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Operation Starward
Lieutenant Cole Mercer has always followed orders, from the Air Force that shaped him to the country that barely acknowledges who he really is. When a mission gone sideways puts him on the radar of Project Starward, a classified black-ops initiative involving non-human technology, Cole is thrust into a world where flying is done not with hands but with thought, memory, and trust.
Paired with a sentient alien ship and its enigmatic guide, Echo, Cole must confront the things he has buried to survive, including his past, his pain, and the version of himself he never let anyone see. The deeper he bonds with the ship, the more he realizes this is not only about flying. It is about becoming.
A queer sci-fi drama steeped in intimacy, mystery, and emotional resonance, Project Starward is a story about connection across stars, between species, and within ourselves.
Disclaimer Operation Starward is a queer slow-burn romance set against a backdrop of high-stakes sci-fi adventure. The heat here comes from charged silences, brush-of-a-hand tension, and the kind of looks that feel like they could tilt entire planets. While physical intimacy is present, it remains closed-door—no explicit on-page sex scenes.
This story is about trust, vulnerability, and connection in impossible circumstances. It follows two guarded souls—one human, one alien—learning to navigate loyalty, identity, and desire in a world where the lines between pilot and ship, soldier and rebel, duty and love blur into something stranger and deeper than gravity.
Paired with a sentient alien ship and its enigmatic guide, Echo, Cole must confront the things he has buried to survive, including his past, his pain, and the version of himself he never let anyone see. The deeper he bonds with the ship, the more he realizes this is not only about flying. It is about becoming.
A queer sci-fi drama steeped in intimacy, mystery, and emotional resonance, Project Starward is a story about connection across stars, between species, and within ourselves.
Disclaimer Operation Starward is a queer slow-burn romance set against a backdrop of high-stakes sci-fi adventure. The heat here comes from charged silences, brush-of-a-hand tension, and the kind of looks that feel like they could tilt entire planets. While physical intimacy is present, it remains closed-door—no explicit on-page sex scenes.
This story is about trust, vulnerability, and connection in impossible circumstances. It follows two guarded souls—one human, one alien—learning to navigate loyalty, identity, and desire in a world where the lines between pilot and ship, soldier and rebel, duty and love blur into something stranger and deeper than gravity.
452 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 10, 2026
You can tell this author is a poet— there’s poetry infused in every line of this book. I wish a heavy handed editor had come in and dashed half the similes in the prose… it would have made the surviving similes so much more impactful. I found myself skipping over huge swaths of prose, desperate to find plot or dialogue.
The book is categorized as a slow burn, but I’d actually say that once the two main characters met, they fell in love fairly quickly. It just took us a whole section of the book for them to meet. I don’t know that I believed that Cole, as buttoned up as he was, would kiss another so quickly. Maybe that was the magic of their relationship and I missed it.
The ending is more bittersweet than HEA.
The book is categorized as a slow burn, but I’d actually say that once the two main characters met, they fell in love fairly quickly. It just took us a whole section of the book for them to meet. I don’t know that I believed that Cole, as buttoned up as he was, would kiss another so quickly. Maybe that was the magic of their relationship and I missed it.
The ending is more bittersweet than HEA.
Displaying 1 of 1 review