Talk about a book that starts out strong and ends so disappointing. I read this book over a span of two evenings, mainly because I could not keep my eyes open after day one. I fell asleep with my Kindle on my chest dreaming about Josham and Tresa. I waited all day to read the end of the book, and honestly, I feel as though I should have stopped halfway through.
What this book does well, it does really well. The characters are strong and believable. They are interesting, motivated, and wonderful. The challenges they face, such as Tresa going through the desert with her niece and nephew, are written so well and so real that you are actively rooting for them. I found myself at one point going “I have a full water bottle. Here take it!” And then, the mistrust and relationship that builds between our Hero and Heroine, is wonderful. The way they struggle to figure out what they are feeling, and what is happening in the world. It is so good.
And then you hit about 60% of the way through the book, and it takes a major turn for the worse. I don’t think I have ever read a book where the ending was as rushed as this book was. So much happened in the span of so few pages, that it was overwhelming. When I hit about 70% of the way through the book I honestly wanted to put it down, and not finish it.
Number one, Tresa had issues with Josham’s race of people, the Drokan. She thinks they are bad. Not evil per say, but not the best race of people. THIS IS NEVER DEALTH WITH. It literally just turns into, “I think he is hot, so his race of people cannot be that bad.” Which come on, you literally built this amazing world that exists, and this is how you are going to deal with it?
And then, to make matters worse, suddenly you find out they are fated mates and there are zero issues with either party on this. She never integrates into their culture, we never see her dealing with the problems that happen. And quite honestly the way the fated mate is painted, is that Josham and Tresa cannot be more than a few feet apart from each other and accomplish something. I am sorry, romance novel or not, eventually they are going to get sick of each other.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Overall – This book has so much unrealized potential, and I would love to see the author rewrite the last half of the book. I would love to see Tresa integrate into this culture that she thought would be terrible, with a race of people she did not quite like. I would like to see the characters Josham and Tresa actually fall in love, because they fall in love, not because they are fated mates. This books does some things well, but not enough.
Plot – 5/10
Characters – 5/10
Originality – 5/10
General Joy of Reading – 2/10
Overall Score – 17/40
Queen For The Alien Primal by Athena Storm
Cost* – $3.99 for Kindle. It is on Kindle Unlimited
*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published
Alicia Jeanne 