This was.. extremely well-written? I went into this expecting some KU alien smut (which I got) but I didn’t expect this.. literary excellence?

The premise: our human lady, criminal profiler and behavioural psychologist Olivia, abducted from earth by alien special forces for some top secret mission stuff and things. Alien-human first contact. Culture clash. Criminal minds-y plot amazing-ness.

And la pièce de résistance: a delicious ‘falling for my partner’ romance as Olivia worked closely with Commander Atarian—with some particularly spicy sexual tension as she taught him about human sexuality but they tried to stay professional. Oh, and some alien mates goodness.

The characters were amazing. The competence kink of this heroine was making me feel all the feelings. Her profiler brain was such an interesting POV and her thoughts were so well expressed—loved her. And this tortured hero was tying me up in knots! He was so cool.

This was the best sci-fi world building I’ve ever encountered in an alien romance. You know those extremely rare fantasy romances where the fantasy setting and plot is just as good as the best non-romantic fantasy, plus it’s romance plot is just as good as the non-fantasy romance? Well, this book was the sci-fi version of that.

And you know what I find thrilling? When a book has an unexpected plot structure. Events were happening.. not at the %-mark of the book they usually happen at? And when a book can pull this off, I’m such a goner—the book fully takes control of my reading experience. I stop overthinking, stop trying to guess the twists, and I just enjoy.