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Pheromone by C.M. Stunich
3.0
adventurous dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character

This was an odd one for me. I blew through it and didn’t NOT enjoy it, but the FMC is insufferable a lot of the time, the “why choose” seems insupportable, and the writing is compelling, but much in need of an editor. Stunich makes some interesting narrative choices though and I’m invested enough to see where this goes. The fact that Eve has a successful life back on Earth and friends and family waiting for her makes her standout from Ruby Dixon’s heroines who were usually alone to begin with and have no chance of getting back to Earth anyhow. But her quest to find Jane is single-minded to the point of stupid choices, and she’s petty enough to condemn her annoying pop star client to her fate at the hands of whatever, and makes a snap judgment of Zero— the consciousness trapped in the ship they live in— and proceeds to treat her like crap because of it. The worldbuilding is interesting, but weirdly human-friendly for Earth not being in the intergalactic mix (there’s wine, whiskey, macarons, guys named Trevor and Taylor and Hieronymus). And I don’t know how this is going to end up in a poly situation… or why. Two of the three MMCs are thinking she’s their fated mate (or they’ll DIE), Bachelor #2 gets a little more sympathetic but he’s still her kidnapper and there’s nothing that makes me want them together, and Bachelor #3 is around but not in the game yet. So I’m still only rooting for Bachelor #1, but we’ll see what happens. Seems like the other guys could have been used for the other abducted human characters though. 🤷🏻‍♀️