I loved this book, and have already re-read it more than once. It’s funny, thought-provoking, and suitably hot all at the same time. There are a lot of great things about the novel. The highlights for me:
The characters. The characters are awesome. All 3 are super well developed and have distinct personalities that, despite the fact that this a romance about two aliens who are kinda cat/porcupines (but sexy) and a space marine escaping from the prison camp of alien bugs who have invaded the cat/porcupines’ homeworld, are not all flat or cliched. In fact, the author does a great job not just with different personalities but also perspectives, and uses those perspectives for some amazing world-building. She has the human space marine who has no idea what’s going on in the alien environment he’s landed in, or how he’s perceived by the aliens he’s interacting with, and one alien for whom the culture/traditions of the world aren’t alien at all (it’s his normal, after all), and finally one alien who has been a prisoner all his life and so has minimal knowledge of his own heritage, but lots of insights into the invaders. All these distinct perspectives really enrich the world view, and the reading experience— I often find multiple perspectives jarring, but in this case, it really really worked, not just for setting the scene, but also for figuring out the dynamics of their relationship. I adore the way the space marine sees himself as a total bada** (he’s a space marine after all) and acts accordingly (and he IS a total bada**) BUT his new companions don’t quite perceive him that way at first because to them he looks tiny and delicate and precious. So they learn a valuable lesson (in the least preachy way possible) about equating physical strength with capability, and we human readers get both the humor of the contrasting perceptions and the gentle but valuable life lesson about stereotypes of masculinity/strength and actual agency.
The humor. This book doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that just adds on to all the nuance and general awesomeness. There’s drama, but there’s fun too. Come for the sexy aliens, stay for the snarky space marine. Seriously.
Ok, this turned out not to be such a short review after all, but the tldr here: this is an awesome novel that is super well written and unique and interesting, as well as romantic. And the sequel is great too!
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Unwell Hydration from Alex Cooper
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2019
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