NO RULES – Jenna McCormick
Illustra Series
Kensington Aphrodisia
978-0-7582-8757-1
September 2013
Erotic Futuristic Romance

Planets of Pental and Daton Five – The Future

Alison Cartwright is hiding on Pental, back to doing the work she started years ago but grew out of, being a pleasure companion.  Back when she lived in New-New York City on Earth she had a carefully sculpted body and considered herself a high maintenance demigoddess; now she has grown out highlights and a tennis ball butt.  She has been hiding out in Pental for about a month; how will she ever get off this awful planet and back to a life more in keeping with her history?  Alison has gone back to being a pleasure companion, or whore, in a Pental brothel after getting in trouble with her company, Illustra, and has an assassin following her.  She used to be in management after working herself up from pleasure companion, and now she's in worse shape than when she began.

As Alison is working in the casino, she is given to a man at a gaming table called Mig Larshe.  She is excited to think that it's the man who looks like a predator, but unfortunately it's the man sitting next to him, a fat green midget with deep green bushy hair and sharp teeth.  She soon learns he loves using those sharp teeth to bite his women, and she can tell before the night it over she'll look like a chew toy.  After a game of chance, Alison is given to Fenton, and they quickly go to his military compound for the night.  During their sexual encounter, Alison finds a secret Fenton has gone to great lengths to hide, he can replicate himself.  Yes friends, he becomes two Fentons, and has even pleasured himself.  Well!  Fenton knows he is in trouble when Alison finds out about him, and to prevent her from talking he books them passage on a space ship.  He seems to have plenty of credits and is paying for everything, so Alison is happy to be getting farther away from the Assassin sent from Illustra…until he finds them on board.  Fortunately their suite on the space ship can break off into its own space ship, and they escape while the Assassin is locked in a room and take off, only to be captured by another ship and taken to another planet, Daton Five.

Fenton's niece, Ari, had been in stasis asleep in a pod, and Alison is surprised when she also joins them on this new planet where women are the Patrollers and in charge of the planet, and the men are Breeders, they are subservient and take care of the children.  Here they are met with more trouble, and unknown to them, the Assassin has not given up and is hot on their trail.

Told from Alison's and Fenton's points of view, NO RULES introduces us to Alison, from Earth, and Fenton, from Hosta.  Alison has spent most of her life pleasuring men, and is now trying to find someone rich to save her from the Assassin.  Fenton was a military man and his father, Xander, tortured and killed many people before dying.  His sisters are dead, and his infant niece, Ari, is the only person left he cares about.  Alison and Fenton are both strong, but their lack of trust continues to plague them as they run for their lives.

Among the secondary characters is the Assassin, looking for Alison across the planets with grim determination.  The most impressive person is Gwella, Empress of Daton Five, and her daughter Dani.  And we can't forget Ari, Fenton's infant niece, and the one connection he has left with a family that's all dead.

NO RULES continues the series about Illustra, and presents us with different worlds both similar to and unlike ours.  But its evil and pre-formed ideas about people seem to be universal.  Alison and Fenton go through a lot of trouble, tension, and misunderstandings before they can come to trust each other and accept their differences.  If futuristic, erotic romances interest you, this story will certainly intrigue you.

Cece Johns