1 stars: ⭐

First things first, if I hadn’t read book one, Stolen by an Alien, I’m pretty sure I would’ve been confused as hell about what was going on in this book. It definitely feels like there are missing pages, lacking descriptive details, and context that would have helped explain things more clearly. You can’t fully rely on Callie’s perspective to provide answers, because her narration is a jumbled mess—which is understandable after everything she’s been through—but it doesn’t make it any less confusing.

With Zadeon, you’re also not given much context here about why he’s so fixated on Callie or why he keeps spraying her scent from the bottle all over himself. Since I read the first book, I remembered what happened and understood his behavior, but readers who don’t go through this series in order are going to be very lost. For that reason, I don’t think this book works as a standalone at all.

It doesn’t help that this isn’t an easy read either, and I knew that going in. Callie was repeatedly gang raped, beaten, and bitten for months by snake-like aliens. The book focuses on the aftermath—her dealing with the trauma, trying to heal, and move forward—while also attempting to build a relationship between her and Zadeon. Unfortunately, her trauma and healing weren’t written as well as I’d hoped.

It makes me happy to see women supporting each other, but most of the female interactions here were disappointing. Some of them even make light of Callie’s trauma, ignore her struggles, and even tell her to just get over it and mate with her alien, which really upset me.

5 stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I’m glad I gave this a shot. It ended up being really enjoyable. I can see why it gets recommended so often. It’s short, funny, and the first alien romance I’ve read told entirely from the alien’s perspective. Simmi, the alien lead, is a scientist who’s obsessive-compulsive and germophobic. He's basically a mix between Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory and Adrian Monk from Monk. He’s also distinctly alien, loosely resembling the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise.

4 stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I read Contagion first and liked it a bit more than this one, but this came pretty close. It’s a short and simple read. Very low-risk, low-drama and cozy with just a touch of slow burn—no insta-love or insta-lust here.

The story is told entirely from the perspective of Erreck, an alien scientist whose only companion is his germaphobic and pedantic colleague, Simmi. Together, they're searching for plant-based treatments, particularly using their rare carnivorous flower, the Morsuflo, to ease the symptoms of a muscular atrophy disease affecting their people. One day, while working, they spot a never-before-seen bipedal creature approaching the Morsuflo. This “creature” turns out to be Nancy, a human, though the way Erreck and Simmi perceived her was hilarious. Their observation and reactions made her feel like the truly alien one—especially when she detached the growth on her back (a backpack) or shed her thick layer of skin (her space suit and clothing).

The only negative I can think of at the moment is that I had a hard time visualizing the aliens, since the descriptions weren’t very clear or detailed. All I could gather was that they had tails, antennae and carapaces. After finishing the book, I learned they were loosely inspired by the xenomorphs from the Aliens franchise.

Another thing I wished had been described was the baby’s appearance. Was he a perfect mix of the two species, entirely alien, or completely human?

3 stars: ⭐⭐⭐

The story begins with Arokh finding Angie in the midst of a sexual assault. Her attackers don’t succeed in penetrating her because he intervenes before it goes that far, and I appreciated that the moment wasn’t treated lightly. Still, I wasn’t expecting the book to start off like that. To be fair, most of the stories I’ve read so far have either stop short or gloss over such moments, sometimes without even acknowledging how traumatic the experience would realistically be. This book actually handles it better than I anticipated.

I liked the story overall, but it needed more work in fleshing out the characters, building the world, tightening the plot, and cleaning up the editing. I liked Arokh, but Angie, in particular, left me feeling unsure about her character. She’s fine for the most part, but sometimes came across as annoyingly immature. We’re never given a definite age, yet I’m supposed to believe she's older and isn’t a young adult. For instance, she throws a tantrum like a child over getting a shot, when a more reasonable reaction would be to stick out her arm, grit her teeth, and look away. If she were cleverer, she might even try stalling or distracting the aliens by asking questions and hoping they’d forget.

Or when she kept screaming despite Dohrein’s constant warning her not to, because it was making Arokh react even more negatively. In that moment, I couldn’t help but think she’d only have herself to blame if he got killed—and I almost thought the story was going to take that turn, since Dohrein was unexpectedly stepping up and taking charge.

Another thing is that I don’t know if it was just me, but I found it jarring that we suddenly learn she has experience assisting goats in giving birth. What? I thought she was just the sandwich-making girl at Subway, so where did that come from? This is what I mean by the characters needing a little more fleshing out.

The writing also has small but noticeable issues, such as using “word” instead of “world,” along with other errors of that kind.