I am DNF-ing at 55%; applying math, rounding up to the nearest zero and claiming this nonsense as "read" to compensate for my lost time and money.

Mild spoilers below!

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Too many words in this book, too much food intake, too much your good ole WTF-ery. Here's an example: 22 year old guy buys an extremely expensive nightshirt (no pants, just the shirt) to give himself courage and to convince his already sex-crazed alien-lover to take him to bed: "I'd found a sexy nightshirt that clearly screamed, "Take me to bed and fuck me silly."" Bleh.

I have no idea why the author even bothered to make the protagonist male. Too much talk about pregnancy and being sick in every way possible while at it. When I started the book I was hoping for an m/m sci-fi with angst and tons of sexual tension, not a catalogue of pregnancy complications.

There are few instances, where the MC practices some sort of alien karate and throws a punch at a vicious criminal, but - hey! there are plenty of women out there who are capable of a mean self-defence too! That alone doesn't justify making the character a guy. This should be an f/m romance.

I can go on and on and on, but I don't want to waste more time on it than I already have.

My rating for the first 55% is 1 star.

When and if I feel like I need more words in my life I might finish this book, but not in the nearest future. Moving on to shinier things with substance :D

Forgot to add:

Royalty - maybe it does amount to something later in the book, but in the first half it only provides a convenient excuse for murder, nothing more.

Kidnapping - yep, takes place. But all the fun is taken away when Dale, within days, decides it's totally cool with him. Really? O.o

Mpreg - only talk so far, but even that is overwhelming. Pregnancy is not something I want to read about. Not with all the gross gruesome details. Been there, done that, want to get as far away from it as possible and never think about it again, EVER.

Rainbows and lollipops - Yes, mostly. Though somewhat spoiled by clumsy attempts at violence. Still, all the villains are being counseled and are doing awesome, on the way to speedy recovery from their wickedness within whole two days (just in case you're concerned).

Dub-con - not even bothering with this one, there is none.

The End. ( )

3.5 Stars ( )

Alien abductions, for whatever purpose, have been part of literature ever since we came up with the idea that alien life might be "out there", and that they might, one day, decide to come visit us. This book is part of a subclass of stories with that theme and focuses on aliens coming here not to invade Earth, but to find mates. Why they would do that is neither here nor there, normally, but in this novel it makes a difference. The Tah'Narians have been rendered sterile by their enemies and need fresh DNA, but instead of asking for volunteers Earth governments decide to "give" them the men they need (female DNA doesn't work for them).

Dale Michaels is one of the men who get "harvested", but he believes it’s an error. He isn't in the age bracket, and the agreement is supposed to have ended after five years. As he gets to know his new mate, he finds out that those weren't the only lies told by Earth's governments to "appease" the population. The process he goes through as he adjusts to life with an alien is interesting, and goes from anger and despair over what he has lost to curiosity about his mate's culture. Dale is not one to shut up, and the number of issues he creates for himself and his new mate is impressive and – at least for me – extremely entertaining. If Keyno had been looking for a passive, docile mate, that is definitely not what he got.

Keyno is the captain of the starship sent to harvest the one thousand Terranns, and he is not only an amazing warrior, proud, and full of testosterone (or whatever the alien equivalent may be called), he is also full of secrets. Many of these are not the kind he should have kept from Dale, but how could he have known Dale is so – volatile? Luckily, Keyno is up to the challenge, and I loved watching him and Dale verbally spar as they slowly fall for each other. They need all the spitfire they can each muster to make it through the adventures ahead of them.

While the initial idea of aliens having a treaty with Earth for the "delivery" of a certain number of males per year is very similar to the concept of the Owned series at Siren Publishing (right down to the lottery devised by human governments to make the selection), the development of the story takes a different direction. I liked the addition of the Onfre, Tah'Narian's enemies, the focus on actual reproduction (read: male pregnancy), and the development of a real relationship between Dale and Keyno at a slow enough pace to make it seem somewhat realistic.

If you like your science fiction a little wilder and out there, if you enjoy reading about captured mates who remain true to their own nature, and if you're looking for an entertaining space adventure with a healthy dose of romance and some very hot interspecies bedroom activities, then you will probably like this novel. It is the first of three, and the story ends rather suddenly, so be aware of that to avoid disappointment. I have to say I really liked this first installment and look forward to the next one! ( )

So incredibly sweet. ( )

I have to be truth, I picked up this book as soon as it was out cause I wanted to read a good mpreg story, and that is not easy to find. While the good part was there, there isn’t much of the mpreg, I think that, being this a series, most of it will be in following book.

The main theme is an interracial love story between a young human, Dale, and a warrior alien, Keyno. From what I could gather, the alien race hasn’t really gender, they are all warrior with the ability to conceive; only that, as an aftermath of a chemical war, their reproductive system was damaged, and now they need to find mates who are able to carry on a pregnancy; female apparently won’t go, cause the babies are bigger than usual, and it leads to miscarriage. So basically, Keyno’s people is travelling the star system, vising various planets and picking a few thousands of willing or unwilling men to be “harvested”. At first, Dale was on the unwilling side. But he soon changed idea when he saw the advantage of having a sexy mate like Keyno, even if he comes with a tail and a little more fur than usual (cat-like) and with the requirement for Dale to be the one to give birth to their babies.

Let me say that I enjoyed the story, it was mostly light and cute, not really heavy-set on details like many sci-fi novels. So yes, I’m not a big fan of sci-fi, I prefer my stories like this one, but this is also a warning to possible readers of what they will have reading it, if you are hard-core sci-fi fans, maybe it’s good for you to set your expectation.

Another little warning is for the character of Dale, he is a brat, a cute, little brat, well aware of the appeal he has on Keyno and able to use it. The relationship between them is, or better, should be Dominant versus submissive, but Dale soon learns the technique of topping from the bottom, and he has soon Keyno tied around his little finger. Truth, that was fated from the beginning, cause Keyno’s people is used to consider mates like precious ones to be protected and cherished.

I wouldn’t have minded to read a little more about Dale and the prospective pregnancy but he mostly joked about it using stereotypes about women and pregnancy; I suppose the real deal will be in following books when it will be his time to experience it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/162757073X/?tag=elimyrevandra-20