My two girls and I are going to be snowed in for Christmas and that’s fine with us, until an alien spacecraft crashes behind our wooded Maine home. I take the gorgeous Virilian, Prince Sakar, home with me. He’s injured and tracking an endangered alien dog with a taste for my neighbor’s goats. Spending Christmas with an alien prince is the last thing my daughters and I expected, next to my falling in love with him. My heart’s been beaten up plenty, but can I take a chance on this male who adores my young girls and awakens desires I thought long dead?
I usually avoid Earth at all costs, but tracking the daerli led me to crash-landing on Nessa’s property in the middle of a snowstorm. My kind are forbidden on Earth, but I can’t leave without the rare creature I’m tracking, and the female I’m stranded with has enthralled me. I want her with all of my being. When the human authorities arrive to take me away, the deepest hidden side of my Virilian nature comes out to protect her. I must find a way to prove to Nessa that I am her fated mate, or lose her forever.
This sweet and steamy holiday tale is part of the Stranded With an Alien collection, a collaboration of authors telling holiday tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Also, Sakar takes place in the world of the Virilian Mail Order Mates series!
I love that Nessa got another chance at love at forty and her two daughters got a bigger family that loves them the way they deserve - it was so beautiful reading their story. Sakar is a keeper 🖤 . "I did not enter myself into the Virilian match program," he said quietly. "But if I had, I would want to be matched with you."
Note: Some of my goodreads shelves can be spoilers
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Readability: 📖📖📖📖 Feels: 🦋🦋🦋 Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡ Romance: 💞💞💞💞 Sensuality: 💋💋💋 Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥 Humor: Yes, a bit Perspective: First person with alternating chapters for hero and heroine More character focused or plot focused? Lots of character focus When mains are first on page together: Pretty soon in, about 12% in a shorter novel Cliffhanger: No this ends with a happily ever after Epilogue: It’s not labeled, but yes the last chapter wraps things up a few months later Format: read e-book on Kindle Unlimited (Descriptions found at end of my review)
Should I read in order? Maybe start with Virilian Mail Order Mates series? (Trak is book 1) You CAN read this one alone – it’s very character focused and it gives the details so you understand the alien/Earth relationship, but I want to say it would be better after reading that series? I found myself wanting to go read it afterwards at least!
Basic plot: Sekar attempts to make a quick stop on Earth to rescue an endangered animal carried by another spacecraft when he’s snowed in on Nessa’s 200 acre farm in Maine.
Give this a try if you want: - science fiction romance - Earth setting - holiday romance - shorter novel - snowed in - kids in the story – heroine has 2 daughters that are 8 and 11 - divorcee/widow heroine in her 40s - royalty – hero is a prince - average novella steam – 1 steam
Ages: - Heroine is 40, didn’t see hero mentioned
First line: Bring him back alive.
My thoughts: This is a cute story! It’s pretty low angst, with Christmas and snowed in vibes. I liked the character focused story and liked the bit of tension building here.
I’m not a huge fan of children in my stories because I’m mean like that, but this worked out pretty cute. I was a touch overwhelmed at first with the world building of the alien race and Earth’s alliance and what was going on...I’m assuming that’s all already established once you’ve read Blake’s Virilian Mail Order Mates series, but it was simple enough over all.
I liked Blake’s writing and definitely want to try another by her and see how I feel.
Cock/Hero Stats:
Quotes/thoughts: (Any mistakes are my own)
Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Extra stuff like what my review breakdowns mean, where to find me, and book clubs
Full break down on what my ratings above mean here: Overall: How I felt about it everything considered! Readability: How ‘readable’ was the book? Did I fly through it? Did I have to tell myself to pick it back up repeatedly? Were any passages confusing? (I will probably score like (1) is literally unreadable due to formatting/typing errors, etc (2) There were lots of errors that made it difficult to read OR It was extremely confusing and I had to reread passages to make sense of it OR I disliked it so much I had to bribe myself to keep reading (3) I didn’t really want to keep reading and would have preferred to abandon the read and start something else OR some minor continuity issues/confusion (4) I liked it fine, maybe a minor error or 2. I was happy to pick it up when I had time. (5) I never wanted to put this down. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it. I hid in the bathroom from my kids to read. I threw inappropriate food at my children for dinner so I could read instead.) Feels: Totally subjective to each person but did the book give me any tingles? Any butterflies? Did it rip my heart out (in a good way?) Emotional depth: How well do I feel I know the characters at the end? How much did I feel their emotions throughout the story? Sexual tension: Again, subjective, but how strong was the wanting and longing to me between the characters? A book might have strong sexual tension without a single touch. Romance: Was there romance? Did romantic things happen? This can be actions/words/thoughts of the characters and again is subjective. Sensuality: This is how the intimate scenes are written. Kisses and sexual scenes – how sensual were they? Were they on the mechanical side? Was there emotional pull tied in? Were the details explicit or flowery? These are subjective but generally (1) too short to get a good judgement (2) not all what I'm looking for - very vague or flowery prose (3) either not explicit enough or not enough emotional pull (too mechanical/physically descriptive without the emotions) (4) what I love in a scene (5) absolute perfection - perfect balance of emotional longing and explicit descriptions Sex Scene Length: How long the bedroom scenes are (generally (1) is 1-3 sentences (2) is a few paragraphs to a page-ish (3) is about average, a few pages (4) more well developed scenes, quite a few pages with descriptions (4) the majority of the book takes place in the bedroom. This is always hard to tell for me on audio! Steam Scale: Generally, each flame is a scene. If scenes are super close together I sometimes combine them. If a scene is super short or so vague I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t count it. There’s some levels of grey but generally the number of flames is how many sex scenes there are (I max out at 5 so I’ll put a + after if there’s more than that)
'Era como si ya conociera su forma y regresara a ella después de mucho tiempo. Cualquier duda de que esta mujer fuera mía se disipó con los vientos que rugían afuera.'
•Mi opinión puede contener Spoilers. •Esta destinada a ser un descargo personal no para que alguien más lea pero si lo haces y te ofende, me disculpo porque sé lo que es que te guste un libro y otros lo critiquen.
Sakar de Ella Blake serie Stranded with an alien libro 4
Argumento:
Mis dos hijas y yo vamos a nevar durante Navidad y eso está bien para nosotros, hasta que una nave espacial extraterrestre se estrella detrás de nuestra casa boscosa de Maine. Me llevo a casa al magnífico Viriliano, el Príncipe Sakar. Está herido y rastrea a un perro alienígena en peligro de extinción al que le gustan las cabras de mi vecino. Pasar la Navidad con un príncipe alienígena es lo último que mis hijas y yo esperábamos, además de enamorarme de él. Mi corazón ha sido golpeado mucho, pero ¿puedo arriesgarme con este hombre que adora a mis hijas y despierta deseos que creía muertos hace mucho tiempo?
Normalmente evito la Tierra a toda costa, pero rastrear a los daerli me llevó a un aterrizaje forzoso en la propiedad de Nessa en medio de una tormenta de nieve. Los de mi especie están prohibidos en la Tierra, pero no puedo irme sin la rara criatura que estoy siguiendo, y la hembra con la que estoy varado me ha cautivado. La quiero con todo mi ser. Cuando las autoridades humanas llegan para llevarme, el lado más oculto de mi naturaleza viriliana sale a protegerla. Debo encontrar una manera de demostrarle a Nessa que soy su compañero predestinado, o perderla para siempre.
Mi humilde opinión:
Disfruté esta historia corta, hubo un poco de peligro y acción, dulzura y pasión, vibras navideñas, pareja destinada y adorables niñas. Los personajes eran todos agradables. La raza Virilian me intrigó, amo cuando los aliens tratan a la mujer como un tesoro!
Me gustó ver a Sakar con las hijas de Nessa. Fue lo que más me gustó, las partes juntos como familia. Fue muy dulce verlos juntos mostrándole las actividades navideñas.
En cuanto al romance, no estaba mal pero esperaba más de esa conexión mágica de parejas destinadas alien/humana. Sentí que Sakar demostró más interés que Nessa. No sé, sentí más de su parte que de ella. Las escenas íntimas no fueron tan apasionadas, eran un poco robóticas.
El final se resuelve todo muy bien y Nessa no tuvo que escoger entre la tierra y el planeta de Sakar.
I enjoyed this story because it was about an older couple instead of twenty something’s. The heat between the two was jumping off the page, talk about steam. I felt like Sakar and Nessa were both due for some happiness and I would love a follow up story (hint, hint)!
The Stranded with an Alien: A Sci-Fi Holiday Tail Series is absolute perfection! These 7 books are sweet, spicy, and full of holiday fun! They get ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me!
Each book features a FMC who gets stranded with a hunk of an alien on either her planet or his. Being stranded together only helps to push them together until they can’t help but give in to their desires. Each book also takes place around Christmas (or their equivalent of the holidays) so they spend it together. The magic of the holidays helps to solidify their love! Each book has a HEA and tons of buildup and spice.
I love reading collections like this because, like anthologies, it introduces me to new authors! Each of these books takes place in a universe that the author already has stories in. So now I’m picking up new series just from these! There’s no particular order you need to read these. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
🎄 Frost by Ava Ross ❄️ Sinta by Honey Phillips 🎁 Baki by Ella Maven ☃️ Taliz by Alana Khan 🎄 Zearn by Rena Marks 🎁 Sakar by Ella Blake ❄️ Vixin by Tana Stone
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
An alien who accidentally ends up on Earth and the lady (and her kids) who shelter him during a snowstorm. While Sakar isn't looking for a mate (and doesn't expect to find one), he's pretty fascinated by Nessa and her little family. On Nessa's end, she might like the way the big guy looks, but she's got responsibilities (to her kids, her farm, and her job) that doesn't make it easy to jump in with both feet when a hunky alien is giving her hungry looks.
To make things even more complicated, Sakar is injured when his ship crashes and the creature he's been sent to retrieve is now running wild in the forest. So he has to heal (which is fairly quick for his people), catch a creature that very much doesn't belong on Earth, and make sure Nessa and her family are kept safe from the people in charge who don't want aliens on-planet.
A little danger, a little steam, a LOT of heat (in more ways than one), an unexpected journey off planet, and a ready-made family. (You know, once Nessa and Sakar got things figured out.) *thumbs up*
I found this series after Ella Maven’s newsletter clued me in to Baki’s story. When I saw that Ella Blake wrote a standalone based off her Virilian series, which I love, I was ecstatic. How had I not found this collaboration sooner? Can’t beat all my favorite authors in one place. 🫶🏻
Written in 1st person, Sakar follows a Virilian Prince who’s chasing an extinct creature for his cousin King Virak when the smugglers crash land on Earth. Nessa finds the crashed ship on her acres of forest in the middle of nowhere, and takes him in through the storm. He falls in love with Nessa and her children, she helps him capture the escaped creature and he turns to his beast form when the family becomes threatened by Earth’s government. Everything works out and the family lives happily ever after. What a warm story! I loved every word. 🫶🏻
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Sakar and Nessa are perfect for each other. Both were accepting of their life, until they met. I think Nessa knew immediately that Sakar was it but her hesitation understood cause of the safety and emotional well being of her daughters. Mia & Vi had known heartache that no child should...twice at that..one due to circumstance and another through stupid choices of their stepdad. Sakar was delight in learning about Earth, food, animals and creating a family that he needed and wanted and the one Nessa, Mia, and Vi could thrive in.
This is not the first book I have read by Ella Blake, however I will be reading the series this is from.
Btw, can we get an epilogue about 5 years in, and Sakar has to deal with boys and teen girls🤣🤣🤣🤣?????
Nessa and her daughters look happily forward to their first Christmas after the divorce. Then there’s a loud boom and a column of smoke! Checking out the crash site, Nessa rescues the injured Virilian, Sakar, but the scary, dog-like daerli runs off into the woods. First things first. Get Sakar and herself back to the safety of her farm before the blizzard arrives. When Sakar feels better maybe they can figure out what to do next.and how to find the precious daerli. Taking some time to get to know Sakar and enjoy Christmas will help, right? Enjoy the adventures after the blizzard!
I love Nessa and Sakar's story. Slavers who have captured a daerli crash on Earth. Sakar is on a mission to bring that daerli back to his king where there is a female daerli. He crashes on earth also and the daerli takes off. Nessa, who lives on the nearby farm, hears something crash and she finds an injured Sakar at the crash site. She takes him home and, after spending time together, they find love with each other and Sakar falls heads over heels for Nessa's two daughter. They almost lose each when officials come to Nessa's ranch and they find Sakar there. This is a sweet and steamy romance ending in a happily ever after.
I loved this story ❤️ It may have been a shorter story, but it was a fully fledged great story. We really got to know Sakar, Nessa & Nessa' girls Violet & Mia. Seeing things from Sakar' eyes as he learned about earth things, including animals, Christmas traditions, human food & drinks & more was special. Each of these characters was special & the sweet romance between Sakar & Nessa was perfect. Very sweet with the right amount of spicy. This book left me feeling very happy 😊
Another fun holiday alien (the outer space kind) read, although if I’m being honest, Christmas is only incidental to the story. Many other events have more significance. Even the animals in the barn get more mention. Nevertheless it’s a charming tale about, Sakar, an alien prince, falling in love with a widowed, then divorced earth woman. He’s also enchanted by her two daughters. Earth’s government gets involved with a potentially dire outlook but his cousin, the king, comes up with a solution that makes everyone happy.
It’s a good story. Who would’ve thought that our MMC would find his mate, whom he was not looking for, in a planet far away he has no intention of visiting but had to. But it happened and it was the best Christmas. I loved that scene where Samar in his primal form confronted the earth authorities. I found it funny when I imagine the frustration on that assuming general.
Loved this book. The heroine was a fierce, empathetic, and hard-working single mom. The hero, an alien crashed in the remote woods at Christmas time. A lovely "tail" of acceptance, helping someone in need, and teaching her family the concepts of charity for those who are different. Add in a growing attraction, love, and sacrifice for that love...plus a bit of spice, and you have a compelling tale about the meaning of the holidays.
Nessa and her two girls were relatively happy on her parent's farm and then Sakar crashed his ship behind his quarrie's ship. He was trying to free an endangered animal from the bad aliens when earth's defences hit the ship of the unsavoury characters and they both crashed. Nessa aided Sakar and the romance began.
Sakar crashed in just the right place! I loved this story! It fits in perfectly with the rest of this series! Nessa and her girls had a routine, they were a unit, so when Sakar crashed into their lives, there was a definite adjustment period. I loved how the characters fit together, and how Nessa found a way to do what needed to be done!
A very interesting story starting out with a crash and ending in a sweet loving bang! I enjoyed the relationships that built between the Alien and the humans. If course, the romance between the adults, but also how he won over the daughters also. And the way the problems were solved was ingenious. Through it all, they got their HEA.
Ella Blake does it again with her Virilian. Boy do I love that series. I was glad she wrote another book on them. And I was especially happy that it was an older couple two thumbs up 👍🏾👍🏾. This was a great read. I really enjoyed it.
HEA novella about Sakar and Nessa. Needs has a horse named Prince Charming that is anything but friendly. It turns out, the Prince Charming is actually Sakar.
Sakar and Nessa's story was sweet as hell. I love that they are an older couple and she has two children. Also, seeing a mother that is protective of her kids and puts them first even though she is falling in love, is nice to see. You don't always see that with single parents.
The story wasn't bad. It's has a little danger to make the story interesting. Other than that its about it's about a woman and her two daughters getting to know a being from outer space that crash landed on their farm on Christmas eve.
The characters, story & the romance are all very cozy. There's not a lot of crazy villains, nor any real violence. Just a sweet little story with just a bit of sexiness. Great quick read.
Fun read set during Christmas. Good descriptions and the language aspect was cute. Loved the diner scene!!! Think huge alien goes to southern Waffle House!
Really enjoyed this story. Was going to stop reading for the night after I finished the chapter I was on to have things really get exciting. Had to stay up late and finish the book. Can't wait to read the next book in the series.
This is a story about an alien who crash lands and a human woman comes to his rescue. Then he rescued her. Then they have enough time together to develop feelings for each other until the authorities show up. Good read.
So far my favorite in the whole planets book line ups. Did wish that she became pregnant since she was only 40. Still could. Would like to read a book of the girls future. Maybe they become active in hunting down more friends for Alex.
But I got puppies with this story. That's OK! We get a single Mom with 2 pre-teens, an alien Prince with a spaceship who crashed while chasing bad aliens... You know what? Just read this story and have a great time!
No matter the nationality or planet you're from. Excellent Scifi romance storyline. Wonderfully interesting characters. Sakar? Well he's hot in more ways than one. Nessa is Mother Earth, caring for her children and her farm. A heartwarming story. Enjoy!