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A review by sleepey
Taken by M.A. Church
dark
funny
3.0
This romance story immediately paints itself into a corner by having one half of the main couple kidnap the other & mutate his body for breeding purposes.
Dale, the human protagonist, feels so terrified and violated that there's nothing anyone could say to bring him over to the aliens' side. And so, the author just doesn't bother - they have sex and suddenly he doesn't care any more. Keyno, the alien captain, sits in bed working on plans for the next "harvest", where hundreds more men will go through this trauma, and Dale happily sits beside him without a thought in his head. When those plans are put into action, Dale worries about how stressful the whole thing is, for Keyno.
This kind of premise isn't impossible to navigate. I've read stories that make every element here fun, thrilling, arousing, you name it. But this one fails so hard at setting up the main romance that at a certain point I had to stop & say "ok, let's just draw a line under the first act, pretend this relationship was handled better, & try to enjoy the rest as though it was earned."
Under those parameters, honestly, I thought the rest of the book was mostly pretty fun. I enjoyed Dale & Keyno's playful rapport, there was some interesting worldbuilding... and then it just abruptly ended. 👍 Great. See you in book 2 I guess.
The problems aren't limited to the story itself by the way, the writing is also incredibly sloppy. Pivotal conversations & scenes are glossed over, some of the characters (like Chad & his mate) are so thin as to barely exist, and bizarrely, on multiple occasions, Dale is totally surprised to hear something he definitely already knew. Like he specifically had a conversation about it a few pages ago, and now it's news.
For all its flaws I think this book manages to shine when it's doing classic romance stuff (like Keyno furiously protecting his mate from harm, and that heartbreaking chapter where something's come between the two of them, & Dale doesn't know how to reconnect). It's also great when it's going totally off-the-wall (like when Keyno gets dosed with alien catnip). Everything in between those extremes is hit and miss though, with some pretty profound misses.
So overall, not the best thing I've ever read. But if you can get past all these issues I think there's a spark of something lovable in there.
Dale, the human protagonist, feels so terrified and violated that there's nothing anyone could say to bring him over to the aliens' side. And so, the author just doesn't bother - they have sex and suddenly he doesn't care any more. Keyno, the alien captain, sits in bed working on plans for the next "harvest", where hundreds more men will go through this trauma, and Dale happily sits beside him without a thought in his head. When those plans are put into action, Dale worries about how stressful the whole thing is, for Keyno.
This kind of premise isn't impossible to navigate. I've read stories that make every element here fun, thrilling, arousing, you name it. But this one fails so hard at setting up the main romance that at a certain point I had to stop & say "ok, let's just draw a line under the first act, pretend this relationship was handled better, & try to enjoy the rest as though it was earned."
Under those parameters, honestly, I thought the rest of the book was mostly pretty fun. I enjoyed Dale & Keyno's playful rapport, there was some interesting worldbuilding... and then it just abruptly ended. 👍 Great. See you in book 2 I guess.
The problems aren't limited to the story itself by the way, the writing is also incredibly sloppy. Pivotal conversations & scenes are glossed over, some of the characters (like Chad & his mate) are so thin as to barely exist, and bizarrely, on multiple occasions, Dale is totally surprised to hear something he definitely already knew. Like he specifically had a conversation about it a few pages ago, and now it's news.
For all its flaws I think this book manages to shine when it's doing classic romance stuff (like Keyno furiously protecting his mate from harm, and that heartbreaking chapter where something's come between the two of them, & Dale doesn't know how to reconnect). It's also great when it's going totally off-the-wall (like when Keyno gets dosed with alien catnip). Everything in between those extremes is hit and miss though, with some pretty profound misses.
So overall, not the best thing I've ever read. But if you can get past all these issues I think there's a spark of something lovable in there.