4.5 out of 5
When I recently got a like for my review of this book, I remembered it - vaguely. When I read the outline and my review, I remember how much I enjoyed it and wanted to do a reread. So I did. And I do still - enjoy it that is. In fact I’m raising my rating to a 4.5 and rounding up to a 5.
This is the third book and I have and read the first book. Now I think it needs a reread to. And not only that, the 2nd and 4th book in the series are on KU. I’ve been focusing on reading the books I have on KU and had a couple of spaces open so I picked them up.
O happy dance day.
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A couple of years ago I read a book, Transcendence by Shay Savage. This book rocked the foundation my reading world. It dealt with a young woman who was sent back in time and the hero was a caveman and they weren’t able to communicate.
So when I read the outline in a review of this book, about a young woman dropped among cave people and she was unable to communicate with them, I was SO onboard with it. It didn’t rock the foundation, but I still enjoyed this one very much anyway. This is the third book in a series but works just fine as a stand-alone. I haven’t read the first two and was never confused.
Just so you know, this is a sci/fi romance. Lenna, our heroine, is ‘planet dropped’ when she runs afoul of the “coalition’, the government in charge. This seems to be the way they handle transgressors, just drop them off on random planets with no way to escape. The planet they drop Lenna off on is a prehistoric planet. She is confronted with a group of cavemen like people who it is clear mean her no good. She is rescued by a second group of cavemen who seem more friendly, though they do ignore her for the most part. It seems they are bitter enemies of the first tribe. Lenna heads back with them, knowing she’s not able to take care of herself alone. There she discovers a younger guy who it seems will have his own book, who has been planet dropped himself. He explains how things work in this world. If she can get the attention and then the protection of a male member of the tribe, he will make sure she is taken care of and in turn she ‘grooms’ him – making sure he is shaved and clean and well, groomed. But it’s up to the woman to make her interest known to the man.
So Lenna decides to see if she can become the mate of a caveman named Rone. He was one of the ones who saved her from the other tribe, a good hunter and kinder than some of the others. She does get him and underneath all his caveman looks, discovers a very handsome and caring guy. After a while they manage to somewhat communicate on a very basic level and while it’s clear that Rone has feelings for her and she begins to reciprocate them.
This is such a sweet story. It’s not that long, more novella size, but the author manages to really convey what she needs to. Though we only see things from Lenna’s POV, it works very well and we clearly get Rone’s feelings even though not from his POV. I loved seeing how two people from such totally different ways of living manage to make a relationship work. I think Rone is more progressive than some of the other males on the planet and that helps. Towards the end, Lenna has a chance to escape and the conflict comes from whether she will or whether she won’t.
If you are a fan of Transcendence or if you like something very different and offbeat then I say give this one a try. I think you may enjoy it too