jurnee_reads's reviews
311 reviews

Really just a sweet story, basically no drama with the main couple. I personally prefer a little drama though, so not my favorite. So sweet that I feel like I’ve eaten too much candy and my teeth hurt. I did appreciate the action close to the end, it was alluded to and I was happy to see it come to fruition.

Things I like: Harry Potter references, fat female lead, the humor, dealings with grief and loss of family, found family

Things I don’t like: drugging, treating female lead like a womb instead of a person, lack of proper communication, angry fat woman trope being used AGAIN

Calida is a fierce lady dealing with grief and resonance at the same time which is a really ugly mix. She doesn’t get the time to actually handle her grief before she’s thrust into resonance with a male who has very little consideration for her situation. M’Tok is funny and interesting to read about, but he’s not very empathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a Slytherin, but he doesn’t have to be so “sly and cunning” that he completely ignores the wants and needs of his woman and isn’t able to properly communicate with her at some point.

I kept thinking it would get better, he’d be an ass for a while and then Calida would get vulnerable with him so he’d feel remorse for how aggressive he was with her. But that didn’t happen! He just stayed in the same state of mind. Even them bonding over losing their families didn’t change his thinking at all. He should understand how hard things are for her, he should feel bad for putting all that extra pressure on her, but he doesn’t. He’s just “resonance will fix it, let’s fuck” and that’s it.

One thing that sorta kinda pertains to the story I want to rant about… This is why I prefer Slytherins paired with Hufflepuffs as opposed to a Gryffindor. A Hufflepuff will at least be a good influence on the Slytherin, a Gryffindor will not! Calida even hates on Hufflepuffs at the beginning which is annoying as hell. Calida could have been a Hufflepuff type character and been more gentle and able to encourage empathy in M’Tok so he could see where he’d gone wrong, sort of like Ellie with Bek, but instead he just wears her down with his trickery and stubbornness… which is gross. She’s basically tricked and forced into giving consent which isn’t actually consent… so the ending of this was really unsatisfying. No character growth, just rewarded bad behavior.

Why Ruby keeps making her fat character angry every single time I have no clue… but it’s wearing me out. Fat women are gentle and sensitive too! We’re not all aggressive and angry at the world but portrayed as “feisty” for a more palatable experience. All the other smaller sized characters get depth, get to be different and diverse, but all the fat women are angry… it’s gross. I hope she does better in the future books.

Also… Calida may be depressed, she’s grieving, but she doesn’t actually have depression… there is a difference. It may not be a noticeable difference for those who don’t have depression, but there is one. We’re not just sad when things are bad, we’re sad all the damn time… even when everything is great.

This is in my list of top favorites for this series! S’bren is a diamond in the rough and will forever be a joy to my heart. Penny is the perfect partner for him, loving, open, affectionate, bold, and just everyone’s friend. She brings sunshine to this story in many ways. I love how she treats him and I love how she learned to treat herself better too. My absolutely favorite of the chunky girls thus far. As a chunky girl myself, I was waiting for a character with my body type that I could relate to… but the others all have a very abrasive personality which I just don’t get. Penny is different, she’s joyful and happy to be with others and still strong willed.

One of my favorite moments for her is when she realizes what S’bren has done… she scolds him but she doesn’t do it with malice, she stops when she knows he feels bad. I loved that. I also loved how she handled their return to the tribe and facing Raahosh and R’jaal. She speaks up when needed and she makes sense every time.

Such an easy read, I finished in one night. Not much action but the romance is nice and the conflict is relatable.

Megan is a people pleaser, which is escalated by the fact that she’s new to the tribe and feels the need to be useful. As someone with the same tendencies, I empathize with her a lot. Most people might think it’s silly that she doesn’t just tell Cashol about her worries, but it honestly makes the most sense. She’s so new there and doesn’t feel secure, sharing her worries would be a big step for her because with her mindset that makes her a burden which could make others not want her around.

I love that Cashol is so patient with her, he honestly just wants to help her feel safe and secure while also a bit selfishly wants her to love him for all he is as he loves her. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her comfortable and earn her love. The sakhui are no strangers to working for the things they want and need, so I imagine this isn’t a big inconvenience for him.

The parts that aren’t the flashback are really cute as well, I adore seeing more of Josie because she’s one of my favorites of the girls. Everyone is so happy with their lives and I love seeing them with their mates and kids and loving life.

A great closer to an amazing series (even if there is a spinoff)

I appreciate how Nora’s kinks were explained and portrayed, it felt very relatable to someone familiar with kink and understandable to someone not familiar. The way Dagesh has to learn how to be kinky with Nora to please her… was so beautiful. The back and forth in his mind, the struggle, it all makes the end result worth it. I also really loved the wedding, I actually cried a little.

For this to close out the series… makes me sad… because I just love these characters. But I also know that there simply had to me a last book and this was a great one.

Good read, deals with situations not yet discussed in this series so I’m always ready for something new. The ice planet books do get a bit repetitive but that wasn’t an issue here.

I truly appreciate T’chai’s personality. He’s steadfast and patient, and even when things are terrible and he wants to give up, he never stops trying. He’s also really considerate of everyone else around him. He understands struggle and wants everyone to live happily.

This first book did a really great job of setting up the world! I love me some world building! The alien planet Ketahn lives on is interesting and “other worldly” enough for it to be believable so I was able to really immerse myself in it. I loved learning about the vrix and their society, the descriptions of everything hit it home for me.

The romance between our leads was… goodish. I enjoyed seeing them learn things about each other and getting comfortable with each other.

I love Ketahn’s pov in regards to Ivy, he makes everything seem so passionate and intense. When reading through Ivy I feel like I’m missing something. I’m missing some of her character, some of her story, her motivations, like she wasn’t really an important part of this story. It’s never explained why she was chosen to be on the ship for colonization, she doesn’t seem to have any real skills for it so I can’t imagine that out of… maybe 10,000 applicants she was picked. I also don’t know what she cares about except starting new. She doesn’t talk about anything else.

One big gripe, Ivy and Ketahn pick up each other’s languages really fast… faster than I would expect. It feels unreal how well their able to communicate in a month.

She didn’t decide to ask him about where he found her until they were together for a month. That’s an awfully long time. Their language barrier shrunk a lot and very quickly so that’s not the issue, it seems she just didn’t ask in all that time. I’m sure it’s for “plot” reasons but it seems contradictory to how she behaved when he first found her. She was adamant to going back and seeing if any other humans survived… then she simply… doesn’t care anymore? Forgets? What? It’s weird.

The sex was hotter than it should have been considering this is a spider alien… but it was hot as hell. The only thing I wish would have been different is the communication, that just didn’t exist… so in my opinion there should have been a dub-con trigger warning. Trigger warnings do not ruin books and should be used more often.

I’m sure in future books their relationship will be more explored so I don’t have an issue with that being a little up in the air.

All in all, good read and I’m looking forward to the next ones.

It’s taken a while for me to get to this book, but now that I’ve finished it I immediately want to dive into the third book! Lots of romance and fluffy scenes, fantastic sex scenes, but honestly the best part of this book is when the vrix interact with the humans. Ahnset is especially interesting and sweet with the humans but she also has great sibling moments with Ketahn which I enjoyed a lot.

The action, the romance, the pure alien of it all… gotta love.

A perfect end to the trilogy! Just wonderfully done. I’m greatly looking forward to the next books as well.

This held some really interesting elements that I think sets it apart from other alien romances, making it really enjoyable for me. Seeing Thrax grow as a being was great and I appreciated how Claire devolved in her confidence and courage as well. Love seeing characters grow.