Starlight's Shadow

Honor and Shadows is a 10,000-word prequel novelette set just before the start of Hunt the Stars. Captain Octavia Zarola needs an infusion of credits-fast-if she's going to keep her close-knit bounty hunting crew paid and fed. Tracking down an escaped embezzler on a backwater planet should be a piece of cake, but bounties are rarely as easy as they seem. As the crew closes in on their quarry, the hunt becomes entangled with a local criminal overlord, and Tavi will have to decide what's more important: money or honor, and how much she's willing to risk for either one.

The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes readers on an exciting journey with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy. "Jessie Mihalik is an author to watch." - Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together-even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can't refuse-no matter how much she'd like to. With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons-for both anger and desire-she's endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he's promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal. But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife's edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie-with the quiet Valoff who's been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she's put her heart on the line.

Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with an exciting new novel about a rainbow-haired female bounty hunter tasked with preventing an interstellar war. Kee Ildez has been many things: hacker, soldier, bounty hunter. She never expected to be a hero, but when a shadowy group of traitors starts trying to goad the galaxy’s two superpowers into instigating an interstellar war, Kee throws herself into the search to find out who is responsible—and stop them. Digging up hidden information is her job, so hunting traitors should be a piece of cake, but the primary suspect spent years in the military, and someone powerful is still covering his tracks. Disrupting their plans will require the help of her entire team, including Varro Runkow, a Valovian weapons expert who makes her pulse race. Quiet, grumpy, and incredibly handsome, Varro watches her with hot eyes but ignores all of her flirting, so Kee silently vows to keep her feelings strictly platonic. But that vow will be put to the test when she and Varro are forced to leave the safety of their ship and venture into enemy territory alone. Cut off from the rest of their team, they must figure out how to work together—and fast—because a single misstep will cost thousands of lives.

Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with the thrilling conclusion to her “Starlight's Shadow” trilogy. An intergalactic thief must join forces with the charming teleporter who stole her last job-and may now be her only hope for saving her former crew. As a recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen's jobs typically require more trickery and thievery than honest work. Her former captain might not approve of her flexible morals, but stealing artifacts for rich assholes pays the bills, and Lexi's had enough of war and death. The FHP left her to die once; she doesn't plan to give them a chance to finish the job. Unfortunately, her latest contract takes her to Valovia itself, and right back into the orbit of Nilo Shoren, a Valovian teleporter who already cost her one payday and nearly stole her heart. Armored against his clever charm, Lexi plans to get in, get the job done, and get out. But when her former crew goes missing in Valovian space, Lexi will have to work with Nilo to figure out what happened, and stop it, before the galaxy's two superpowers can use the disappearance as an excuse to return to war.