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lifeinthebooklane's review
4.0
No way to return home, claimed by an alien prince and enslaved in a way that her mind can not accept
An alien 'slave world' romance that breaks free from the typical 'erotica' mould and offers something a little better. I saw the second book advertised somewhere and since it was in kindle unlimited gave it a go. I enjoyed it enough to go back and read book #1 in the series. Whilst I know I enjoy this authors writing I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this story. Sometimes these alien books are virtually interchangeable with the 'same' plot, different names. I'm pleased to report that this felt very different to so many others of the genre.
Laylah has just travelled through a worm-hole in space to reach the beautiful tropical planet Tallia. Unfortunately she arrives just as the Kleaxian's decide to overthrow the humans and take back their planet. The human men are killed and the women taken as slaves or mates. However Kleaxian males 'own' their mates and not cooperating with your male results in a punishment. Laylah's mate, Kenan, is half human so he should understand Laylah's feelings about this. However he fully embraces his Kleaxian culture that believes a man dishonours his mate if he doesn't punish her 'bad' behaviour.
The blurb sounds like this could be one of those ten-a-penny alien romances where there are lots of sex scenes, lots of spanking and a girl who suddenly discovers she's submissive (having never had the slightest inclination in the past) and who loses all sense of self any time she is within 10 yards of the hero. WELL LET ME STATE RIGHT NOW THAT IT ISN'T.
I loved Laylah's conflict, she truly felt like a naive 18 year old, yet she wasn't annoying either. Her tears, her terror, her reactions felt so very real. Her determination to be 'good' in order to avoid the punishments that terrified her down to her soul. That just made my heart ache. It was wonderful how she tried to convey her emotions and concerns to Kenan. How she tried to enlighten him to the fact that human upbringing and expectations made it very difficult to adapt to Kleaxian ways. Near the end, when she questioned whether she would ever be happy, when she knew love would never be enough, I just wanted to cheer. At last an alien capture book where the humans reactions and emotions that felt real and believable.
There were times when Kenan showed potential, and other times I truly wanted to take a baseball bat to him. Thankfully he redeemed himself and by the end had earnt both Laylah's and my respect.
The book really held my attention, I didn't feel the need to skim any of this. Whilst it is quite steamy, there is still plenty of plot and action OUTSIDE of the bedroom, so to speak. It wasn't full of spanking/punishment scenes either. This was very much a genuine romance and was a delight to read. I am only too happy to recommend this book.
An alien 'slave world' romance that breaks free from the typical 'erotica' mould and offers something a little better. I saw the second book advertised somewhere and since it was in kindle unlimited gave it a go. I enjoyed it enough to go back and read book #1 in the series. Whilst I know I enjoy this authors writing I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this story. Sometimes these alien books are virtually interchangeable with the 'same' plot, different names. I'm pleased to report that this felt very different to so many others of the genre.
Laylah has just travelled through a worm-hole in space to reach the beautiful tropical planet Tallia. Unfortunately she arrives just as the Kleaxian's decide to overthrow the humans and take back their planet. The human men are killed and the women taken as slaves or mates. However Kleaxian males 'own' their mates and not cooperating with your male results in a punishment. Laylah's mate, Kenan, is half human so he should understand Laylah's feelings about this. However he fully embraces his Kleaxian culture that believes a man dishonours his mate if he doesn't punish her 'bad' behaviour.
The blurb sounds like this could be one of those ten-a-penny alien romances where there are lots of sex scenes, lots of spanking and a girl who suddenly discovers she's submissive (having never had the slightest inclination in the past) and who loses all sense of self any time she is within 10 yards of the hero. WELL LET ME STATE RIGHT NOW THAT IT ISN'T.
I loved Laylah's conflict, she truly felt like a naive 18 year old, yet she wasn't annoying either. Her tears, her terror, her reactions felt so very real. Her determination to be 'good' in order to avoid the punishments that terrified her down to her soul. That just made my heart ache. It was wonderful how she tried to convey her emotions and concerns to Kenan. How she tried to enlighten him to the fact that human upbringing and expectations made it very difficult to adapt to Kleaxian ways. Near the end, when she questioned whether she would ever be happy, when she knew love would never be enough, I just wanted to cheer. At last an alien capture book where the humans reactions and emotions that felt real and believable.
There were times when Kenan showed potential, and other times I truly wanted to take a baseball bat to him. Thankfully he redeemed himself and by the end had earnt both Laylah's and my respect.
The book really held my attention, I didn't feel the need to skim any of this. Whilst it is quite steamy, there is still plenty of plot and action OUTSIDE of the bedroom, so to speak. It wasn't full of spanking/punishment scenes either. This was very much a genuine romance and was a delight to read. I am only too happy to recommend this book.
mfred's review
2.0
I didn’t much jive with the “my culture treats women like shit but I will give you plenty of sad looks as I abuse you” plot. Maybe I am not cut out for D/s storylines, or maybe this one wasn’t done that well. I didn’t feel there was much of a power exchange in the relationship – it was all manipulation and dominance by the hero, which came across as abusive and gross.
atheresa's review
2.0
Wanna be non con Dominate/subordinate romance. Kenan did a 180 character flip. He suddenly stopped punishing Laylah after one strike with a crop when she fainted from fright. Then it was kissy "I love you", "I'll give you a human wedding", and then The End - after the relationship development had not gotten beyond his mating bond and her Stockholm Syndrome. Kenan felt so guilty that he decided to lighten up the punishment law for human mates and slaves because they were not as physically strong as Kleaxian females.
This left a huge plot hole in the status of Kenan and Laylah's D/s dynamic, along with cultural changes for the rest of the planet. This was a society where female mates didn't have any more legal rights than the other alien slaves. This was a technically advanced controlling alien race that had a genetic hard core drive to physically dominate. Geez, they killed all of the male humans on the planet and kept the females as war tokens.
But the biggest hole was the lack of relationship development. It felt like the author needed to bring love into the equation and did it by projecting human morals on Kenan. I had expected the D/s relationship to develop into mutual trust and respect, and then from there, to grow into truly deep love.
A really good alien non con erotic romance that is on my re-read shelf is [b:Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts|17304775|Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts (Claimings, #1)|Lyn Gala|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1359491586s/17304775.jpg|23962861]. Other suggestions are [b:Concubine|8822493|Concubine|Jill Knowles|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1366682842s/8822493.jpg|13696837] and [b:The Emperor's Wolf|9538805|The Emperor's Wolf|J.C. Owens|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1287529178s/9538805.jpg|14425025].
This left a huge plot hole in the status of Kenan and Laylah's D/s dynamic, along with cultural changes for the rest of the planet. This was a society where female mates didn't have any more legal rights than the other alien slaves. This was a technically advanced controlling alien race that had a genetic hard core drive to physically dominate. Geez, they killed all of the male humans on the planet and kept the females as war tokens.
But the biggest hole was the lack of relationship development. It felt like the author needed to bring love into the equation and did it by projecting human morals on Kenan. I had expected the D/s relationship to develop into mutual trust and respect, and then from there, to grow into truly deep love.
A really good alien non con erotic romance that is on my re-read shelf is [b:Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts|17304775|Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts (Claimings, #1)|Lyn Gala|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1359491586s/17304775.jpg|23962861]. Other suggestions are [b:Concubine|8822493|Concubine|Jill Knowles|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1366682842s/8822493.jpg|13696837] and [b:The Emperor's Wolf|9538805|The Emperor's Wolf|J.C. Owens|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1287529178s/9538805.jpg|14425025].
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