The plot is interesting enough but good Lord is it slow. The terms are all a little overwhelming and confusing and it took a while for the background to be explained.

Basically, seven colony ships of humans travelled through a blackhole millrage and got stranded wherever they are now because a "Valpori lens" prevented them from going back through it. The humans were lucky enough to find six habitable planets. The story started with a war just having ended between the Palantine and Capitoline.

Liam is the captain of the battlecruiser/crew that captured the Palantine Crown Prince Dominic which essentially ended the war. A peace accord has been agreed upon through the marriage of the crown prince to a Capitoline princess and as a result, the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan was exiled to the border. They meet Nora there who has decided on a solo life as a tagger but turns out has abilities that require her to be careful and stay inconspicuous. Nora gets a sidekick in an alien AI in the form of the android Jonah (very J1N-esque) and by the end of the book she has a 9-year old girl tagalong.

I am curious enough to want to read the next book because I want to find out what's really brewing in the zone in/near the Border Station and how Liam's and Nora's relationship is going to develop (of course, the romance is important). They haven't really spent much time yet but it seems they just can't help thinking and being concerned about each other. Nora saved Liam by destroying a combat android without his knowledge while Liam intercepted a notorious cutter tailing Nora's ship carrying illegal weapons.

I certainly hope the next book has a better pace, clearer explanations on the history of things, and definitely some spice in the romance department.