Two very different men face unwanted marriages and decide to throw their lots together for a few months in order to be in a better position later. Unexpectedly, attraction and love grow although they know once they return to their responsibilities they cannot be together any longer.
From the Inceptive blurb:
The descendants of the Carolina Sanctuary have established two societies that despise each other. A bridge connects the overcrowded, sophisticated Island Federation to the puritanical farming community of Fort Hope on the mainland. Though Islanders are running out of room for their fertile population, Fort Hope refuses to unlock its guarded rampart and share land with those degenerates.
Will is a privileged Islander, and Zach is a barely literate farmer. They meet in a saloon and, over drinks, discover each is being forced into marriage with a partner they dislike.
Zach has a place to hide, a one-room cabin in a swamp that’s inaccessible to bounty hunters once the rainy season begins. But he lacks funds for food supplies, and the flooding will last six months.
Will has funds but no place to hide on the Island. He’s never experienced a day without tech, food vendors, and indoor plumbing. He doesn’t know what’s waiting ahead in the swamp, but he knows what he’s running from. Will would rather take his chances with Zach than marry the older man selected by his father, the viceroy.
Does Will’s preference for men mean Zach will withdraw the offer? The question amuses Zach. At six-eight and built like a stone rampart, he’ll break stray fingers.
That he’d ever fondle a hairy farmer who avoids bathing amuses Will even more. He signs the indenture that permits him inside Fort Hope.
In six months, Zach will have turned twenty-five, the legal age to claim his land votes and become Fort Hope’s new mayor. He’ll choose a sensible young wife, instead of the older widow blackmailing him into marriage. If elected mayor, Zach promises to lease farmland to the Islanders, providing the viceroy agrees to release Will from his marriage contract and build a surgical clinic for Fort Hope.
Zach and Will are determined to watch each other’s back and give their people a chance to carve a new beginning. So what can go wrong? How about mutant predators, raging floods, an incurable plague… and an unscheduled rut in Will that arouses Zach, whose genetically engineered people are supposed to be immune to same-sex relationships?
Six months? The runaways are in trouble after two.
For readers looking for equal parts of plot and mm romance, Inceptive is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi with adventure, twists, fun times, first times, snark, and steam. There’s also Belle, a talking roadrunner genetically engineered by the ancestors. If the men run out of food, Zach swears he'll pluck and roast that bird.
SNik's review:
Third in series (Ingenious), but can be read as a standalone. Science fiction. Forced proximity. Dual POV.
Running away from unwanted arranged marriages, Will and Zach join forces to wait out their time together in hopes of avoiding their unwanted futures so they can better take care of their people later. Living together and isolated, they find attraction and caring for each other but have to recognize it will come to an end once they return to their obligations.
This story was an intriguing world build with enough information to allow it to be a standalone and so the reader can understand the stakes involved with both Will and Zach’s feelings of responsibility to their people. Will and Zach are opposites in many ways but are able to appreciate their differences and wish for things to be different for them in the future. The period where they are together was uneventful (with some steamy times) and then they were separated for a lot of the concluding parts of the overarching plot. It was fun to see their HEA and readers of the series will enjoy the cameos of previous characters.
Inceptive is currently available as an e-book and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription
Inceptive is currently available as an e-book and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription
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