Red-Haired Ash Reads

This story takes place in the same universe as the Intersolar Union and Over the Moon series but it is set 60 years after those events so this is a complete standalone, but if you have read those books then you just know more about the different aliens and convergence. 

Gabbie is invited by her friend and coworker Leopha, a venandi, to attend the Festival of Soul on Aescipoli. Gabbie is the first human to ever attend and gains a lot of attention, especially since humans look like venandi’s muru dolls that they worship. The festival is a fertility festival with a mock battle that gives clans a chance to find potential mates with convergence. What she doesn’t expect though is to be dragged into the battle and find herself a mate. 

It’s always a good day when a new book in the Intersolar Union world is released. I was hooked on Gabbie’s story from the beginning. She is a woman who doesn’t go on adventures normally but this time she lets her friend drag her along, and finds true happiness for the first time. I really liked her and how she embraced this new experience. The Festival of Soul seemed like a fun festival with all its costumes but intense with its battles and mating. It was just a cool festival, especially from a human perspective. 

Paladus Ferulis was a male who is being forced by his family to participate in this mock battle with the expectation he will mate with another clan member, even if he doesn’t want to. Instead he finds himself captivated instantly by Gabbie and when he realizes she is in danger he jumps to save her, and claim her. Because this is just a short novella, we don’t get a lot of backstory on either Gabbie or Paladus, but they still felt like well fleshed out characters with great personalities.

Their relationship is an instant love/ accidental mating situation. While their mating is a tense situation due to the circumstances, it was still really enjoyable because we got to see the spark between them before that happened. While we don’t get to see a lot of their relationship afterwards, I still enjoyed the brief epilogue and what their future held. 

Overall, this was a fantastic short novella. I love that we got a story that is set in the future of this world and that humans and aliens are integrated now. I would love to read more novellas/novels like this. 

TW: public sexual acts; attempted forced mating (not by MMC); mating to save her life; injuries and blood;

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