very fun sci-fi romance! The characters were very likable and so quirky in an endearing way. I loved that this had an action/adventure aspect as well. For how quick of a read this was, Jess Hardy really delivered on providing a funny, flirty, exciting story that also navigated trauma and grief very well.

Space romance combining sci-fi? Sign me in?The story was sexy with a lot of humor, heartbreak and really well written characters.

It's not really a review because I didn't finish. It turned out to be very different from what I expected. It's set in the space, right? I didn't feel so. What did they do? I didn't know. All I knew was the female protagonist gets up in a disorientated state (why?), and then she meets with very handsome Joshua, and they make out right after the meeting. I am not a fan of this kind of romance. Moreover, I couldn't connect with the characters or the writing style. 

It wasn't for me. Thank you for the copy. Sorry, it didn't work for me. Not posting the review anywhere else.

Snarky romance aboard the ultimate pleasure cruise as a casual hookup turns the world upside down as she runs and he chases and they each meet their past that won't let go head on. All while trying for business as usual, playing matchmaker, and thwarting the bad guys, when they find out who they are. Sci fi fun and adventure, a romp worth jumping in to.

Terrific story and romance! I was hooked from the beginning! Sci-fi space romance, with humor, danger, and spice! Great balance of spice with plot, and also a great balance of light-heartedness and seriousness. I think fans of Ruby Dixon would definitely love this book

This was so much more than “The Love Boat” in space (although that is a great catchy descriptor for the story). We find Sunny as a hospitality specialist on the Ignisar, sent off ship to a company "retreat." Where she manages to find a Tinder-style one-night stand that is the stuff dreams are made of. What Sunny does not expect is to later find Freddie again, as the new cultural person assigned to the Ignisar. Not wanting to mix business and pleasure, they settle into a friendship with each other amid the watchful eyes of the rest of the crew. A friendship with simmering tension and a lot of emotional baggage that eventually comes to a boil.

This story has the humor, the heart, and the absolutely bonkers ship passengers like Garran that make it incredibly fun to read, and incredibly easy to fall in love with not only Sunny and Freddie, but everyone around them. The hijinks are worth a read alone. But the real heart of everything is Sunny and Freddie. Their connection, and the unspoken secrets that threaten to keep them apart (there are some emotional histories for both of them). And also some political-style thriller moments that one would not normally expect from a pleasure cruise spaceship wandering between the planets.

I loved that the leads were older, that they had a push and pull that kept things moving and respected each other's boundaries (even when it was hard). And that even the miscommunications and omissions made sense in context. Jess Hardy writes "mature" romances so well (The Bluebird Basin series is a favorite), and it extends into space romance perfectly. I found myself blinking back tears one moment, and laughing out loud the next as I read this one. I hope we can come back and revisit the Ignisar again (there are a lot of stories left to tell with this ship and crew).

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When I first started reading this book, I thought to myself “this is BONKERS!” but in, like, a great way that kept me reading any chance I had. I very quickly acclimated to the genre-bending rom/com/adventure/space of Jess K Hardy’s new universe. So glad this will be a series!

Admittedly space romance is wayyyyy outside of my reading comfort zone, but I really like Jess K Hardy's novels so I thought I'd give it a shot. And while it wasn't my favorite, I still enjoyed the challenge that it provided. The 'world' Sunny and Freddie inhabited required me tapping into my imagination but the romance they had didn't and I think that's why I could read past the things that didn't always click in my brain. The thing I've really enjoyed about Hardy's characters is that they tend to be older, more experienced characters and she continued with that in this novel too.

Truth be told, this won't be everyone's jam, but I think many will really enjoy it; so if you're like me and you normally don't read space romance, maybe give it a shot and see what you think.

We love to see more scifi romance! When Sunny's one night stand shows up as her new crewmember, she has to confront personal hurts as well as navigating her much more complicated workplace. Think the Love Boat in space.

I'm sure fans of Jessie Mihalik and Ruby Dixon would enjoy this cute space love story.

Sunny has basically sworn off letting herself get close to anyone, but then along comes the one night stand she can’t forget. The two end up working together on the same ship and exploring whether they might be able to let each other in as they work closely to prevent disaster both on their ship and across the Known Universe.

This spicy sci-fi romance that doubles as a workplace romance was a fun read. It had spice but also a decent plot. The world they’re in isn’t explained very much, but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyability or understanding of the plot.

Thanks to the Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This cute and sweet. I liked that it took place in space on board basically a pleasure cruise. It was different and the story was heartfelt and cute. I would recommend this to others wanting to read something quick and sweet.

**4 Stars – A Fun and Steamy Space Romance!**

*Sunastara & the Venusian* by Jess K. Hardy is an exciting blend of humor, heat, and suspense set aboard an interstellar pleasure cruise. The chemistry between Sunastara, a no-nonsense hospitality specialist, and Freddie, her unforgettable one-night stand turned crew member, sizzles from start to finish. With witty writing, a thrilling plot, and a dash of danger, this romance kept me hooked. While the romance is the heart of the story, the high-stakes adventure adds just the right amount of excitement. If you love steamy, character-driven space adventures, this is a must-read!