What do you think?
Rate this book
Mates of Planet 25XA #3
Seared By The Monster
Alien griddles get very hot...
When the alien facility that's been holding you captive goes boom, you get out by any means necessary. Even if it means following along behind the big grumpy alien-dragon guy that looks like he's been carved out of an overly large ruby. Or stealing a shuttle. Or blasting off to who-knows-where. Anywhere but here is good.
The fact that the grouchy alien tells me we can never go back to Gestalt space doesn't bother me either. When I said I'd rather be anywhere than that facility being a Grey lab rat, I meant it. I tell him to drop me off at the nearest port, which he does--and then he refuses to leave. Instead, he decides to set up an intergalactic dive diner and I get to be the waitstaff.
He could just leave me here. He doesn't owe me anything. He doesn't even ask me a lot of questions about my time with the Greys, and he's such a gentleman about everything I'm sure he's up to something. Why else would he want to stay on this crappy moon, playing house with me?
Third brother Ahane meets his match in the Human Thalia.
When the alien facility that's been holding you captive goes boom, you get out by any means necessary. Even if it means following along behind the big grumpy alien-dragon guy that looks like he's been carved out of an overly large ruby. Or stealing a shuttle. Or blasting off to who-knows-where. Anywhere but here is good.
The fact that the grouchy alien tells me we can never go back to Gestalt space doesn't bother me either. When I said I'd rather be anywhere than that facility being a Grey lab rat, I meant it. I tell him to drop me off at the nearest port, which he does--and then he refuses to leave. Instead, he decides to set up an intergalactic dive diner and I get to be the waitstaff.
He could just leave me here. He doesn't owe me anything. He doesn't even ask me a lot of questions about my time with the Greys, and he's such a gentleman about everything I'm sure he's up to something. Why else would he want to stay on this crappy moon, playing house with me?
Third brother Ahane meets his match in the Human Thalia.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 30, 2024
37 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Merry Ravenell
23 books344 followersMerry is a dark sci-fi and fantasy author that currently lives in rural Alabama. She enjoys tormenting her main characters and doing excessive research to make sure unrealistic things are as realistic as possible.
When she's not writing, she enjoys coffee, vodka, painfully bad movies of all varieties, documentaries, coloring books, and knitting.
When she's not writing, she enjoys coffee, vodka, painfully bad movies of all varieties, documentaries, coloring books, and knitting.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 1, 2024
This is the third story in this series about a family of brothers who are trying to save whata left of their land and honor, while navigating new relationships with human women.
Overall, I like the plot of two very different races and environments trying to manage romantic relations. While it's not a new concept, it has some unique qualities that I really like.
What I don't like is the ever-present hopelessness that is truly pervasive throughout all three stories to date. It's seriously too much. The disasters and threats literally never stop. I've yet to feel any real joy or happiness from any of these couples. They never seem to catch a break, or get breathing space, or experience any success. While I get the idea of creating some tension in the stories, I find myself feeling anxious, wanting to skip ahead to see if there's anything good that happens, or just stop reading. There's a cloud of depression that hangs over everything, and it makes me crazy.
I like the female leads. They're tough and funny without falling into so many annoying as h$!! tropes. I like the male leads, too. Strong, hot, trying hard to figure out the next steps in a minefield of crap.
Lastly, the sex in the two previous books is smokin. In this book? Not so much. I couldn't tell exactly what was up with the female lead and her demands. Bondage and dominance I get. This didn't seem to be that per se. I get she was traumatized as all get out. But her behaviors that may have been her response to those traumas were seriously confusing and didn't gel with her damage in an understandable way. Was she obsessed with control? Of her partner or herself? I couldn't get a handle on her. The sex was kinda weird, and the hotness factor got muddled with the weirdness. This didn't really lead to further understanding of the female lead. Her character remains fuzzy. Her motivations really never became clear to me. Her back story wasn't explained in enough detail to get her.
The writing is great. The character development is great (outside the female lead in this book). But my overall enjoyment of this book and series is not so much.
Overall, I like the plot of two very different races and environments trying to manage romantic relations. While it's not a new concept, it has some unique qualities that I really like.
What I don't like is the ever-present hopelessness that is truly pervasive throughout all three stories to date. It's seriously too much. The disasters and threats literally never stop. I've yet to feel any real joy or happiness from any of these couples. They never seem to catch a break, or get breathing space, or experience any success. While I get the idea of creating some tension in the stories, I find myself feeling anxious, wanting to skip ahead to see if there's anything good that happens, or just stop reading. There's a cloud of depression that hangs over everything, and it makes me crazy.
I like the female leads. They're tough and funny without falling into so many annoying as h$!! tropes. I like the male leads, too. Strong, hot, trying hard to figure out the next steps in a minefield of crap.
Lastly, the sex in the two previous books is smokin. In this book? Not so much. I couldn't tell exactly what was up with the female lead and her demands. Bondage and dominance I get. This didn't seem to be that per se. I get she was traumatized as all get out. But her behaviors that may have been her response to those traumas were seriously confusing and didn't gel with her damage in an understandable way. Was she obsessed with control? Of her partner or herself? I couldn't get a handle on her. The sex was kinda weird, and the hotness factor got muddled with the weirdness. This didn't really lead to further understanding of the female lead. Her character remains fuzzy. Her motivations really never became clear to me. Her back story wasn't explained in enough detail to get her.
The writing is great. The character development is great (outside the female lead in this book). But my overall enjoyment of this book and series is not so much.
July 16, 2024
My Favorite So Far
An enjoyable read if you're caught up with the first two books and a great lead into whichever book comes next.
I was initially skeptical about the setting being at a space diner in the middle of nowhere but Ahane and Thalia are well written and adorable. Loved their story and the spice is solid, more SFR needs tiny spicy women dominating big bad aliens.
I also really enjoyed the continuity of the "butt teeth" joke. Made me giggle every time.
An enjoyable read if you're caught up with the first two books and a great lead into whichever book comes next.
I was initially skeptical about the setting being at a space diner in the middle of nowhere but Ahane and Thalia are well written and adorable. Loved their story and the spice is solid, more SFR needs tiny spicy women dominating big bad aliens.
I also really enjoyed the continuity of the "butt teeth" joke. Made me giggle every time.
June 6, 2024
I was worried that this was going to be the seemingly inevitable "survive a crash on uninhabited jungle planet" installment. Instead I got "Alice" in space. Loved all of it.
I need tons more time with the family. Gimme part 2 now that everyone is together. I am not done here!
I need tons more time with the family. Gimme part 2 now that everyone is together. I am not done here!
March 15, 2025
Ummm, Wow… There’s a lot to unpack here.
Thalia is a good example of a human’s ferocious desire to survive. In order to survive, she made choices that left her swamped in guilt and survivors grief. And she did fight back, she fought back so hard that they tore out all her fingernails and toenails. Add to that the physical and mental trauma of her torture and experimentation, the PTSD she suffers from, along with the physical scars and the residue of the constant psychic rape of her mind, and Talia is just barely holding on.
Ahane doesn’t know what to do with her, but he’s a good man with a noble bent and he’s determined that nobody will ever hurt Thalia again.
This is a story about survival, compassion, and redemption. Ahane, in his submissive approach to intimacy, gives Thalia the chance to feel powerful again, and take back her autonomy. Slowly, as he heals her body, he restores her soul, and she gives him the reason he needs to keep fighting his own exhausting battles.
I found this book technique difficult to read, lacking in proper grammar and punctuation. For example it might read something like “He turned and looked at me with you’ve got to be shitting me and I gesture what the fuck and moved the pot to the floor.”
Instead of “He turned and gave me a look that said “you’ve got to be shitting me,” and I replied with the what-the-fuck gesture and moved the pot to the floor.”
There was a lot of “verbing” that is common in spoken language but difficult to read.
Also, although I started to understand the world building by the end of the book, there was a lot about it that didn’t make much sense going through. It could be that this is the third the series and I hadn’t read the first two where things were explained. For example, throughout the whole book there was a theme of a missing trinket. Everyone kept saying that he was ashamed of her, and so he refused to wear his trinket, but it never explained what a trinket was until the very end. It’s just an ear cuff. That’s their version of a wedding ring.
Thalia is a good example of a human’s ferocious desire to survive. In order to survive, she made choices that left her swamped in guilt and survivors grief. And she did fight back, she fought back so hard that they tore out all her fingernails and toenails. Add to that the physical and mental trauma of her torture and experimentation, the PTSD she suffers from, along with the physical scars and the residue of the constant psychic rape of her mind, and Talia is just barely holding on.
Ahane doesn’t know what to do with her, but he’s a good man with a noble bent and he’s determined that nobody will ever hurt Thalia again.
This is a story about survival, compassion, and redemption. Ahane, in his submissive approach to intimacy, gives Thalia the chance to feel powerful again, and take back her autonomy. Slowly, as he heals her body, he restores her soul, and she gives him the reason he needs to keep fighting his own exhausting battles.
I found this book technique difficult to read, lacking in proper grammar and punctuation. For example it might read something like “He turned and looked at me with you’ve got to be shitting me and I gesture what the fuck and moved the pot to the floor.”
Instead of “He turned and gave me a look that said “you’ve got to be shitting me,” and I replied with the what-the-fuck gesture and moved the pot to the floor.”
There was a lot of “verbing” that is common in spoken language but difficult to read.
Also, although I started to understand the world building by the end of the book, there was a lot about it that didn’t make much sense going through. It could be that this is the third the series and I hadn’t read the first two where things were explained. For example, throughout the whole book there was a theme of a missing trinket. Everyone kept saying that he was ashamed of her, and so he refused to wear his trinket, but it never explained what a trinket was until the very end. It’s just an ear cuff. That’s their version of a wedding ring.
March 26, 2025
How can an author do enough research to know how much junk DNA humans have, but not know what a lingua franca is?
Lingua franca = a common language used for diplomacy and trade (usually among people who don't speak that language, but not always), so named because in the 18th century, French fit that bill.
English is now human's lingua franca. It's taught as a second language everywhere, including China, Japan, and India, throughout Europe, Africa, and South America. I know it's really popular to bash Western culture right now, but guess what? Denying something is so doesn't make it suddenly not so. English is the common language. That's *common knowledge*, so ignoring it is deliberate and willful stupidity on the author's part.
Now, on to other matters...
This poor dear of an author thinks she deserves free education and healthcare just because she exists.
Grow up, child. You're not entitled to other people's labor. Read some Friedman and Hayek and ditch Marx. If you're old enough to write smut, you're old enough to pay your own way like every other adult on the planet.
Other than her needling about America and how awful humans are (seriously, get over yourself), this wasn't bad. Not as repetitive as Book 1. I skipped Book 2. Apparently some things happened in it that were necessary to understand the events in this one. Oh, well. Not giving this author any more money. She's not a good enough writer and all her leftist whining negates any talent she might possess.
PS "That" is a necessary word. Omitting it because some moron somewhere said "that" isn't necessary just creates a lot of problems in readability. Some sentences were unreadable because the author simply omitted "that" from a section that needed "that" without rewriting to accommodate the lack of "that" where "that" was supposed to be.
Lingua franca = a common language used for diplomacy and trade (usually among people who don't speak that language, but not always), so named because in the 18th century, French fit that bill.
English is now human's lingua franca. It's taught as a second language everywhere, including China, Japan, and India, throughout Europe, Africa, and South America. I know it's really popular to bash Western culture right now, but guess what? Denying something is so doesn't make it suddenly not so. English is the common language. That's *common knowledge*, so ignoring it is deliberate and willful stupidity on the author's part.
Now, on to other matters...
This poor dear of an author thinks she deserves free education and healthcare just because she exists.
Grow up, child. You're not entitled to other people's labor. Read some Friedman and Hayek and ditch Marx. If you're old enough to write smut, you're old enough to pay your own way like every other adult on the planet.
Other than her needling about America and how awful humans are (seriously, get over yourself), this wasn't bad. Not as repetitive as Book 1. I skipped Book 2. Apparently some things happened in it that were necessary to understand the events in this one. Oh, well. Not giving this author any more money. She's not a good enough writer and all her leftist whining negates any talent she might possess.
PS "That" is a necessary word. Omitting it because some moron somewhere said "that" isn't necessary just creates a lot of problems in readability. Some sentences were unreadable because the author simply omitted "that" from a section that needed "that" without rewriting to accommodate the lack of "that" where "that" was supposed to be.
June 6, 2024
Merry's done it again!!
I have been WAITING for this book!! If you're not familiar with Merry Ravenell's books you've got a lot of catching up to do. The Mates of Planet 25XA series is AMAZING... but so is everything else she writes. If you love entertaining storylines, hilarious character banter, sprinkled with smut and "OMG why am I turned on?" Moments then this series is probably for you!
I have been WAITING for this book!! If you're not familiar with Merry Ravenell's books you've got a lot of catching up to do. The Mates of Planet 25XA series is AMAZING... but so is everything else she writes. If you love entertaining storylines, hilarious character banter, sprinkled with smut and "OMG why am I turned on?" Moments then this series is probably for you!
October 21, 2024
Liked the book, I do wish it had more connection to the overarching story of the first 2 books, like I get the whole new brother new romance thing but when the plot is started I like it to be continued. I would have wanted to see the rescued humans, the politics, Chess etc.
June 12, 2024
It is spicy 🌶️ and so loveable
June 19, 2024
3.5 stars
June 12, 2025
This series gets better with each book
I loved Thalia and her face each challenge head on. I hope there will be more in this series by this author.
I loved Thalia and her face each challenge head on. I hope there will be more in this series by this author.
January 16, 2025
4.5 ⭐/2 🌶️--This is one of my absolute favorite sci-fi/alien romance series. I love the world and the characters. I hope the author keeps adding to this series because I can't get enough of it. This book was not as good as the first two, but I still enjoyed it so much.
February 3, 2025
4.5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews