I loved this book. The characters, the setting, the mystery (which I will NOT spoil, not even in spoiler tags, since it's so much better if you can figure it out along with our MC, Jess). All of it. I had so much fun with this book.

I do feel I need to state up front that the CWs are important to be aware of for this book. If I have one complaint about this book, it's that the CWs should have been included somewhere. I think the ideal situation would have been to include a reference to CWs in the note before the book that references the history, and then have the CWs spelled out in the end. Not everyone will be impacted, but since there are war scenes in early flashbacks, I could see this being a problem for anyone who suffers from PTSD.

The plot of this book was really well done. I loved the mystery of Kenai, and getting to figure it out just one small step ahead of Jess at a time. I also really appreciated that this mystery was merely a part of the plot, not the whole plot, and so it got solved relatively early on in the story. The twist isn't completely new, but it's done in a way that I personally haven't seen before, and I appreciated that.

The setting was also really neat, and Dobson made the aliens actually feel like aliens while still being human-like enough in their feelings and motivations to encourage the reader to care about them. After my experience with Kenai, I definitely plan to check out Daros, which is another (standalone) book set in the same universe.

Speaking of characters, Jess (our MC and only narrator) was awesome. She's got a snarky personality and sense of humor, and yet has such a good heart. She's the kind of character I felt I could be friends with, assuming she opened herself up enough to let a friendship develop. She's been hurt (that's part of what the flashbacks are there to show) but still stays good and true and hopeful.

All told, this is a very enjoyable book as long as the CWs are not triggers for you. It has the perfect amount of weirdness and sarcasm, with just enough of a brain twister to make the mystery's reveal stand out. Jess, as "a marine and not a scientist" is the perfect character to lead readers through this new world, letting us find our way in alien territory alongside her.

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CW Spoilers:

While the war and imprisonment are not given a lot of page time in this book, they are present and are descriptive enough to put some readers off. I felt that they were good character development, but if these are triggering things for you, please go carefully.

The grief related to death of loved ones is not shown in much detail, but it is also very much part of those sections of the book. Our narrator works through the death of her parents in a couple of small flashbacks, worrying about what they would think of her. The children that die are the children of a secondary (and non-POV) character. They die quickly and at the same time due to illness, and nothing is shown on-screen. Their deaths are referenced a few times but nothing is given in much detail.

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I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and while I was provided a review copy for judging purposes I read the book using the version available on Kindle Unlimited. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole. ( )