books_ergo_sum's Reviews (933)

I loved this premise! The sexual tension of our alien hero knowing that human lady Serena was his mate, not telling her, and instead trying to befriend her to make her fall for him on her own 🥹 My heart!

He was such a restrained stoic guy and she was such a horny awkward person (you could also hear her Newfoundland accent, loved that). She was drawing him (like one of her French girls) and studying his anatomy (for science but totally not for science) 😉 I was living!

You might think I’m crazy but the thing that would have made this even better, imo, is if it had been super slow burn. I was really feeling the unresolved sexual tension and I didn’t want it to end!

Maximum monster kink. Maximum language barrier. Let’s gooo!

I don’t know what it is about a, “me Tarzan, you Jane” moment, but I freaking love them. Especially when it’s like this—fated mates, danger, and they’re really really trying to communicate.

Add in horniness-inducing venom?? And a 10 foot tall Godzilla-looking alien guy, complete with snout instead of a face?? And an absolutely enormous, borderline scary, monster dong 😳

You know the author was thinking, “dear reader, how’s that monster kink going? 😏” 

Totally fine! Totally under control! 😅😅😅

Primal kink Dom, anyone?

We really threaded the needle with this alien hero’s brand of scary Dom-energy: he was a consent king and fated mates-level devoted; but he was also bossy, he was genuinely turned on by her fear (so we really went there), oh, and he was the biggest, baddest 10 foot tall Godzilla-looking alien on the planet. 

Horniness inducing venom: amazing. And is it just me, or can we say that once the character has a dragon snout instead of a human-ish face, we’ve fully crossed the monster Rubicon? It feels like an important difference 😅

But, because I’m in my picky era, there was an emergent property to this story that I wasn’t connecting with. It had the following there’s things—which I didn’t enjoy happening all at once…
◾️ a primal/prey kink awakening 
◾️ a hot-and-cold heroine who doth protest too much
◾️ only a seven day timeline until the big baddie stuff

Idk, something about the story containing all three of these made it feel slightly stressful to me. Yet, if it had contained only two of them (in any combination), I would have loved it. Am I making any sense? 🤔

Ummm… THIS WAS AMAZING??

Who doesn’t love an alien guy who falls first so hard and feels so unworthy of the heroine, that he’s basically having a full-on psychotic break the whole time? Put it directly in my veins! 🥰

The way Varrow felt so undeserving of Camille because he had one amputated arm? And how she didn’t care at all? Amazing. A super hot, grumpy except secretly feeling all the feelings alien guy, in a completely obsessed fated mates situation? Delicious.

This was giving me major Devi’s Distraction by Ruby Dixon vibes—except better. Yeah, I said it. Better than arguably the most well-beloved book by the most popular alien romance author. It was angsty, it was hot, it was action-y, plot stuff was happening. I was living!

So fun! 

◾️ We had our first alien hero who didn’t want a mate—fun!
◾️ He was exiled and forced to wear a mask because of it—also fun! (Falling for a hottie you don’t know is a hottie because he has a mask never gets old)
◾️ Danger + a big storm = forced proximity in the wilderness waiting out the storm goodness.

And then the gentle angst of our masked non-mate-wanting alien hero falling for our human lady Priya.. thinking that if he stays in exile he’ll never see her again. But if he breaks his exile to follow her, he’ll be tied to a mate who’s not Priya.

Don’t worry hot alien guy, we all know who your mate is 🥰

lol.. was this an alien Pride and Prejudice retelling?

Fated mate < rejected mate. And I was getting major Elizabeth Bennet vibes from our human lady’s: “You have proven to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that I will never, could never, love you.” Shots fired, obviously 😆

This alien guy.. what is it with me and the meat-headed narcissist alien bros in this series? I find them absolutely hilarious!

What’s your verdict on the amnesia trope?

I used to think I could go either way, but as books pile up on the ‘maybe not’ side, I’m starting to think the amnesia trope isn’t for me. At least, this kind of story is my least favourite flavour of amnesia: when it temporarily (and conveniently?) alters the personality of an MC. Here, with our grumpy-turned-golden retriever alien guy, who never fully came together as a coherent character for me.

Wilderness survival on another planet plus goofily horny alien shenanigans (and some steamy scenes that really go there)—this is usually the epitome of a winning trope combo. For me at least 😆

But I was so not into the amnesia thing that I never got onboard and started rooting for these two. And the more we found out about this alien hero’s backstory the less this whole thing made sense? I was struggling to get past all that and just enjoy the horny silliness of this alien romance.

Not me tearing up while reading a bonkers alien romance in this series. Again.

What I’ve loved about this series (this is book 14 btw 😅) is the way it has maximum emotions, maximum action-danger, and maximum alien weirdness. And this book was very that 😆

I loved this premise: our human lady had a human baby bun in the oven when she was abducted from earth. A boy one. And the elements of this alien culture that have been hilariously entertaining in all the previous books… not so cute and fuzzy in this particular situation. So our human lady wanted to get the hell out of Dodge—aka go into hiding and give birth completely on her own while surviving in the alien wilderness. Let’s gooo!

The monstrous snout-instead-of-face alien hero she gets to help her? Oh my little angel, Kohka! I love the way this author writes pining heroes. And the way these characters all became a little family. Oh my gosh, my heart was exploding.

Nothing boosts my mood like a low-angst new release in Queen Ruby’s Risdaverse series. I couldn’t stop smiling as I read this little joy of a book in one sitting.

The cherry on top? In the Author’s Note, RD explained that she based this heroine’s personality on her (kinda nuts) cat. Believable 😂

The romance between Oraya and Raihn? Excellent. From super-di-duper enemies to lovers and a ‘how do we come back from THAT?’ ending in book one, book two’s romance plot didn’t cut any corners and this HEA felt.. “well-earned” doesn’t feel like a strong enough word but I’ll go with it 🥰

I loved that this book was dual-POV. I loved how neither MC morphed into a heroically perfect character (which happens all the time in fantasy series imo), instead their weaknesses and darker personality traits were explored even more with this book. Lots of character growth, lots of self-discovery, lots of pining, lots of feelings, lots of groveling. And we love a hero who begs 😉

Our vampire DILF, Vincent. Hmm. I loved the way this story didn’t attempt to resolve the morally grey-ness of his character—I was feeling all the feelings. But I disliked the way Vincent became a deus ex machina. Every time our MCs Oraya and Raihn got themselves into a bind, some element of Vincent’s backstory saved the day. And it happened so many times (like double-digit times) that the danger lost its oomph. It felt very similar to the way SJM plots her reveals (which is a valid and much-beloved way of telling a story) so I don’t think it will bother most people. I’m just a crank.

If you’re like me and you don’t like starting an unfinished fantasy series, have no fear! Books 1 and 2 are a now-completed duology, books 1.5 and 3 are standalones with different MCs, and the next book is supposed to be the romance of a character we know from books 1 and 2. Does that make sense? Basically, no surprise cliffhangers, you’re good to start this series!