Strange Love is not my usual romance, but I decided to take a punt after I saw an author I liked recommended it. The basic premise is that Beryl Bowman gets abducted by Zylar an alien on his last chance to make a mating match in his home world before he is resigned to the life of a drone and exiled from his clan.

I was a little sceptical of how this might go but my curiosity drove me into the book and I found it surprisingly wholesome in places. The fact that Beryl's dog Snaps gets implanted with a translation chip which means he can now communicate with both Beryl and Zylar made me laugh a lot and provided for a lot of the heartwarming and wholesome content.

I thought some of the characterisation was a little off as Beryl seemed to suggest she was a bit of a down-and-out, that spent a lot of time drinking feeling sorry for herself when she was first picked up. Then in the hunger-games style competition to prove they can be a couple she managed to excel pretty well at the various challenges showing she was smart, capable and actually quite physically capable (despite stating earlier not liking sports). Do not get me wrong, I loved that she was more than capable in the competition, I was just a bit confused because she had undersold herself so much previously.

However, I will say the one thing I really appreciated was the entire lack of angst between Zylar and Beryl. They talked out lots of their emotions and whilst Zylar lacked in confidence and belief in himself (such a change to see the man the one who is unsure if he's good enough to be with the woman). There was no unnecessary angst between them and the drama in the plot came from external characters, mainly Zylar's awful brother.

Overall, it was an interesting and rather enjoyable read. I'm not sure I'll return to the second book focused on the AI that was Zylar's only friend and companion, however, I did enjoy the style and the plot so I'll definitely be returning to Ann Aguirre in future.