Nightfall

Cy'ren Rising #1

by Robyn Bachar

Her heart says “never”. Her body says “now”.

When a wounded runner stumbles into her workshop, sculptor Talena Spenser’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered. Aiding the escaped slave risks losing more than just her freedom. She is in phase, when Cy’ren females are overwhelmed by the drive to mate.

Mordacki Loren, shadow sword of House Nightfall, knows the pain of losing a mate. He never intended to take another. But Talena, raised by humans with little knowledge of Cy’ren ways, leaves him no choice. As the mating lust consumes them, Dack promises to honor her wishes—even if that means letting her go.

Scarred and hardened by a munitions accident that sent her Alliance career up in flames, Carmen Hawke joined the Cy’ren resistance as captain of the flagship Talon. When old flame Dack returns from a mission with Carmen’s childhood friend and first love, Talena, in tow, the temptation to allow someone—or two someones—close to her again cracks her emotional armor.

Pursued by an unknown enemy, the trio works together to discover the secrets of Talena’s past, and to uncover a threat that could destroy the fragile peace of the Cy’ren homeworld.

If the epic space battles, gunfights and swordplay aren’t enough to get you going, strap yourself in for a male-female-female threesome that’s scorching enough to fire your engines into overdrive.

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Menage, Aliens, Erotica, M F Romance, Paranormal Romance

227 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2012

About the author

Robyn Bachar writes romance with swords, sorcery and spaceships. Bachar's novels feature action and adventure, danger and suspense, found families and happily ever afters. Her books have finaled twice in the PRISM Contest for Published Authors, twice in the Passionate Plume Contest, and twice in the EPIC eBook Awards.

Reviews

[Coco.V]

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[Rhode PVD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our heroine comes from a deeply sexist world where all the leaders are male and many have multiple female mates. But it gets much worse.

When females go into season, they exude a pheromone that pretty much makes all men urgently want to have sex with them, consensually or not. And the females are in such a state of desire that they basically can’t help but enjoy the sex in the moment, even if they loathe the male in question.

Plus, for some reason, no one has made clothing or perfumes or any devices that allow females to cover up these pheromones, so it’s unsafe to go out in public while one is in heat. Nevertheless our heroine who is a plucky femme who loves pretty things and pouts when denied her own gun on a shore expedition, goes out.

There are endless, skippable sex scenes, that add nothing to the story or character growth, but serve as an excuse for everyone to declare love. Which I hate in general, you need more reasons than your crotch.

In one of the sex scenes, our heroine’s lovers who are aware they’re being watched via hidden cameras don’t tell her that. So she’s getting all naked etc basically in public without realizing it. The author covers this betrayal of trust with the excuse that the character was so horny she probably wouldn’t have minded it if someone had told her. Which, nope. That’s a yuck.

So, lots of barely consensual sex, crotch-led love and a bare bones action/adventure story to tie it together.

I felt uneasy the entire time I was reading, well, only skimming after awhile. It’s odd because the author wrote another book that was a hugely feminist vampire story featuring lots of discussion about consent. So, I don’t know where this came from, but it’s icky.

[Meka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing sci-fi Romance adventure

I am still relatively new to the idea of science fiction romance. I have to tell you, this was an excellent addition to my education.

Three people on a journey. Three people trying to deal with the resistance and freeing slaves. Three people, each of whom have a heart break in their past.

One of my absolute favorite parts of this book is bat we were able to see female/female relationships play out on the page. The third in the Triad is a man, and there was none of the annoying things that tend to happen where the man is only allowed to touch the women, but the women are never allowed to touch each other. How refreshing!

There was so much adventure, it was very fast-Paste, and made me very curious of what is to come.

I hope that more people will read and appreciate an excellent start to this series!

[Rachel-RN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talena is a freed Cy'ren who runs her own shop on a tourist (space) ship. Enter Mordackai (or Dack) who is also a Cy'ren and is injured and running from trouble. Talena helps him and Dack, thinking she is a slave, rescues her and takes her to his ship. It turns out Dack is part of the resistance to freed the Cy'ren from slavery. Add in Talena and Carmen's history and this was interesting.
This would have been a 4* read for me (except for 1 thing that just pissed me off and I HATED). Talena, Dack, and Carmen are likable and I like what they are trying to do. I liked the writing and the plot (well most of it). I thought the love triangle was done very well (this is a F-F-M menage BTW).
This is what ruined this book for me: All Cy'ren woman go through a "phase." The best way to describe it is like a female cat in heat. They want to have sex with anyone and everyone, no matter if it's someone they hate (or like). And the men are turned into sex crazed monsters by the scent. "Most males would take a female in a phase without hesitation...." This is rape. Plain and simple.
It's sad because this didn't add anything and it took away from what was a good book. This would have been such a better book without it IMO. I thought the character development was there and the sex scenes would have been glorious for that reason (and that reason alone- without the "phase" bullshit).
Oh and this: The cover is totally wrong. The Cy'ren are purple.

[Vanessa theJeepDiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like my sci fi reads in the form of space opera. I absolutely love the fights, rebellions, political coups, outer space adventures, with a heavy side melodrama. Robyn Bachar delivers that with her Cy'ren Rising trilogy. She has also wrapped this tale around an extremely hot erotic romance! Erotic sci fi romance, yes indeed this is a great read. I am also very happy to say I cannot wait to get the next book into my grabby little hands.

The crew of the Talon is part of the Cy’ren Resistance. They are working to free all of the off world Cy’ren slaves. Dack is injured while stealing some much needed data from the slavers they are trying to bring down. He encounters a female he believes is one of the many Cy’ren slaves. Dack does the only honorable thing, he rescues the freed Cy’ren that is Talena.

Talena hides in her shop away from all males. She is fighting the phase (mating heat) the last thing she needs is the problems that a male of her kind can bring. She was raised among humans and the she knows of Cy’ren males tell her to keep her distance. The handsome Cy’ren male that is bleeding on the floor of her shop is trouble to the nth degree. She knows that helping the wounded runner in her shop is illegal.

Talena soon finds herself in the midst of a battle between resistance fighters and slavers. A decision to help someone leads her on an adventure that reunites her with her childhood friend Carmen, gives her a mate in Dack, and she soon starts uncovering secrets that she never knew could have possibly affected her life the way they have. Carmen is given the opportunity to have back the two best things she ever had in her life.

I recommend Nightfall to anyone who loves some erotic sci fi or one who thinks they may want to try reading girl on girl sex. Dack the one male in this ménage made the two females together work for me. He has history with one and is currently going through a mating with the other. There is definitely more male and female sex. The two females having a history and bringing their love for each other into the relationship with the male allowed for this female same sex reader virgin to dip her toes into that relationship. The fact that all three characters are so easily likeable made this new experience all that much more enjoyable for me.

[Felicia (Ferishia) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just incase you didn't pay attention to the descriptions or the tags, be aware that this is a M/F/F menage.

Dack is a runner and a shadow swordsman on a mission to help free the enslaved race of Cy'ren people. He stumbles into Tali's souvenir shop on a cruise-like space ship. He's wounded and begs Tali to help him. Tali knows that Dack is a runner and she could get into trouble with the law for helping him, but she decides she can help him get to safety and not be detected. That changes after they both become trapped in cross-fire. Dack, thinking Tali is an enslaved Cy'ren, drags her to his small ship to escape. There he finds out that Tali is in 'phase' which is kind of like being in heat. Tali was avoiding all Cy'ren males for this reason, but is unable to resist the urges since Dack is so close. Once back on the main ship they meet with Captain Carmen Hawke. Tali and Carmen were very close and intimate with each other growing up so it is a shock for Carmen to recognize Tali. Needless to say both Dack and Carmen are attracted to Tali. Tali is still 'in phase' so both Dack and Carmen 'help' Tali through it. In addition to the threesome smexytimes, someone has discovered that Tali is alive and wants her dead so it's up to both Dack and Carmen to protect her.

This was my first M/F/F read. I have read M/M/F and of course lots of M/M but no M/F/F until this book. I must say it was indeed interesting. The dynamics of the relationship of the three were interesting. They all had doubts of what the other was feeling and if the relationship would work. The fact that there were two women in the smexytime scenes was not off putting to me. The smexytimes were pretty hot and the threesome made it more interesting.

[BJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fate offers 2 lovers to reconnect and mate with a sweet young woman. Science fantasy, genetic cleansing, bio-weapons wrapped in an adventure mystery, loads of action, and interesting characters. The H is alpha to the sweet girl, and beta to their lover, who's the ship captain.Great adventure, loved the characters and their intrigue.

[Tai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this freebie. It had a decent plot, good characters, and kept my attention all the way through. I admit, I did constantly get the feeling that the story could use a little "more" of something to truly make it great, but I can't quite put my finger on what. It definitely could have used a bit more details in some areas to really allow the reader to get emotionally invested in the characters, and the plot is left somewhat hanging at the end. Also, its not as steamy as it could have been. I felt that things fell a little too neatly into place, and some of the action scenes had me thinking I was reading Trek fanfiction at times. Still, I can't wait to read the next part to the series to delve into some of the things that were only hinted at in this book.

But overall, not bad at all.

[Heidi J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

NIGHTFALL is most definitely first and foremost an erotic sci-fi romance (wow!). It's also an incredibly well-balanced book with an intriguing universe, appealing characters, and a strong plot that keeps you turning pages. There's an origin mystery, and a secretive master plot leading into the sequel. What made the deepest impression on me, though, was the author's vision of a successful romantic trio. I've always sort of imagined these devolving into jealousies, but there's a generosity here that convinced me maybe it is possible after all.

[Sarah Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this world and enjoyed the world she built. Main female, Talena, is a bit passive but the secondary characters and the other leads made the story for me.

[J.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent piece of S-F erotica/romance. Bachar plunges you right into the action of the story as the main character, Talena, has her life completely upended in a matter of minutes by Dack, an undercover freedom fighter (I do not feel this is a spoiler as this information is revealed fairly early on in the narrative). Talena, a member of an alien race called the Cy'ren, is deep in the throes of her Phase--a variety of estrus female Cy'ren experience that serves the dual purpose of providing early conflict in the story and providing Bachar with a neat narrative device to get to the "good stuff" early on. The best part of this is that female Cy'ren remain in Phase until they mate enough times to satisfy their biological drives--and Talena has not seen another Cy'ren for a long, long time. The chaos that ensues as Dack takes her to the ship where he serves--and which houses a few other male Cy'ren--is by turns engrossing, dangerous, sexy, and thoroughly satisfying on many levels.

What makes this book a standout is that Bachar does not content herself with a mere sexual potboiler here. There's some good meat on the bones of this story. Besides the abovementioned biological imperative to mate that drives the--well, the drives of the various characters-- there is also an unexpected and compelling love triangle, a great deal of political intrigue that wouldn't be out of place in a Frank Herbert novel, and some very well-described-and-paced action to keep it all moving. And of course, there's the sex. Bachar doesn't oversaturate the novel with it, but there is no mistaking what you're reading for anything other than erotica when things start to heat up between the characters. And Bachar makes sure to keep the heat on once she applies it: the sex scenes are very smartly written, and very vivid as well. As a testament to her skill I will say that I was standing up on a train while reading some of the early chapters, and I, uh, had to stop reading and play a game on my phone for a bit. So, there's that.

None of this would be worth a damn to me if the characters didn't make the book worthwhile . . . and here Bachar shines. From Talena to Dack to Dack's captain, Carmen, to the dangerous rogue Cy'ren Jace, the characters are crisply defined and well-thought-out. They have believable motives and conflicts with each other, and interact with one another in a believable fashion. Jace and Dack especially have some wonderfully funny moments together, and later on Jace actually threatens to steal the book from the two leads.

I don't normally go in for romance or erotica, but I will occasionally broaden my interests for the sake of a good read, and I'm pleased to say that I got just what I was looking for with Robyn Bachar's book. It's a definite winner.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the opening pages Nightfall promises to be one rollicking and action packed ride full of political intrigue. What I didn't expect was how steamy it was as well. All these factors combined to make for a memorable and entertaining read that is the first in Ms. Bachar's new series.

Tali grew up as a slave never knowing her true origins until the day she's saved and adopted. She lives a quiet life until a wounded stranger enters her art gallery. Tali is a strong-willed woman who's not afraid to embrace her girly side. She easily fights beside the man sworn to protect her as it becomes apparent that her life is in jeopardy when her existence brings long buried secrets to life. Dack is that wounded stranger who through a twist of genetic fate ends up mated to Tali. Their connection is instantaneous and Dack treats her in a way she's unaccustomed to. He's honorable and gives her a choice when her hormones won't. I found him immensely likable and the perfect mate. Carmen is the third member of this loving triad and is far from girly. With her battle scars and commanding nature she brings an unexpected strength to this triad which is needed when Tali's life is on the line. The relationship between these three is very sexy and equalizing when they're alone. They each bring something to the triad that makes this relationship believable.

There are a few secondary characters that leave a lasting impression. First and foremost is Jace, the arrogant soldier who enjoys political intrigue. Even as he's trying to steal Tali away from Dack there's something appealing about him that has me excited to learn more about him in the future. The secrets that come out at the end of the story promise all sorts of problems for those on the side of right and I'm very intrigued by the implications.

Nightfall is a super sexy read with lots of action and suspense and delivers much to fans of romance and sci-fi. It's an exciting start to this intergalactic series and I'm greatly anticipating the next installment.

[Niina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story in Nightfall was great, I loved the idea of a slave race rebelling, especially when the slave race includes some stunningly hot purple/lavender specimens of humanoids with good looks, rippling abs and wide shoulders! Who wouldn't root for them? Bachar does make the Cy'ren very interesting, even though very human like except for skin color and some special skills, and gives them enough background for multiple books! I loved the Cy'ren Phase and the fact that there were Cy'rens after her for more than Phase reasons - made for interesting reading.

I haven't yet read any ménages with male/female/female relationship going on, but it worked for me in Nightfall. Talena and Carmen had been in love for years even though they hadn't met in several years, Dack was a new acquaintance that had had dalliances with Carmen before and was more than willing to accept Carmen to his and Talina's mating. The relationship with Dack and Talina was just lust in the beginning which was softened by the love and friendship between her and Carmen. In all not a bad trio!

What stood out for me the most about the characters in Nightfall was the male Cy'ren, they had the vengeance and their good looks going for them - of the whole book they were what intrigued me the most, Jace included though he was quite the bad boy of all alien bad boys. ;)

If you are into erotic ménage sci-fi romance then this is for you!

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[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talena Spenser is a Cy’ren, and she has her own sculpting business on a cruise ship. Unfortunately there’s a hiccup in her comfortable life. She has come into phase, the time when Cy’ren females are driven to mate.

Dack Loren crashes into Talena’s life and store, with armed men on his tail. When Talena helps him, he escapes his pursuers and takes her off the cruise ship with him, convinced she’s a slave and he’s doing the right thing freeing her. This one act starts something far bigger into motion, one that will put Talena, Mordacki and the crew of the Talon in great danger.

Nightfall is a space opera, and the first in a series. It’s a threesome story featuring two women and one man.

Things I liked about this book:

1. There was lots of fast-paced action with gunfights and ships firing at each other, and of course, the good guys managed to win in the end.

2. The reader is introduced to the Cy’ren race and the politics of the world gradually in small bites. I enjoyed the world-building aspect.

3. The relationship between Talena, Dack and Carmen is hot.

4. The main characters of Talena, Dack and Carmen are well-rounded and possess believable conflicts.

Things I didn’t like about this book:

I couldn’t think of anything to add to this category.

Nightfall is a hot, spicy read featuring a threesome, plenty of intrigue and cool fights. If you enjoy a little adventure and action in your romance, this is the one for you.

[Secretly Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

NIGHTFALL is an erotic romance which will satisfy some readers but didn't quite have enough plot or world building for my taste.

This is a very erotic novel as the two women and Dack all have high sex drives. In menage novels it is unusual that the combo is two women and one man so that's added spice. However, the sex is omnipresent. Talena and Carmen were first loves so they don't have to get to know each other emotionally before sexing it up again. And Carmen and Dack were former lovers and now work together so they don't have to get to know each other either. So the romance relies on bringing the three together sexually instead of emotionally and frankly, that kinda bored me after the first hundred pages. Still, its eroticism will likely win this novel some fans.

[Issa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi but I thoroughly enjoyed this. My first f/f/m and I might have to scope out more. I liked the characters, found the erotic elements hot, and was drawn to the plot and world building. There were several twists and turns, setting up what looks like a series. Everything worked for me in this, great story.

[ReadKnitHoard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, adventurous and refreshing book. Not to mention, hot. I can't wait for the rest of the trilogy!

[Jill Sorenson]

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