Title: Doctoring Fte
Author: Alexis B. Osborne
Series: Outer Limits Quadrants #2
Pages: 480
Trigger Warnings; terminal illness; sexual harassment from a coworker; drugging; forced pregnancy and imprisonment; attempted sexual assault; human trafficking; forced medical examinations; extreme injuries that lead to brain damage and possible death;
I have mixed feelings about this book, which sucks. This review is going to have major spoilers because I can’t think of a way to talk about my issues with this book without spoiling things, especially since they can also be triggering for some people. So stop here if you don’t want to read any spoilers for this book.
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SPOILERS AHEAD
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Let’s start with the MMC, Maddox. Maddox is the ambassador of the Raxion’s and while we see him being a bit conniving at controlling what the humans see/do, it all basically made sense because the Raxion’s don’t really know what the humans will do. So for the first half of this book I liked Maddox and the building relationship with Darcy. But then we see the real kind of person he is. Maddox gets Darcy tipsy, drugs her with a fertility drug, and has sex to impregnate Darcy all because he was ordered to by his superiors who are trying to get their hands on the nano’s in the human’s blood. This is after they already obtained a sample of actual blood from Darcy. Once the truth comes out he tries to justify his actions by saying it was the only way he could think to protect her from rape and that he negotiated for a pretty and comfortable prison for her, so it will be ok. Needless to say, I hated Maddox for the rest of this book.
Now to Darcy. I liked Darcy for the majority of this book but she was also very clueless at the same time. She has experienced the worst of the human military and yet doesn’t question why they are sending two extremely dangerous men on this rescue mission, nor does she even question why they are doing a rescue mission. She also just keeps brushing off the sexual harassment she is experiencing from Gunner, which was ridiculous.
When Darcy realizes the truth about Maddox I really felt for her and understood her overwhelming despair and depression. That was understandable, but I can’t believe she let herself get drugged so she would be “calm” during social situations, especially when they have no idea how a human body will react to this drug. But my biggest issue with Darcy was that as soon as Maddox was in danger, she forgave him for all his actions and let him right back in, without any groveling or earning back her trust. That instantly made me want to smack her and say WTF is wrong with you girl.
Overall, this was a huge disappointment after loving the first book so much. While I didn’t like this one, I will be reading the next one because I really liked Delilah and want to see what is happening to her.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Amazon
Previous books and reviews for the series:
Red-Haired Ash Reads 