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City Aliens #2

Stroopwafels & Starlight

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"Your bed broke."
- Five

Dating someone from a different culture? Challenging.
But what do you do when your new boyfriend isn't even human? Well...


He wasn't given a name. Only a designation number. As a slave on the planet T'Jirra, Five is fit for only one thing: to serve others. Desperate for a life of his own, he's determined to get away, no matter the cost. But when his escape takes a few sharp turns, Five crash lands in a strange land called The Netherlands. And the human female he literally collides into wants him gone. Immediately.

Sanne may be prickly, but she's not without compassion. Despite the interruption in her peaceful routine, she's determined to help Five get back on his feet and into another solar system. The only problem? His ship is totaled, stranding him on Earth. Not only that, but she's beginning to catch friendly feelings towards this weird-yet-handsome alien. But hey, maybe having an alien around won't be such a bad thing, after all?


STROOPWAFELS & STARLIGHT is book 2 in the City Aliens novella series. It's intended for adult readers. It is a true standalone story. For content guidelines, please visit the author's website. Tropes you can expect in this book: Forced proximity, reluctant allies to lovers, silly sci-fi camp.

174 pages, Unknown Binding

Published June 13, 2023

29 people are currently reading
176 people want to read

About the author

D.J. Russo

18 books195 followers
American author living in the Netherlands.

Keep up to date with everything I'm working on!

https://authordjrusso.carrd.co/

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5 stars
32 (30%)
4 stars
40 (38%)
3 stars
21 (20%)
2 stars
7 (6%)
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4 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for spidermse.
314 reviews50 followers
February 7, 2024
"You, my precious gemstone of a girl, deserve all the happiness in the world. You deserve bath oils and flowers and men who know where the cl*tor*s is."

⭐⭐⭐💫
🌶️

This was a cute, fluffy alien romance that also made me very hungry. 😆 I know now that when I read the other books from this series I will need snacks on hand.

I think the reason I'm going for 3 1/2 stars instead of 4 is because I was thrown off a bit with the way Five spoke and his mannerisms. It was more "frat boy" than alien to me. And it didn't feel like he was a creature not from this planet. Like I get he was using his fancy wristband to translate but the phrases and way he spoke just didn't say alien.

The romance happened very quickly, but I expected that with the length of the book. Five was so sweet and considerate. We LOVE a MMC who thinks consent is important. "Let's snuggle and talk about our boundaries first" ummmm SEXY!

I really related to Sanne, too. I would not enjoy being in public with all the drunk revelers either. That sounds horrible. Give me my cozy bed at home and movies or books thanks.

The ending was adorable! I love that they both got their happy ending!
Profile Image for Poppy || Monster Lover.
1,822 reviews512 followers
July 4, 2024
I’m a fan of grumpy prickly FMCs and Sanne was both. She was not impressed with Five when they met, but had a gooey marshmallow center beneath her grouchy exterior. Five was a puppy dog, with sad eyes that quickly broke down her defenses. He’d had a crappy life prior to meeting her, and their fast burn relationship was adorable. They had solid chemistry and were both really consent and partner focused. It was also fun to have an alien romance set in a non-American or British country.

Spice: 3/5

Triggers: slavery, mentions of previous SA, on page threat of SA, beheading, mention of parent death, verbally abusive roommate
Profile Image for D.J..
Author 18 books195 followers
Read
September 17, 2023
Hi readers!
It's time for another City Aliens story! This time we travel to the Dutch city of Eindhoven, aka Brainport. What makes it so brainy, you might wonder? It's home to thousands of engineering students and expats!

Learn more about Eindhoven in this short, spicy read and get to know Five and Sanne. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did while writing them.
Profile Image for Alien Peen Fiend.
60 reviews22 followers
June 24, 2023
🧇ARC Review🧇

I really enjoyed this book, and loved the story of these two imperfect and traumatized souls finding each other and growing together!

Sanne is quite the prickly one, like Liz from Ice planet Barbarians, but grumpier. She is very academically driven, focused on her studies and work. She is quite the grump; prickly and ridged, some times slightly abrasive, and very slow to trust. I had a crazy ride with her character, loved her, understood her, and disliked her at times, but the experience ended up being extremely rewarding. In the end I ended up really relating to her in a lot of ways! She is imperfect and messy, with her own struggles and past, but she does grow and soften slightly, without changing entirely. If you love a more “rough around the edges” FMC, then I think you’ll really like Sanne!

Oh Five, this poor male! What an absolute sweetheart. As an escaped former sex slave, Five had a difficult life to say the least. I felt so hard for him- the contrast of his vulnerability to Sanne’s fear of vulnerability made for a very compelling read. Something I really appreciated was as Five finds some normalcy in his new life, he does have some trauma responses that come up, which as someone with cPTSD I really appreciated the realness of that. Russo also handles the subject of his enslavement in a delicate way, giving us a general understanding of his slavery without going into too much intricate detail. Five is such a kind and respectful alien, and I LOVED that he was gargoyle-like.👀😏

God I LOVED that ending too, it was so perfect and sweet. I love that they formed such an unbreakable partnership in the end.

Alien-ness: 👽👽👽🔘🔘(3 rings, Yellow head. Purple c*m!)
MCs together: 🫂🫂🫂🔘🔘(They meet around 35% in.)
Burn: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘(First sexual encounter around 60%)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🔘🔘(Two spicy scenes plus one in epilogue.)
Sweetness: 🧁🧁🔘🔘🔘(Five turns out to be such a sweet heart 🥹.)
Humor: 🤣🤣🤣🔘🔘(Some humorous moments and lines for sure!)
Angst: 😈😈😈🔘🔘(Definitely some angst from both characters.)
Action: 💥💥🔘🔘(Some action and tense moments, especially in Five’s escape and arrival.)
Profile Image for Sophia.
605 reviews8 followers
December 15, 2023
Shoulda stayed curious


3.5* stars

I bought this as a kinda-sorta-joke on Stuff Your Kindle day and it had been sitting in my library for a few months. I was really expecting something horrible and insane. I was curious and I’ve never branched out of modern human man romance for the sole fact of it being KINDA WEIRD. Let’s pretend I didn’t read this… and enjoyed it. The tail made me sick to my stomach, I’m not gonna lie. In conclusion, I hate myself.
Profile Image for Miranda Sapphire.
Author 10 books99 followers
June 17, 2023
Such a fun, sweet little romp through a city I knew nothing about, Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Five is such a sweet bean and him and Sanne together is *chef's kiss*
Profile Image for Ivan.
275 reviews
June 21, 2023
As a Dutch person reading this book it really felt like a lovely monstersmut version of a love letter to my country.

As a Dutch person this book had me laughing so so much. From bits about Carnaval in the south of the country that is all too relatable with it's drunk people at noon, to comments about the king or a single bike lock not being enough to protect your bike. It captured the experience of being Dutch without it feeling stereotypical at all. The book taking place in Eindhoven over Amsterdam was a great choice for that. Amsterdam is typically the only place people really know and it thus happening somewhere else made it feel very fresh. Also, Eindhoven is a really cool city and I love the bookstore there, big recommend for when you're visiting the county.

The Dutch thing is all lovely and great but lets admit that most of us are here for the sexy hot alien monster. And damn was this a capital HOT monster. His body sounded so lovely and sexy and I would love to lick him. In the story he takes on a human disguise to fit in better but I really liked it that he didn't stay in that 24/7. I do love some alien physiques and some raw hot moments where that fully shines.

So talking about the sexy bits I really enjoyed those. They were hot, fun, but especially loving too. And it being so loving had to do with them taking some time to actually get together. At that point they had an emotional connection already and that only made it all too sweet. And gosh he was so adorable caring for her, made me feel very wholesome.

Him being an alien from far away gave the book some communiation differences at first too and I thought that was done really well. Together with him landing on earth was just a really fun scene that made me excited to see all else what would happen (and it delivered don't worry).

All in all it was a really fun book and I had the best time reading it.

4.5 stars rounded up
I received and eARC of this book and this was my honest review.
Profile Image for Smut Report.
1,648 reviews192 followers
Read
October 29, 2023
The Smut Report team is participating in Wendy the Super Librarian's #TBRChallenge 2023. Our goal: to dust off our TBRs once a month and talk about the book we read.

Read our full TBR Challenge update at The Smut Report

This book is super-cute, and I read it in a day. It starts heavy, with Five’s escape from the planet where he lives as a sex slave, but once he crash lands on Earth and teams up with Sanne, it’s mostly them being cute together in Einhoven (a city in the Netherlands). She introduces him to coffee and stroopwafel (he likes the coffee, but not the stroopwafel); she teaches him to ride a bike (he’s very bad at it, probably because of the wings and the tail); and he shows her that actually, it was her ex-boyfriend who was bad in bed, not her.

I liked that while this story hit many of the beats that readers want in a sexy alien romance—namely, the imaginative sexual stimulation—Five doesn’t read like the average alien hero. He’s vulnerable and kind and respectful of Sanne’s boundaries and in over his head as a stranger in a strange land. And while this story is fairly short—I would call it a long novella—there’s just enough backstory and worldbuilding that I bought the characters’ chemistry and desire to be together (and even bought Sanne’s willingness to leave Earth forever to stay with Five). There were a few continuity issues, but they didn’t bring me out of the story for long.

Russo is now two out of two for writing alien smut that, while not perfect, is going in interesting and unexpected places. I will definitely keep an eye out for her future books, for the next time I want something fluffy (with weird genitalia).

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Profile Image for Danielle Mccowen.
366 reviews11 followers
June 16, 2023
This was so adorable. I'm so happy that there was another book in this series. I love the cover, the title, characters (except Adriana - I thought she was going to be a villain alien 👽) and plot.
The FMC Sanne felt like a real person that you would meet in a cafe or on the street. I felt like her actions and vulnerability were authentic. She was the truest form of herself and I loved that. There was a lot of daily life/ backstory of Sanne (which I appreciate), but it did feel a bit repetitive. In no way did it deter me from reading, it was just something I noticed.
Oh Five 😇 angel baby alien MMC Five... Such a gentleman in and out of the sheets 😍 even for being a gargoyle-esqe alien, the man can get it and dirty talk too. Literally putting human men to shame with his manners. Sanne and Five make the cutest couple. They grow so much together in this fast paced story.
I loved that this book was set in the Netherlands. I learned so much about Dutch culture and it is definitely on my bucket list of places to visit.
I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see more of Five and Sanne in the future.
Profile Image for Nikita Stanley.
445 reviews7 followers
June 12, 2023
Out of this World!

Please note: there are heavy topics discussed in this book, which are not too deeply delved into but are respected by the author. See the Content Warnings for more.

Also note: this is the second book in the series but it is a complete standalone!

This is a highly enjoyable read filled with light-heartedness, comedy and spice. You will read the whole book in one sitting quite easily.

This story follows a MMC escaping a life he doesn’t deserve and a FMC who coasts along until she has an earth-shattering experience. Together, these characters discover how to find their bliss and their happy ending.

Additionally, there are wonderful nods to the Dutch culture that personally made me enjoy this book so much more!

This book is unique and filled with comedy, excitement and romance with some wonderful confidence building! The character development and world-building is superb! I highly recommend it!
Profile Image for Ariana Martin.
410 reviews
June 12, 2023
I love me some alien romance with an interesting MMC and this book delivered. It’s a sweet story with a purple, winged, and horned MMC (Five). And I loved him. He doesn’t understand the world he lands on, and he is running for his life and his freedom.
This was the perfect thing for the FMC, Sanne, she is stuck in a rut and needs something to bring light and love back into her life. The interaction she has with Five in the beginning is witty and light.
They learn to rely on each other and fill a void that neither knew needed to be filled. And of course, there are the fun and delicious streamy scenes.
It is a quick read and just deep enough to make you feel for the characters but light enough that you can read it whenever. I love the fun and steamy alien romance with a HEA. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this for free. I am voluntarily leaving a review of this book.
265 reviews2 followers
July 18, 2023
Sanne and 5

I enjoyed this book.I don't usually read SciFi romance ,I prefer Mafia or military books with bad boys with tattoos and major attitude.Dark erotica,BDSM,anti- heroes ,the more serious stuff that still has a HEA.Occasionally ,as a change of pace,if I am in a lighter mood,I like insta- love ,age- gap with humor and quirky characters.This book was for one of those times.It was amusing,not very heavy and even the bounty hunter that comes after 5 isn't like a Mafia enforcer type.It is a cowboy hat wearing giant centipede with a laser pistol.This was a good,easy read.It was interesting enough to keep my attention the whole way through.The things 5 could do with his tail was my favorite part. 😀
Profile Image for Maaren.
1,463 reviews10 followers
October 23, 2023
So sweet

I do love a good alien romance and this one delivered so well! We have Five, an alien on the run from his planet and Sanne, a woman living in Netherlands. When Five’s ship crashes on Earth, he stumbles upon Sanne and she agrees to hide him for a few days. But as the two get to know one another better, something sparks between them.

The story is mostly fluffy, with hints of angst thrown in. I enjoyed the balance and I liked how lighthearted it was. Sanne is a wonderful woman and I really liked Five too. A nice palate cleanser and a good time reading with this one.
34 reviews
July 15, 2023
Good Book

This book was a good little read for my Saturday relaxing. While there was definitely spice I feel that this story dealt with more plot building. There was so much character development that I couldn’t help to love both Five and Sanne. I wish they had another book to explore their new life but the author did say they would be back in another series.
Profile Image for Marian Pattechat.
Author 9 books81 followers
August 6, 2023
A fun and spicy read! I loved the main characters both as individuals and as a couple. They were so cute together! Their story taking place in the Netherlands, with Dutch words and culture sprinkled here and there, made it even more immersive. I read the book in one sitting, it was so addictive! Now I'm hungry for the next book in the series... and stroopwafels T.T
Profile Image for Ana.
519 reviews6 followers
May 29, 2025
3.5⭐️

I will say that I liked this book better than book one. Sanne and Five were really cute together! The story line was really interesting, and I enjoyed the dual POV. The spice was really HOT! I think DJ Russo definitely improved her writing, but there was still something missing from the alien romance.
Profile Image for Anne-Marie Romance Reader).
206 reviews28 followers
June 25, 2023
I really enjoyed this sweet and spicy story. Sanne and Five were such a cute couple together and I loved seeing them find happiness together. All the little Dutch references and snacks were an awesome touch, and I'm looking forward to reading more books in the series!
Profile Image for Sarah.
837 reviews1 follower
December 22, 2023
If you've ever wondered what it would look like if someone took Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's delightfully irreverent alien worldbuilding and added cheesy porn dialogue, well. Wonder no more! Was this good? Eh, I don't know. Was this fun, a far more important qualifier? Absolutely.
13 reviews
June 23, 2023
Really fun and sweet

Super entertaining, lighthearted and sexy. A really charming and enjoyable romp. Five is incredibly hot and now I want my own sex-hungry alien.
Profile Image for Lydia Loomis.
Author 7 books13 followers
September 2, 2023
Adorable!

So sweet (both the story and the pastries) and so spicy. Definitely worth picking up, it was a fun read.
2,299 reviews5 followers
May 19, 2025
I enjoyed this science fiction romance. Sanne and Five are good and likable characters. I like that Sanne is from the Netherlands. There are steamy scenes.
Profile Image for Vicky Walklate.
Author 9 books68 followers
September 5, 2023
Oh Five, we love you. This was a fun, spicy, heart-warming scifi romance between prickly human Sanne and Five, an alien who finds himself on Earth after escaping a life of servitude. I loved the banter between them, and the way Five got Sanne to open up to him. Really enjoyed learning about Dutch culture, too. Oh and the HEA was great!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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