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amanda_p 's review for:
Her Alien Husband
by Juniper Kerry
TW/CW: flashbacks to sexual slavery, attempted rape
Juniper Kerry is a new-to-me author, and I really enjoyed this first read from her. It was a pleasant surprise, really, given the SFR genre has a lot of sameness to it. This story stands out.
Freddie was abducted from Earth while sleeping in her college dorm and was sold into sexual slavery not long after. She spent years in a brothel and found her way out, which has her hiding in a less-frequented dome on Pallasan to avoid anyone's recognizing her. Her life isn't exactly safe here, but she finds it better than the alternative. Sure, there's that dick she keeps narrowly missing getting assaulted by, the constant harassment from the other Xalke, and the atmosphere towards non-Xalke residents has become menacing and dangerous as of late with talk of forced evictions and ethnic cleansing, but she owns something for the first time in her life, and she's not backing down. There's also that hottie Vander who she feels a pull towards that stays close to her bar more days than not. It's a shame he's a lush and not interested in her.
Vander has been taking odd-jobs since failing warrior training and making do. His work usually takes him all over as an errand boy, but since arriving at the Pallasan outpost, he's been unable to make himself leave and stuck close by. His pair bond is here...but there's a problem: one of the other local Xalke says she's his, and he's not the kind of guy to break up a relationship. The pair bond pull will not allow him to go far from his Freddie, so he finds excuses to stay close. And closer. And closer. When the day comes that she's to be forcibly put out of her establishment, Vander acts on an impulse and declares Freddie his wife, trying to keep her from being harmed and pushed out of the dome she's made her home. He knows he's going to have to do some rotten things and lie to her, but if he can make her fall a lot more gentle, he'll do it. And now he can get her away from that other guy.
As these two go through the process of faking a marriage and obtaining their permit to marry, they learn a lot about each other—and themselves.
Freddie is determined, vulnerable, and coping with her traumas the best she can, even if it's not the healthiest mechanism and she knows it. She knows she will not be able to keep her bar and life in the dome, but she's going to try her damndest anyway. She's brave but not reckless; she understands her status and position she's in. I really enjoyed her as a nuanced heroine. She's emotional and has knee-jerk emotional responses but is able to process them and work through to do what she needs to. She's able to hold a grudge and be stubborn without being a brat. So a lot of genre trope personality traits without falling into the flat caricatures.
Vander isn't an OTT Alpha—something I always find refreshing when reading these stories. Yes, he's a take-charge kind of guy, and he's trying to protect Freddie any way that he can, but he's also respectful and backs off when it's not worth pressing the issue and disrespecting her. He's sneaky, a bit Machiavellian, and he's always trying trying to work things to have his cake and eat it too, even if it means that Freddie will hate him in the end. Like Freddie, he's willing to do what he has to and accept the consequences of not-ideal choices. He's really self-focused, but he's also willing to listen and reconsider his positions. He's a pretty well-rounded and relatable character.
I really liked them as a couple, even when it hurt. And I loved the idea of the marriage "tests" and the reality behind those once they come into play.
There is plenty of genre trope goodness in here with the pair bond, a.k.a. Fated Mate trope, that plays out a bit differently than we're used to seeing, and our xenophobic villains seem to be more nuanced than cartoony mustache twirlers. The Xalke seem to be space orcs, having a lot of traits in common with orc fiction: they're large, green, tattooed, divided into job classes, and need women of other species to reproduce with, because they seem to have almost 100% male offspring that seem to be entirely Xalke.
I'm looking forward to the second book with Rosalie and Sebarriel. He's already such an intense character, despite being a peripheral one who we barely see, and Rosalie is adorable and plucky with a story of coming into space that greatly differs from Freddie's.
Juniper Kerry is a new-to-me author, and I really enjoyed this first read from her. It was a pleasant surprise, really, given the SFR genre has a lot of sameness to it. This story stands out.
Freddie was abducted from Earth while sleeping in her college dorm and was sold into sexual slavery not long after. She spent years in a brothel and found her way out, which has her hiding in a less-frequented dome on Pallasan to avoid anyone's recognizing her. Her life isn't exactly safe here, but she finds it better than the alternative. Sure, there's that dick she keeps narrowly missing getting assaulted by, the constant harassment from the other Xalke, and the atmosphere towards non-Xalke residents has become menacing and dangerous as of late with talk of forced evictions and ethnic cleansing, but she owns something for the first time in her life, and she's not backing down. There's also that hottie Vander who she feels a pull towards that stays close to her bar more days than not. It's a shame he's a lush and not interested in her.
Vander has been taking odd-jobs since failing warrior training and making do. His work usually takes him all over as an errand boy, but since arriving at the Pallasan outpost, he's been unable to make himself leave and stuck close by. His pair bond is here...but there's a problem: one of the other local Xalke says she's his, and he's not the kind of guy to break up a relationship. The pair bond pull will not allow him to go far from his Freddie, so he finds excuses to stay close. And closer. And closer. When the day comes that she's to be forcibly put out of her establishment, Vander acts on an impulse and declares Freddie his wife, trying to keep her from being harmed and pushed out of the dome she's made her home. He knows he's going to have to do some rotten things and lie to her, but if he can make her fall a lot more gentle, he'll do it. And now he can get her away from that other guy.
As these two go through the process of faking a marriage and obtaining their permit to marry, they learn a lot about each other—and themselves.
Freddie is determined, vulnerable, and coping with her traumas the best she can, even if it's not the healthiest mechanism and she knows it. She knows she will not be able to keep her bar and life in the dome, but she's going to try her damndest anyway. She's brave but not reckless; she understands her status and position she's in. I really enjoyed her as a nuanced heroine. She's emotional and has knee-jerk emotional responses but is able to process them and work through to do what she needs to. She's able to hold a grudge and be stubborn without being a brat. So a lot of genre trope personality traits without falling into the flat caricatures.
Vander isn't an OTT Alpha—something I always find refreshing when reading these stories. Yes, he's a take-charge kind of guy, and he's trying to protect Freddie any way that he can, but he's also respectful and backs off when it's not worth pressing the issue and disrespecting her. He's sneaky, a bit Machiavellian, and he's always trying trying to work things to have his cake and eat it too, even if it means that Freddie will hate him in the end. Like Freddie, he's willing to do what he has to and accept the consequences of not-ideal choices. He's really self-focused, but he's also willing to listen and reconsider his positions. He's a pretty well-rounded and relatable character.
I really liked them as a couple, even when it hurt. And I loved the idea of the marriage "tests" and the reality behind those once they come into play.
There is plenty of genre trope goodness in here with the pair bond, a.k.a. Fated Mate trope, that plays out a bit differently than we're used to seeing, and our xenophobic villains seem to be more nuanced than cartoony mustache twirlers. The Xalke seem to be space orcs, having a lot of traits in common with orc fiction: they're large, green, tattooed, divided into job classes, and need women of other species to reproduce with, because they seem to have almost 100% male offspring that seem to be entirely Xalke.
I'm looking forward to the second book with Rosalie and Sebarriel. He's already such an intense character, despite being a peripheral one who we barely see, and Rosalie is adorable and plucky with a story of coming into space that greatly differs from Freddie's.