Lieutenant Kris Longknife finds herself assigned to small, experimental ships designed to protect individual planets and made of the semi-smart metal that was used in an assassination attempt against her. The ships have all sorts of problems from equipment failures to the sheer impossibility of small ships taking on battlecruisers.

Before the problems can be solved, but with some hope in sight, Kris is pulled from the ship and arrested for dereliction of duty. This is a put-up case because her father's enemies have found a way to get him out of power and are using Kris's earlier mission as a way to keep him out.

While awaiting her court martial, her Great-grandfather King Ray sends her on a diplomatic mission to sit with one of his old comrades who is dying and, incidentally, convince her planet to join the United Sentients. She has a fight on her hands when off planet agitators attempt their own takeover of the planet.

Then, when returned home to Wardhaven, Kris learns that the planet's defense fleet have been sent to another potential member planet of the United Sentients just when a battle fleet of unknown origin comes to Wardhaven.

With the new government burying its head in the sand, it is up to Kris and quite a few co-conspirators to get her twelve ships functional and find a way to defeat the invading armada. Luckily, she isn't alone. Her Grandpa Al opens his space repair facilities to her, and she gets help from his crew along with private yacht captains, space tugs, the Army, the Navy, and even the local flying clubs. It is up to twenty-three-year-old Princess Kristine Longknife to meld all these elements together into a cohesive fighting force if she wants her planet to survive.

I enjoyed the planning, conniving, space battles, and soul-searching even while hating the losses of friends that were the inevitable result of the battle. ( )

Two stories in one - two complete arcs. First she goes off to a world settled by Pacific Islanders, and does her best _not_ to get involved in politics - more or less succeeds as far as pure politics are concerned, though when violence happens she's right in there. And encounters her first Santiago, and turns her from near-enemy to near-ally. Then she comes home to political disaster - her father is ousted, and the temporary government that's set up is not at all prepared when suddenly there are very large, very powerful, very silent ships bearing down on Wardhaven. Kris and her allies gin up a desperate plan - and she finds more allies than she expected. The battle is ugly, and the biggest one she's been involved in yet - and the butcher's bill is high. And we-the-readers know more about the origins of the ships (as we get several scenes from within them) than Wardhaven knows when it's all over. ( )

I enjoyed this book the most of the series so far.

2 different storylines that are almost 2 separate sub-plots. One about bringing political unity to some Hawaiin like world and the second about Princess Kristine saving her world from the Peterwalds.

I did not see the death of Tom coming at all. But since he'd gotten married, he was no longer a potential love interest to Kris, and hence his literary value went down to zero.

The battle at the end was pretty good. I'd like to see the Peterwalds get a direct bloody nose instead of the indirects that have been happening. Oh well, I'm sure it is coming. ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and a lil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )

Review 28 November 2015: whew, i had to reread the entire series (because i had forgotten just about everything) before i could read this one and the following ones.

heh heh reading them all again i notice that Kris is always getting into messes and never seems to have any down time...which i find kinda unrealistic that she and her crew would still function as well as they do with so few breaks from combat/assassination attempts.

also just noticed that abby was black. why i never pictured her as black before but now that she is it makes me mad. esp when he is so obvious when he puts other non white USA cultures in the book. like he really tries to include them and respect their cultures and only show the positive sides, yet he still does stereotypes. some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative but stereotypes all the same. apparently we don't mix that much even with over 600 planets. (yeah, um ok. i can sorta see that since humans do tend to gather in groups were we all look the same and kinda act the same and like the same stuff.)

the stereotypes i noticed are the black gals are the ones from the bad part of town and speak the most slang, the muslims that help her out are taxi drivers and restaurant owners, the russias /germanic folks(greenfields)are prejudice and act like nazis or communists. so far he hasn't done the negative stereotypes with the oriental, native american, or the hispanic folks...at least not yet. or i didn't catch it since i am not that familiar with their cultures.

and reading them all in a row you can see the formula... it's a formula i like but his books are becoming a tad predictable. basically whenever Kris has some down time and things are a lil peaceful in about a minuter shit is gonna hit the fan. it will be a David vs Goliath space battle or it will be a hidden political/corporate agenda guerrilla warfare type fight. Kris will have to make really tough decisions that will get her in hot water and folks killed but is the right thing to do. civilians and close friends from her crew will die and get injured but Kris will defeat the evildoers and reveal the evil politicians/corporations. there will be lots of planning sessions. there will be lots of smart alckey remarks. nelly will do some magic. kris will be blamed for something or another. kris will have girly moments where she flirts with guys, dreams about jck, and wishes she was curvier.

seriously it's a formula but i like this formula. so i am still reading and looking forward to more. although the formula has caused me to look ahead in the books. he does have a few surprises. like some surprising deaths and some surprising tech and some surprising alien stuff. bad ass females in scifi military with humor and a lil but of romance. a formula i love. ( )