Red-Haired Ash Reads

Dorothy Valentine is so close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she was attacked by a lion. Before she is killed though she is abducted by aliens. When she wakes up she decides to escape and ends up taking the lion with her. But now she is stranded on an alien planet that has dinosaurs and all kinds of weird pieces of Earth. 

This was fun but chaotic. Dory was sassy, smart, and a bit reckless. When she finds out she is in a breeding experiment being done by owl aliens, she is of course upset, but not for long. She ends up being mated to aliens Sol and Lok, and now all three of them have to navigate their new relationship, getting to know each other, and the raging hormones the aliens introduced in them. 

While I did enjoy the chaos of this book, I felt the romance was left behind a bit. There is instant-lust in the beginning because of the aliens hitting them with pheromones to link them together, but not much other than that. There is very little getting to know you or discussions of how their triad will work. After reading her previous books, I was expecting a bit more in the romance department. 

This world is ridiculous with its dinosaurs and the little caches of human settlements. It was really interesting because it was all so ridiculous. These three are constantly jumping from one dangerous situation to the next, which keeps the story moving at a fast pace. But man, a lot happened in such a short amount of time. 

My biggest issue though is a bit of a spoiler, but it really bothered me so I think I need to discuss it. It involves a forced mating and yes I know, technically Dory’s was forcibly mated to Lok and Sol, but this was different. So skip the next paragraph if you don’t want any spoilers. 

I am really not ok with the forced mating of King Osid and Blair, another human in the experiment. Osid is a tyrant who has kidnapped them. He has no problem hurting either Blair or Dory, and has his men hurt them as well. He is also willing to torture and kill his men with very little provocation. I am not ok with him getting a mate, and I really hope Blair offs him in the next book. I really wish she had killed him in this one to be honest. 

Overall, I did enjoy this, even if it was very chaotic. I wasn’t expecting a why choose romance but it works. I will read the next one. 

TW: kidnapping; torture; forced relationship; physical abuse; poisoning; 

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