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notsobinaryart's reviews
159 reviews

Blood Orange

Yaffa As

emotional reflective fast-paced

Content Warnings

Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe

C.B. Lee

4.5

adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

One for All

Lillie Lainoff

DID NOT FINISH: 11%

Not in the mood for a book with lots of both internalized and externalized ableism right now! Might try picking this up again later

PET

Akwaeke Emezi

DID NOT FINISH: 35%

Beautiful writing, I realized this book’s themes were too much for me & my triggers

Artificial Condition

Martha Wells

4.25

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Content Warnings

I Think I'm in Love with an Alien

Ann Aguirre

3.25

Thank you Sourcebooks Casablanca & NetGalley for the eARC of this book!

I really wanted to love this one as a lover of non-human romance, hidden identity trope, and queer rep, but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations.

Maybe it’s because we started the book with both characters already having deep feelings for one another, but I had a hard time seeing and connecting with the romance. We see bits and pieces of their relationship forming through flashback group texts, which helps some, but with the robotic way our alien mmc Tam thought & spoke it was a bit harder at times to feel the romance. It did, however, make the genuinely sweet things he said feel even more hard earned.

The pacing also felt off, especially how much time we spent between the two officially professing feelings & intention to be together up to the end resolution seeming to drag on, then have a rushed last minute situation. That being said, I would’ve loved a short epilogue in the end exploring how the conclusion played out in a few years down the line, or even a 6 month check in.

One thing I did enjoy about this book is the bits of world building we got for what alien civilizations are like compared to earth. I loved the comparisons, and one of my favorite things in a human x nonhuman romance is when the nonhuman comments in how weird something that normal humans do every day is to them. I love alien & monster romance make us take a critical eye to what we’ve normalized in our societies, even if the critiques of humankind weren’t particularly deep in most cases.

Found family was also a big part of this book with a big group of self-proclaimed weirdos & space nerds meeting for the first time irl after being online only. I loved seeing the group dynamics and finding those that get you, and I’m curious to see what happens to the restroom of the characters if this continues as a series!

Overall cute concept but I don’t think I’ll be rereading this one!

Spice rating 1/5
(

two scenes described briefly & without detailed language

)

Rep:

bi/pan ace-spec (gray-ace) human fmc
Alien mmc with autistic coded traits (according to me, an autistic reviewer)

Tropes

Alien romance
Hidden identity
Friends to lovers
Found family

Content Warnings

Twilight Out of Focus

Jyanome

DID NOT FINISH: 50%

I stopped because of the heavy trigger warnings that happened at the halfway mark. The writing & pacing up until this point was also off, though the art is beautiful

Please check the trigger warnings before you go into this book. I don’t think they are handled in good manner, instead just throwing the triggers ||pedophilia, sexual assault, incestous harassment/assault from a stepsister|| and more

Content Warnings