These are my reviews of the novellas I read in here, in the order I read them:

Quit Your Waning by Etta Pierce
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Loved this novella!!

I love this author so much—she has permanently altered what I’ve come to expect from an alien romance. The world-building is fully realized, the humans are extremely diverse, and the alien heroes are SO. WEIRD. 

And this hero was THE WEIRDEST ONE YET 🤣 … I honestly don’t know what was weirder. That he walked on four legs? That his brain got a little Gollum-y as he was falling for our heroine? That his mouth was shaped like a giant Y that went down his throat and had a bajillion teeth? That he “hugged" her by unhinging his entire jaw like a snake, biting her from her shoulders all the way down to her pelvis?? It was a lot, okay?

I should keep a log of all the weird words this author makes me google (this time it was prepuce 💀).

I loved our Korean heroine. She talked about so many cool Korean Halloween traditions (even the way the humid climate on this alien planet made her feel Halloween festive—can’t relate). And I just love that such a soft-spoken heroine ended up with the most bonkers alien yet.

Also, the peen was weird as hell.

Craving Stardust by Ava Ross
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was fun! It was my first alien romance set on earth and I really enjoyed the ‘crash-landed alien’ premise.

The fated mates and short length made the instalove fine with me. And the hurt comfort, forced proximity, and gentle love story resulted in something really sweet.

That said, there was a bit too much exposition for my taste. But even though I don’t enjoy that writing style, it was still interesting to encounter it here because it was also in the only other book I’ve read by this author. And that’s just good to know.

Hologram Hookup by Bebe Harper
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was exactly what I’m looking for in an anthology novella:
💜 exposure to a new-to-me-author
💜 a short story with a bonkers premise 

I read this with my lips squished together, trying not to laugh. The premise was so funny. Rescued humans living on a space station (with only a few human guys but a lot of human ladies), have been trying to make connections with aliens who turn out to be culturally or physically incompatible (if you know what I mean).

So when a fellow female alien suggested a virtual service where you can ‘test your compatibility with someone’, our human lady thought it was a simulation where she could ask invasive questions and do whatever she wanted to a computer generated alien guy.

Except, it was actually a VR dating app and that alien guy was a real person… 💀

Alliance with the Alien Pirate by Ivy Knox
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
MCs having to go through trials together (fight baddies, solve puzzles, get through the aphrodisiac fog) will never get old for me. It was adventurous and had some genuinely funny writing (the alien vibrator that she used as a nightlight/white-noise machine continues to randomly pop into my head).

Very instalove-y without fated mates, which isn’t my fav—but they were trauma bonding so I’ll allow it 😆 There was one overheard conversation that was a bit too convenient. But I still had a great time.

Bride of the Hallow King by Olivia Riley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am such a sucker for a ‘they fell in love talking over the phone’ story.

Secret identity, the way they talked for HOURS, the way she was devastated she would never meet her phone-love but then the vampire king was actually him—I was living.

Were the vampires the most convincing aliens? No. Was it a super spicy book? Also, no (I expected that from this author). But the conversations were so dang cute that I devoured this novella!

In Parallel by AM Kore
⭐️⭐️⭐️
You know what I love?
- 2nd person POV
- a non-binary love interest

I’m kind of obsessed with 2nd person narration ie, the heroine said "you ran” and meant herself instead of saying “I ran” or a 3rd person narrator saying “she ran.” It tickled my brain and brought me inside her internal monologue.

And a non-binary love interest, why the heck not? It felt especially fitting in an alien romance because why are we projecting a gender binary onto literal aliens? Unnecessary.

That said, this was more of a sexy adventure story (with a HFN) than a love story. And HEA > HFN for me, always. Plus, the heroine was too unbothered that her PhD technology thing randomly turned into an interplanetary portal—I wanted her to have more “aliens?!” panic. 

Also, we never learned the heroine’s name. And I know this is 100% a me-problem but I’m still not over how I couldn’t write the FMC’s name in my reading journal like I usually do.

Alien Ghostship by Bella Blair
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book had two awesome things going for it:
💚 this sentient ghostship felt genuinely haunted, which was super atmospheric
💚 even though the alien hero wasn’t there with her, the MCs could physically interact in their dreams, which is a literary device I’ll never get tired of

I just wish there’d been more on-page flirty-flirty.

The Twelve Nights of Halloheen by RK Munin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was so great! Loved the concept of future humans in space celebrating a recognizable—but also unrecognizable—earth holiday.

And mostly I loved how friggin’ sweet this was, just one giant hug. Kind gestures, heartfelt conversations, pining, he fell first, some adorable holiday culture clash, relationship building that felt very tailored to each other…

I’m not going to let my goal of finishing this anthology get sidetracked by a binge read of this author’s backlist—but I was extremely tempted.

Rescued By My Brother’s Best Friend by VC Lancaster
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You know those five star reads where you highlight/screenshot quotes on almost every page?

That’s what this was! It’s hard to describe why… because it was such a sweet story? Because I liked how much culture clash there was between our human heroine and our alien hero even though they’d grown up hanging out? Was it how weird, yet atmospheric, the sex pollen thing was??

This was low spice, but extremely cute.

Monster in the Mist by Honey Phillips
⭐️⭐️
I love when MCs interact in their dreams, which happened a ton here.

But two things were kind of bamboozling me:
▪️ the way the titular mist was messing with their minds—and therefore my mind (probably intentional)
▪️ the way the MCs somehow knew how to solve the whole mist thing even though there were no breadcrumbs about how that would could happen (probably an unintentionally too-convenient story element)

The I love you’s made me “huh??” and I’m still not sure what the status of fated mates was in this setting. This might be one where I’d have liked it more if I had read the main series first? But I kind of have no idea what was going on in this one.

In Trouble by Alana Khan
⭐️⭐️
This didn’t feel very sci-fi? It was giving small town romance… which I almost never like. It was about our human lady winning a dilapidated old B&B on another planet and falling for the hot construction alien guy whom she’d hired/was also living with her there. But he felt more human than alien? Same with the house. It had that Victorian Revivalist architecture style specific to the Eastern US… For a minute there I thought the story could turn it around—the book was being massively saved by how cute of a start the romance got off to. But that didn’t continue for very long.

And have I mentioned how much I dislike weird sex metaphors? 😆 There was a plumbing related sex metaphor in here…for like, way too many chapters. And there’s something about “neglected pipes” discussed in her “sexiest pout” that just ruined my whole day.

Orelia’s Orc by Iona Storm
⭐️
Nope. There was… no romance plot in here? The orc-alien hero’s emo internal monologue was making me laugh but I don’t think it was supposed to? He’d been devastated by his wife’s death for a gajillion (of his immortal) years… Only to immediately have an insta-love moment with the heroine? Not my fav. And this story even made me dislike a language barrier trope, which I didn’t think was possible.

Halloween at the Imperial Palace by Alma Nilsson
⭐️⭐️
Challenging myself to read an entire 2,800 page anthology? Fun! Reading a novella that I could tell wasn’t for me to complete that challenge? A little unfair to this author, tbh.

Let me first say that this worldbuilding was excellent—you know I love a book with a glossary. If I did seek out an erotica book that focussed more on sexy moments than romance plot, it would have a setting like this one.

That said, this was a ‘they’ve been flirting for a long time before the book began and they’re basically together at the start’ story. While I prefer a ‘they meet and flirt during the book, get together at the end’ story. You know what I mean? The CWs had scared me off this particular novella. But I was surprised that they were ‘well-intentioned’ CWs (our alien hero thought he was doing the right thing) which I normally love because it comes with a decent grovel… but I wish the grovel had been better in this one.

Lucky Chance by Ami Wright
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What in the what were these peen barbs? I was scared for her 😆 This was a fun ‘fated mates meet-cute, oops we’re on the run from baddies’ novella. With some added ‘he grows flowers, she’s a florist’ cuteness. It was great!

Blind Date with an Alien by Holly Hanzo
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story was off to a good start—a human lady abducted by bad aliens and then saved by good aliens; fated mates stuff and things. But once it got to the part where the three humans mentioned three dates, they just… did the three dates, without anything else going on.

The Witch’s Warrior by Chloe Parker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novella was really something special. It was creepy. It was atmospheric. Our human lady was a villainous hermit cyborg named Circe and she 1000% lived up to her name. Her kinda-evil animal companions and their glowing eyes were stressing me out. And our hero was an alien—an alien who’s been living on a post-apocalyptic earth.

With CWs like fem-Dom, blood play, and masochism… I was expected a certain kind of book. But this was surprisingly vulnerable and tender. Just really lovely. In a scary way. And I need to read more from this author, like now.

Defying Gravity by Cleo Rose
⭐️⭐️
You know what I randomly hate? When the characters have wings and there’s a scene where they have sex in the sky. I dunno! Is flying sex cringe? Is it cool? Am I completely wrong? Because I hate it so much, I take a star off a book every time it’s there.

That said, the concept of this novella was really cool. It was about a human who got abducted from earth, experimented on by baddy aliens to make her look like a completely different alien, and then dropped onto that different aliens' planet—where they assumed she was one of them. Mistaken identity, fated mates, culture clash, weird-peened sexy times, etc.

The problem? This was too much story for such a short novella. And it was way way way rushed. But—the author said in her Author’s Note that she was turning this novella concept into a full-length novel for next year. So that’s that solved.

Bloodbound to the Space Vampire by Deysi O’Donal
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I didn’t know I was craving some ‘hua hua hua’ Twilight song, Edward getting all weird when he smells Bella for the first time vibes. But apparently I was! Add in a little Vampire Diaries, hot girls dressed up as slutty whatevers at a college Halloween party put on by random gothic-loving millionaires… And I was living. This was my brand of campy vampire novella.

Fated to the Lost Warrior by Erin Hale
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This little story hit all the beats: human crash lands onto a low-tech planet, instantly runs into her schmexy fated mate, there’s sleeping in furs, campfires, and that jazz. It just lacked some oomph. I wanted more existential panic, more unhinged pining, more culture clash.

Midnight Mist by Michele Mills
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novella really made me want to read the series! Super de-duper virgin MMC aliens who go from never having had a boner to unhinged breeding frenzy, just by touching their human fated mate? That is a juicy setup! All the aliens were wearing gloves, the culture clash was fun, and the group of aliens at the centre of the series were all interesting—it was a good little story. But it had to catch me up on a lot of series information. And I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I’d read some of that main series before.