Tag Archives: Alien Romance

Book Review: Dark Planet Warriors, by Anna Carven

I picked up a copy of Anna Carven‘s Dark Planet Warriors as an Amazon freebie last year.

Abbey

Some scary looking aliens have just boarded Fortuna Tau, our little asteroid mining station. Kordolians, by the looks of things. What the hell do they want with this floating rust bucket? What are they even doing here?

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a Kordolian up close before. They’re huge and intimidating, with strange silver skin and pointed ears. They have freaky nano-armor, and they’re packing a serious arsenal. We stand no chance against them.

When I encounter their General, I find him insufferable. Arrogant. Domineering. He won’t tell me anything. I guess that’s what happens when your race is kicking ass across the Nine Galaxies. You get pigheaded.

So why do I keep running into him? Why does he keep looking at me like that? And what’s with this weird feeling I get when he’s around?

Tarak

Sucked into a wormhole during a fierce skirmish with an enemy ship. Spat out near a human mining station in a remote corner of the Nine Galaxies. Stuck with weak humans who operate with inferior metals and technology.

This mission couldn’t get any worse.

We need to fix our craft, kill the cursed Xargek, and get out of here before the wormhole collapses. I don’t really care about these humans. Their existence makes no sense to me.

So why has this strange human female captured my attention? She’s messy, awkward, and she babbles nonsense half the time. These humans are crazy. I don’t understand them at all, especially this female. Why do I keep coming back to her?

I need to leave this place before I go insane.

This started out well, but I’m afraid it wasn’t able to maintain momentum. My overall impression is ‘bland.’ Nothing about this—the characters, the plot, the world, the romance, the writing—stands out as interesting in any fashion. It’s not horrible, true, but I was bored, and the author just didn’t bring what could have been an interesting story to fruition.

Honestly, I can’t even tell you what the series’ true overarching plot is. Sure, we’ve got a little Mars-Needs-Women going on in there, a little Evil Empire, and a little super soldier on the side. But what is the series really about? No idea, even having finished the 1st book.

Lastly, there’s just a little residual ick here. We have the main military general of a galactic colonizing force as the male romantic lead. Take this out of space and place it in a more familiar setting, and one begins to see some truly horrifying parallels of who is being propped up as a worthy romantic hero.

Mostly, I was just bored, though.

Other Reviews:

Series Review (Dark Planet Warriors by Anna Carven)

Book Review: Spared by the Monster, by Merry Ravenell

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I picked up an Amazon freebie copy of Merry Ravenell‘s Spared by the Monster.

Welcome to the Gestalt, where Humans are forbidden and mates are sacred.

Hauling scrap to feed his family and pay for his sick brother’s plague treatments, The Twilight Scion of a Lost House finds himself in possession of a Human that somehow managed to escape the Grays.

Humans, and Earth, are strictly Off-Limits, and being caught with Chess–no matter the circumstances or reasons–will be the final destruction of his House and family. But he also can’t shove her out an airlock or abandon her at a shipyard. She’s an innocent victim, and the Grays will be looking for her. Her fate in the hands of the Gestalt authorities will be just as bad.

She’s delicate, soft, and luscious. Clearly, he’s been alone for too long if he’s attracted to a Human. And this particular Human is already spoken for, with a mate of her own waiting for her back on Earth. But Chess shines as bright as a star, and resisting her pull is nearly impossible.

There’s only one way to buy the time to keep her safe until he can figure out how to get rid of her. He’ll have to spend his family’s meager savings on the trinket that will awaken his awareness of his true mate, and present her as that mate. She’s brave enough to go along with the plan, and kinder to him than he deserves.

His brothers will be furious, the Gestalt will mock him, and she’ll need to be gone before his true mate arrives.

The little Human’s secrets are astonishing, and her courage undeniable, and when the moment comes, the Twilight Scion isn’t sure he will be able to give her up… even if it’s impossible that she stay with him.

This surprised me. I went in expecting nothing more than some smutty fluff. And it is fluffy smut. But it is also not as etched out and hollow as a lot of such stories are. Maybe because it’s significantly longer and thus has more time to develop.

I liked the characters a lot. The heroine is sassy (though her reaction—or lack of reaction—stretches the bounds of credulity), and the hero is just too honorable for his own good. I adored him. The side character brothers are cute, too. In fact, I would have jumped right into book two if it had been about the second brother, as I expected (it isn’t).

I did think the book was a little overly long, owing to some repetition and the misunderstanding trope dragging out a little longer than believable. But all in all, I enjoyed this a lot.

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@thegremlinlibrarian Replying to @madsong96 think any other hot dragon aliens are single? #BookTok #Bookish #TheGremlinLibrarian #BookWorm #BookGremlin #HappyFunTime #HappyFunTimeToy #MonsterHappyFunTime #MonsterFudger #MonsterRomance #SparedByTheMonster #MerryRavenell ♬ original sound – Vyc ???? (They/Them)

Book Review: Noxx, by Tasha Black

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I picked up a copy of Tasha Black‘s Noxx as an Amazon freebie.

The Alien Adoption Agency is going to make all of Luna’s dreams come true.

At least, that’s what Luna believes when she boards a rickety space craft headed for a frontier moon to meet the child she will raise in exchange for 100 acres of land and a modest stipend. But she doesn’t count on the dangerous animals, the short but lonely nights, or the big blue warrior who informs her he is on permanent security duty for the baby.

Noxx is a proud dragon warrior of the Invicta, dedicated to use his strength, strategy and endurance to protect his homeland. When his commander assigns him guard duty for a baby, he resents the interruption of his career. It’s bad enough that he’s starting to bond with the little whelp, but the instant he sees the child’s adoptive mother, he knows she is his fated mate. Noxx will have to deny his desperate craving for the dark-haired beauty if he wants to hold on to his chance at redemption.

When a last-minute trek through the forest of Clotho gets them entangled in a dangerous battle, Luna will have to learn to trust the hunky blue warrior. But can the dragon let go of his duty long enough to let himself love someone, and be loved in return?

I liked this in the least invested way possible, which is all it really allowed for. Sure, it filled a couple of hours with entertainment. But there is far too little to it to be anything significant.

Look, I am wholly on board with fated mates and insta-lust that grows into love. But this book tried to convince me that two people from completely different cultures (let alone species) fell into true abiding love in less than three days. To say the plot is rushed is an enormous understatement. It’s such a shame, too, because the plot has so much potential to develop in interesting ways. But Black didn’t choose to pursue any of them.

For the record, it’s not overly steamy. So, it’s not erotica where sex is the point. The book is intended to have a plot, and it does. But it is so rushed that one feels as if they are reading an outline rather than a fully fleshed-out book.

Having said all of that. I liked the characters. It is a sweet read, and, as I said, it passed a few pleasant enough hours.

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Sci-fi, fantasy, UF/PNR & LGBT+

Tag Archives: Alien Romance

Book Review: Dark Planet Warriors, by Anna Carven

Book Review: Spared by the Monster, by Merry Ravenell

Book Review: Noxx, by Tasha Black