Heart Scarab by Anna Butler

Title: Heart Scarab

Author: Anna Butler

Series: part two of "Taking Shield", follows Gyrfalcon

Pages: 387

Summary: In Heart Scarab, set more than a year and a half after Gyrfalcon, Shield Captain Bennet's company is on a planet in imminent danger of being overrun by the Maess. Telnos is an unpleasant little planet, inhabited by religious fanatics in the festering marshlands and unregistered miners running illegal solactinium mines up in the hills. But the Maess want Telnos, and Shield Captain Bennet's job is to get out as many civilians as he can. The enemy arrives before the evacuation is complete. Caught in a vicious fire fight, Bennet is left behind, presumed dead.

His family is grieving. Joss, his long-term partner, grieves with them; lost, unhappy, remorseful. First Lieutenant Flynn has no official 'rights' here. He isn't family. He isn't partner or lover.

All he is, is broken.

My thoughts:

+squee+ While not as awesome as the first part - I still enjoyed it a lot.

I really like the parts of the plot that have been about Bennet on Telnos and Flynn's POV to Bennet being "dead". The part on Telnos has been awesome. Bennet being rescued by Ifan, their bantering, the horses (<3), the rescue, omg, the rescue! +loves+

I could have done without Joss's POV and especially later on without Bennet still trying to save (?) the relationship with Joss. I really didn't like Joss from the beginning on and everything in this book just confirmed it. Joss turned out to be a huge emotional abuser in my opinion and I'm glad that Bennet got finally out of that relationship.

The six weeks of Bennet and Flynn have been short (for them and for the reader) and bittersweet. +hugs them both+

Overall the plot didn't really move on regarding the war with the Maess. We get some hints of the political situation that might change within Albion/humankind and that's it. On one hand, it's nice to get all this background on Bennet and his family, but on the other hand a bit more on the overall would have been also great.

Bonus points:

The rescue scene. So often I get cheated of rescue scenes/friends seeing each other after being presumed dead in books/shows/movies. Not here! I love that so much.

Bennet being shown in pain and having to recover for days/weeks/months and being miserable and in pain and grumpy.

Even though, I could have done without it - the breakup process. It has shown that breaking up with someone is not easy. And some other stuff I'm not articulated enough to express properly.

So, +makes grabby hands for the next parts+