I am a constant ball of rage. I’m not afraid for my life in the pandemic, I’m afraid for everybody’s life. I am enraged by the constant flow of lies, gaslighting, misinformation and toxicity coming out of the current administration. I am terrified for the future of the country I live in and the world as a whole. Every time I read about what the current administration and it’s supporters are doing I see spots and start to feel the top of my head lift off. I am determined that they will not kill me either through failing to take effective measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, or by causing me to stroke out at their cruel incompetence.
To relieve the stress of the rage, I have been rereading some favorites. I didn’t intend to review any of my rereads, but as I reread this last book in Kit Rocha’s Beyond series I realized I had focused so much on the revolution I had not paid much attention to the romance. In rereading I found all these lovely relationship and character moments between Nessa and Ryder that made my heart go squish. I need heart squishing so much right now.
This is the last book in the series, so it is not where you start. There are no major spoilers in this review other than Sector 4 is the headquarters of the revolution, but since the series is about Sector 4, that’s not really a surprise.
Nessa is the O’Kane princess. She creates and distills the liquors that give Dallas the resources to be the king of Sector 4 and to build an alliance of opposition to Eden’s oppression. Ryder had been trained to gain enough power in the Sectors to lead the revolution against Eden. Plans are nice, but as things have unfolded, Dallas O’Kane is the person that people look to for leadership, not Ryder. It’s an interesting exploration of authentic leadership. Nessa and Ryder don’t have a lot of time before things go to hell, but they do that thing I love in romances, they see beyond the masks we wear and accept each other as they are. What I missed the first time, as I focused on rushing to the end, was the sweetness and the quiet between them. In several of the other books, the couples, thruples, and quadruples, have had some noisy break ups and dramatic reunions, which were a joy to read. Nessa and Ryder steal time, get together quietly, and savor their moments of sweetness.
There are many reasons Kit Rocha’s erotic, post apocalyptic, bisexual bootlegging love army is such a great reread for me right now. The author duo that makes up Kit Rocha is also angry about the rise of fundamental christianity and unchecked capitalism that treats humans like a disposable commodity. They are sex positive and working on their intersectional feminism. Most of their main characters are not wealthy and the ones that are use their resources to build community and structures envisioning a hopeful ever after. Their characters are complex even as they create a defeatable bad guy. Finally, you can’t socially distance in an orgy.