The Cold Between: A Central Corps Novel by Elizabeth Bonesteel

She's on shore leave with the rest of her crew but she's not having fun.  They're drinking too much and she's heard all their stories.  She'll just sit here at the bar and until she can sneak back to the ship.  She never expected to meet a pirate and spend the night with him...

Harper Voyager and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It is being published today.

She certainly never expected him to be accused of murdering one of the crew, especially since he was with her and couldn't have done it.  She goes back down to give him his alibi and it starts getting complicated.

There are two or three game plans going on here but they are not obvious.  They are out to get her new boyfriend, her old one is dead, and her captain is no longer her friend.  She doesn't know who to trust and has trouble making sense out of their orders.  Soon she's on the run with her friend and more than one group is coming after her.

Being on a space ship for a lengthy period of time causes problems.  There are relationships, casual encounters, grudges held, and it's easy to feel friendship and hatred both.  That's been growing on this ship.  Add to that a conspiracy, greed, a disaster in space from the past, the potential of war between the pirates and the Central Core and a worm hole.  That creates an exciting story with plenty of mystery and a lot of action.  

The best part is when they get sucked in by the worm hole.  They stand together with their arms around each other and face death.  That's bravery and understanding you can't change fate.

I didn't like the ending as much as I wanted to.  I wanted happily ever after.  But you can't change people's core.  Those that travel the planets won't be land bound willingly.  However, friendship can last forever...