S. J. Sanders

I was NOT expecting to like this book as much as I did, and the following books in this trilogy were better.

The story is kind of the same as far as dystopian aliens meet human women goes, you know, human woman is trying to eek out a life on the dusty and destroyed Earth, fighting off those roving bands of men who have decided to round up all the women to rape and keep.

Then you have the alien who is coming up to the unknown and "uninhabited" planet not yet shown on any star map. He is a show more salvager of parts and other items to sell and comes to earth set on filling up his ship and making a lot of "credits". His name is way too long and hard to pronounce but the apostrophe after the first part means that you just cut it off there and call him "Veral". He is part alien (Argurma) and cybernetic being.

They meet-cute and she convinces him to let her help him with his salvaging operation in return for him getting her to a better place (on Earth?). Of course our alien hero has an unavoidable mate bonding attribute that means if his "true mate" is in his proximity his body will bond to her no matter how much he tries to avoid it.

It was really refreshing to read a sci-fi romance heroine who was NOT TSTL. She kept her cool and made the right decisions. I loved that all the conflict and major drama was not because of stupid choices and idiot heroines who think they know better and run towards danger.

I enjoyed this book enough that I immediately got the next two which are both about the same characters but individual stories that wrap up.

If you like sci-fi alien romances then I would highly suggest this book/trilogy. It has a slow burn with a great story that doesn't just focus on the romance. Actually, the entire trilogy consists of storylines apart from the romance. The romance is on the side. show less

For this kind of story, writing style was surprisingly good and well edited. Stayed interesting besides of course some of the smutty parts. Read this one for a challenge with horns on cover and it is on Kindle Unlimited.

Good story arc. Subtract one for the spanking and bondage, which is not noted.

3.5

i was super into the first half and then the rest bored me :/