#PopsugarReadingChallenge Book 35: Red Darkling

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book with a color in the title
 Red Darkling, by L. A. Guettler

Red Darkling is a rollicking space opera adventure with a colorful, sometimes dark sense of humor. Red (short for Mildred, of all things) is a smuggler, petty thief and general delinquent with a banged-up spaceship. She battles giant bugs, human-eating monsters, and sinister gangsters.

Other characters include Chuck, a bartender who exists in multiple bars simultaneously; Bonk, a glitchy robo-cat; and Woodman, a narcissistic but very hot colleague, with whom Red has an on-and-off relationship.

There's one especially dark point where Red's juvenile-delinquent shenanigans lead to a deadly tragedy - which Red takes surprisingly well.

Red's down-on-her-luck life takes a strange twist years later, when a mysterious benefactor keeps rescuing her - and claims all he wants is her friendship. Who is he really, and what's he after? Red's determined to find out - but first, she needs another drink.

---