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A review by atheresa
Kenan's Mate by Sue Lyndon
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].