Before we get into my review, I gotta say it. The cover is awful. I won't beat up on it too much, since the author is self-publishing and there comes a certain territory with it, but I will say that it initially did turn me away, but since I kept seeing a huge amount of 4 and 5 star reviews and saw that this book was not only just 99 cents but was also 400 pages (I kind of make a rule to not buy a kindle book that's under 200 pages; otherwise I feel like I'm not getting much for my money, you know?) I decided it was worth a shot to download and try.
And like a lot of other reviewers said, despite the ugly cover, this is a pretty great book if you're into alien stories (which I am). This book actually has a lot in common with some other titles I like (and by that I mean themes/vibes, not like they rip off one another!) such as Transcendence by Shay Savage and Ruth's Bonded by V.C. Lancaster (the only difference is that, in this book, eventually Arokh and Angie can speak to each other, whereas the two prior books have to communicate in other ways the entire time). A lot of the book is dedicated to alternating POVs where we see our two leads, Angie and Arokh, figure out one another and develop feelings. There's a bit of a plot, but this is mostly a character driven thing, intended to showcase their relationship first and other things second.
Arokh was sweet and good; just the kind of lead I like! He cared a lot about Angie and had a lot of reservations in place--he was afraid of overstepping, always very conscious of her wants and needs, and when there's doubt planted in his mind that Angie might not be considered mature/an adult, he backs away in absolute shame for engaging in intimate things with her, thinking he corrupted her and did something horrible. He came across as very honorable and affectionate and didn't ever strike me as a doormat or anything like that. There's a big emotional journey for him between what he's been taught to do and what he wants to do and it's nice to see him resolve his feelings and find happiness. Angie was also pretty likeable and I rooted for her. My only qualm with her was sometimes the language she used; I don't know, sometimes certain traits of modern English come across so jarring in books, it was a little bit of a bother but that's on me as a preference and not really a flaw in the story/writing.
Some people might kind of throw up an air of disbelief that Angie could so quickly resign herself to being with an alien who clearly isn't human (what with the tail, horns, fire-breath, spikes, etc), but this is fiction and a sci-fi fantasy that isn't trying to be hyper-realistic, just tell a good story with a lot of fun, different elements to it. If you can get past that, this is really quite a sweet, fun, engaging read. I devoured all 400 pages in a few hours and loved every minute.
Now, as a warning, the book starts off with Angie in the midst of being sexually assaulted and while her attackers don't succeed in penetrating her and Angie seems to recover from it all without too much issue since Arokh intervened before too much could happen and immediately set to soothing and taking care of her, I just want to put it out there for anyone who might want to know! It's over with very fast right at the beginning, but it is there, and later we are introduced to a character who was not so fortunate (her story is covered in book #2 and deals more with recovering from that trauma) we aren't given explicit/intense details.
The series also follows a slightly similar pattern to the Ice Planet Barbarians series in that there are several people in this tale we're introduced to--both humans and aliens--whose stories we'll follow up in the next books as they get pared with each other. There might be a larger plot introduced that weaves itself into all the stories or something, or we might just have a bunch of stories about aliens and humans finding love and acceptance and happiness, either way, I think I'm going to keep an eye on the series and hope for more great tales of love between these sweet, affectionate aliens and a collection of women from earth.
I definitely recommend if you think the general plot is interesting, or you liked either of the two books I listed before.