Shesshie was orphaned and separated from her sister when she was a toddler.  But she remembers Marissa and hopes someday she might find out what happened to her.  She has grown up at the same orphanage and is now in charge of the nursery aged children.  But she longs for her own life and adventure and decides she will take the nanny position she sees advertised online.

Mik Armstrong and his band of ‘orphaned’ mercenaries (Zoe, Callus, Dev, Doc and Kev) have decided they have had enough of the blood and gore and are going legitimate.  They have bought out a shipping company and are moving their home base to a new planet. 

Through a number of fortunate events, Mik and the rest of the gang wind up saving Shesshie from a slaver, disguised as a medical supply ship.  She and Tessa, the baby that Mick and the group found after one arduous battle and have since adopted, find they have an immediate link.  When Tessa is kidnapped, they all go back into the mercenary mode to save their ‘little bit’.  Along the way, Mik determines that it isn’t just Tessa he can’t live without.  Will they rescue Tessa before it is too late, and will they all get off the slave planet she is taken to alive?

Wow, wow, wow!  That was my first reaction after finishing Mercenary Heart by Diane Merlin.  I completely fell in love with her ‘family’ of orphaned mercenaries.  I can’t wait until the next book (Mercenary Redemption) in this series to be out in November.  This story was action-packed and fast-paced from the start.  The author does a fantastic job in creating a universe where many different types of people are able to band together to achieve their end goal.  It also teaches that sometimes you can have a stronger family bond with those who are your family by choice.  There are some super sexy scenes and the author also looks at the darker side of BDSM, when the submissive isn’t there by choice, and slavery, but does it in a way that helps to pull different characters in the story together.  I cannot say enough wonderful things about Mercenary Heart which is why this is definitely a Joyfully Recommended read for me.