Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsOK Sci-Fi Alien Romance
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022
This is an OK sci-fi alien romance, but I did have a few issues with it. It gets 3 stars from me.
This series should definitely be read in order, beginning with Alien Commander's Mate, as each book builds on the overarching plot. It might be difficult to understand, and would certainly not be as enjoyable, if the books were read out of order.
The basic plot of the series is that Rose and her friends agreed to have sex with alien Xilan men, because they wanted children (and most human men were infertile). The Xilan men went into heat every 3 years (called slaking), during which time they needed to have a lot of sex, and it was the only time they were fertile. Their agreement was to spend a week with a Xilan man, to satisfy his need for slaking and to get the woman pregnant.
I thought this book was too short to have as much character development as I like. I would have liked a little more backstory on both Krek and Rose.
Rose was likable enough, but I thought her calm acceptance of being attacked by giant spider-like aliens was a bit unbelievable. I get that she had no choice but to deal with it, but most women would have been so panicked that they wouldn't have been able to run or fight very well. I did like that she found ways to help Krek fight, even though she had no weapons or battle training.
Krek was likable, and it was sad that he blamed himself for the death of his family. I liked that he recognized that Rose was his fated mate immediately, but didn't try to push her into a lifetime mating. I also liked that Rose helped him see that his family's death was not his fault.
I thought the part of them being "knotted" together after sex, but still running from their attackers, was a little weird. I get that a Xilan man would stay turned on as long as he was "slaking", but I found it hard to believe that a human woman would find it sexy to be knotted together with a man while they were running for their lives.
I didn't really believe that Krek and Rose were in love, especially at first. They were definitely in lust, though.
My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.
