Into the Divide

Title:  Into the Divide  (The Divide Universe: Book 1)

Author:  Sandra Bard

Publisher:  Less Than Three Press

Length:  112 pages

Rating:  B+

Quad Shot of Love

 

Blurb:  Nullands: Sections of a series of planets sealed off by an energy barrier, called the Divide, filled with danger, where technology does not work. 

Tarn is part of the Death Squad, a criminal given a second chance by agreeing to risk his life over and over again in the Nullands. His latest mission is the kind he usually avoids: babysit an inexperienced lab tech while they hunt down the dangerous creature that escaped a research lab. 

Calvin is the lab tech given the unenviable task of hunting down the creature that escaped his lab, after it killed his friend and five others. An assignment he mostly landed for refusing to sleep with his boss, he knows damn good and well he’s being sent to die. What he doesn’t expect is Tarn, or how far he’s willing to go to survive.

 

Review:  I love this book. I read it a while back and meant to write up the review and then it kept getting pushed and so I read it again to refresh my memory. And loved it just as much. 

An impossible mission sets them on a perilous journey full of strange and dangerous creatures and some deadly human predators. The men who return have changed for the better and are very much in love. 

The characters are so distinct and such fun. I want to know more about Izaak. There is an interesting story with some of the side characters. I adore the main characters of Tarn and Calvin. Such a perfectly odd match. Tarn is so tiny in stature yet so immense in presence and fighting skill. Calvin who at first is so meek and green, proves himself to be clever, loyal, kind and resourceful. 

As their journey progresses they get to know each other and discover some things about themselves that even they weren’t aware of. Tarn has a gentleness and compassion that was buried deep. Calvin has courage and strength that he’d never accessed before. 

I loved the flexibility of their dynamic as well as the refusal to conform to expectations. Tarn is a foot shorter, but the more dominant and the protective fighter. Calvin is younger and vulnerable, but intelligent and educated. And in the romantic side of their relationship they are both the eager lover with no need to make demands or fill roles. Love! 

There is so much I loved about this story. I’m going to stop now before I spoil it. I’ll just add that you should go buy this now so you can enjoy it for yourself. Let me know what you think. 

Reviewed by Nina