The rule of luck /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The first in a steamy science fiction adventure series featuring a Brazilian tarot card reader and a Russian crime lord.

Year 2950. Humanity has survived devastating climate shifts and four world wars, coming out stronger and smarter than ever. Advanced technology is available to all, and enhancements to appearance, intelligence, and physical ability are commonplace.

In this future, Felicia Sevigny has built her fame reading the futures of others.

Alexei Petriv, the most dangerous man in the TriSystem, will trust only Felicia to read his cards. But the future she sees is darker than either of them could ever have imagined. A future that pits them against an all-knowing government, almost superhuman criminals, and something from Felicia's past that she could never have predicted, but that could be the key to saving -- or destroying -- them all.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Being lucky means never having to say you're sorry in this sexy science fiction romance debut. Nairobi resident Felicia Sevigny lives on a near-future Earth where melted ice caps have led to flooded coasts and the centers of power are now located in Kenya and Brazil. She tells fortunes with a tarot deck inherited (over family objections) from her Romani great-grandmother. While trying to maneuver around being blocked by the world government from getting approval for pregnancy, she is swept up by Alexei Petriv, the wildly attractive heir apparent to the exiled Russian mafia, and tossed into a power struggle over human progress. Jetting around the world, Felicia confronts her hereditary ability to foretell danger, which stems from a gene that her missing mother researched and that Alexei wants to control. There's a strong whiff of dominance and submission in Felicia's relationships, accompanied by vivid romance; Felicia and Alexei are clearly consumed by both emotional and physical passion. Cerveny includes a variety of typical futuristic elements, such as remote-control bodies, life extension, space elevators, clones, teleportation, and flying cars, that will entirely satisfy fans of pulpy SF. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* In the year 2950, dark days of floods, war, famine, and devastation are over, but the world has been reshaped forever. Terraforming on Venus and Mars, tech implants allowing for seamless access to the Internet-like CN-net, genetic modification to enhance beauty, government-sponsored anti-aging treatments, and strictly regulated population control are the new normal under the world's new government, One Gov. Felicia Sevigny grows up blindly believing her life is her own until she discovers, for reasons unknown to her, she has been blacklisted from having a baby. Felicia has made a name for herself as a skilled fortune-teller, and her life changes the day Alexei Petriv, a high-ranking member of the Tsarist Consortium, a shadow organization set to take One Gov down, walks into her shop and demands a reading. In return for a promise to remove her blacklisted status, Felicia agrees to help Alexei in his quest to take power from One Gov. Their attraction is immediate, but Alexei's plan is dangerous and unpredictable, and someone from Felicia's past threatens their plans, and their lives. Cerveny's first novel in a planned trilogy mingles romance and science fiction think Nora Roberts meets Neal Stephenson and is certain to satisfy audiences of both genres.--Spanner, Alison Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

In the year 2950, Romani tarot card reader Felicia Sevigny discovers she's at the heart of a sinister plot to manipulate human genetics in Cerveny's debut.Hundreds of years in the future, mankind has survived floods, multiple world wars, and "Dark Times" to integrate computers into human bodies, sustain colonies on both Mars and Venus, and invent "Renew treatments," which dramatically slow aging. Felicia has a comfortable life reading tarot cards and is considering having a baby with her boyfriend, Roy. But for some reason, Shared Hope, the government program controlling reproduction, has blacklisted her from having a child, so she enlists the help of the mysterious Mr. Pennyworth to help her cheat the system. Just when it looks like Felicia has bitten off more than she can chew, Russian mob boss Alexei Petriv saves her and requests her tarot reading skills. But Felicia suspects there is more to Alexei than meets the eye (though what meets the eye is more than pleasing), and she soon learns that the same can be said of her own life. Cerveny's world is noteworthy for its realistic balance. Her future, where everyone has access to age-halting technology but political turmoil still abounds, feels both familiar and intriguing. The romance is key to the plot, but it's leaned on too heavily. The narrative justifies the intense heat between Alexei and Felicia, but even if you take the misogynistic elements out of a Christian Grey-type fellow, slathering on the smolder doesn't make up for a missing personality in your plucky heroine's love interest. A well-crafted world with a promising heroine, but hopefully the sequels will spend less time describing the love interest's blue eyes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Catherine Cerveny was born in Peterborough, Ontario. She'd always planned to move away to the big city but the small town life got its hooks in her and that's where she still resides today. Catherine is a huge fan of romance and science fiction and wishes the two genres would cross paths more often.