Anna Zaires

All right guys where to begin?

I've had an odd fascination with SciFi Romance lately, having added quite a few to my Wishlist in YA as well as future releases in the Romance genre. This was available as free on the Kindle and I thought it sounded intriguing.

I wonder how others viewed this book through rosier lenses then myself. To me Korum is little better then the male heroes of past Bodice Rippers. You know the ones--the almost but not quite rapist romances? I think someone referred to them as Reluctant Romances at one point. He acknowledges and discusses the fact Mia frightened of him, he casually refers to her choice in the matter as moot and all but takes over Mia's life in order to KEEP that choice from her. I've read my share of "heroes" who do something shady in the name of lustlove. Its especially popular in paranormal romances--hiding secrets so that the female (or in some cases the male) doesn't realize they're about to have sex with a werewolf and mate for life.

Hey it happens.

My problem is how Korum went about it and how Mia found out about his deceptiveness. It never occurred to Korum to tell Mia that he was tracking her and when she calls him on it he shrugs and says 'too bad, so sad'. How Mia finds out was less about helping her and more about manipulating her and this doesn't seem to bother her either.

Then we get to the "romance" which is hard to label their relationship when neither side is a) being truthful and b) trusting. At least Korum had the support that his people viewed humans as basically lab rats (which to his credit he tells Mia right away and doesn't sugar coat it at all, though why he thought that bit of truthfulness would land him a bed partner is beyond me) and you don't taint an experiment by telling the subject all the nitty gritty details (this is not me condoning, this is me just pointing out the fact). Mia's excuse is fear basically.

A valid fear since the Krinar showed up, took over, told humanity you are living your lives wrong and then forced them to live their lives by the Krinar standards. It had only been 5 years since "K-Day" and while the changes the Krinar made were for the 'betterment' of humanity their heavy-handed tactics endeared them to no one. So yes, Mia had every right to be afraid of a man who admitted to stalking her, told her at pretty much every encounter he wanted to have sex with her and that his patience wasn't limitless.

And I can even understand why she would look for ways to escape the hell she unwittedly found herself in. If this book had been about Mia slowly overcoming her prejudice against the Krinar because Korum showed her they were different I probably would have been okay with it. I probably would have even been okay with Korum's heavy-handed tactics to seduce her as a cultural difference that Mia sorted him out on. Instead the book continues with Mia in abject fear/lust with Korum--her shame over how much she enjoys sex with Korum got tedious to read about even as she kept silently bemoaning how her body betrayed her and Korum pointing out at every possible second that she has no choice so enjoy it since he basically owns her.

The end, when the Resistance is utterly defeated, to no one's shock or amazement was weak compared to what Zaires could have done. Korum doesn't even make any good points about why Mia shouldn't want the Resistance to win. And the punishment meted out really only served to reinforce how dictatorial the Krinar could be.

So no, in the end this was not the book for me, nor will I read the others.

(and to give you an idea of how little I regarded this book, which I finished A DAY AGO I forgot the characters' name and only thought of them as the nicknames Meager and Krude)… (meer)