Review: A Gentle Sci-Fi Version of a BDB Book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2011
3.5. Claimed's plot and characters are carefully structured and presented, and the book is edited with few typos/grammatical errors. For the price ($3), the book exceeded expectations.What's hot?: the premise, and elements of the conflict and tension between the alpha male and the girl are compelling, if not always realized; most of the world-building elements work.What's warm?: the sex scenes, secondary characters.What's cold?: the big bad that is not adequately addressed until the end of the novel and then is annoyingly similar to the enemy in J.R. Ward's series Black Dagger Brotherhood (the Kindred warriors also have a goddess figure like in the BDB books); the sometimes bizarre alien features of the Kindred world (live worms that taste like chocolate, three-headed horse-like transportation that shrinks and expands, and apparently lives in the kitchen closet self-sufficiently); the intrusion of the F word in the otherwise clean and even loving language between the two leads--it jars here nearly every time the writer uses it because it's not really expected (the word doesn't bother me normally, but the language in the rest of the book doesn't mesh with the coarseness of the word when the writer uses it); the scenes between the two leads sometimes feel artificial or paint-by-numberish--i.e., we are often led to believe the alpha-male will be dangerous and difficult, but then he is always restrained and gentlemanly around the girl, a contradictory aspect of the writing that seemed to both weaken the believability of the character and to take a pass on lots of potential tension-producing conflict between the guy and the girl (she likes him but just can't bond with him because she's homesick and misses her sister--huh?), stripping the plot of of its power; dialogue was predictable, a bit dry, just serviceable, and often repetitive during the sex scenes.As I write this review, I realize that more aspects of the story disappointed me than I thought did as I was reading. It was actually a smooth, fast read, and these problems were only mildly nagging as I moved through the story. I guess they individually added up to a final sense of frustration, culminating for me at the end of the book.I think the word I would used to describe the book is "careful." Carefully edited, carefully plotted, carefully-presented love scenes. Reading a story that is written with care can be a good thing--the writer's attention to everything from spelling to consistency in plot is important, but I don't know if I really want an alien-human erotic novel to be quite so tame. Using the F-word during love-making does not in itself make the male lead hot or compelling.That said, if the next book in the series is sold for $2.99, I'll probably buy and read it...so a qualified recommendation. If I had paid $7 or more, I'd give it a 3 instead of a 4.