Secure The Choosing (The Pruxnae, #2) Articulated By Lucy Varna Accessible In Copy
on Amazon today ! Lucy Varna takes a familiar SF trope Mars Needs Women and adds something interesting: a formal choice, Essentially, the kidnapped Ziri gets to choose her mate after her abduction to an alien planet, "The Choosing" ritual itself is surprisingly more complex than I anticipated, stressing a strong female h, not just a hot alien H,
The end is result is a great read, It is a bit if a slow burn it takes a while for the chemistry between the couple to get workingbut the solid plot and fullydeveloped characters make this much better than too much of SF romance which skimps on believability or even a decent storyline.
My only true complaint is that the H is too human here, After reading Venemous, I have a fondness for weirdass alien alphas I guess,
The Choosing is worth reading! I picked this up while browsing on KU, The Choosing had all hallmarks of a cracky read with a sci fi setting and bridenapping theme.
But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it because while this had the premise of an alien hero kidnapping his bride, Ryn gives space and time for Ziri to adjust to the idea.
Although in the meantime they have to survive and battle marauding aliens and a contest which Ziri has to fight for her mate which is an interesting twist on this trope.
The romance was fun and sweet and I loved that Arden was not the typical half naked alphahole hero, There was a few issues such as pacing, and I would have liked more aspects of the plot to be fleshed out but this was a great start to a series.
I will definitely be checking out the sequel, I liked this one a lot, Even though it was kidnapper/captive, there was choice and a nice slow development of their relationship without abuse, I received the audio for free, I like this scifi romance, The Pruxnae are farmers and / or warriors, Low female birth rates force them to kidnap their mates from other planets, Ryn has saved for his own ship and a place on the next raiding vessel so he can find a wife, He kidnaps Ziri from the planet Tersi, I liked both Ziri and Ryn, Ryn was patient and Ziri was smart, They worked well together. There were some silly misunderstandings but all was quickly resolved, The dual narration was very good as well, I've already started listening to the next book in the series, Alternative Cover Edition for ASIN: BYHGS
Ziri Mokuru has lived her entire life in the rural village of Arden Hollow on the planet Tersi.
While her parents are off having adventures and being Very Important People, shes struggled simply to find a place where she belongs, One night, she investigates a disturbance in her home and discovers an armorclad man sorting through her belongings, Her first thought is for her parents safety, not to question why this man is in her home late at night without even the courtesy of knocking, After all, no one among the trusting Tersii breaks into someone elses home without a good reason,
Ryn abid Alna has an excellent reason for sneaking into Ziris home, After years spent scraping together enough vud for the bride price, hes finally ready to steal a wife, One look at Ziris sweet smile and Ryn decides no other woman will do, She can fix anything she touches, so why not the loneliness hes lived with since he was enslaved as a young boy
Though Ziri longs for love, shes not so sure shes ready to settle down with the man who kidnapped her, especially after he jumps her into a nest of Sweepers, a sinister alien race bent on mayhem and destruction.
As the day draws near when she faces Ryns family on the Choosing field, Ziri ponders the hardest decision of her life: Fight for Ryn and the place hes made for her in his heart or choose another man as a life mate and risk never knowing love.
I honestly had no idea what to expect with this one, I had never heard of science fiction romance as a genre mashup before! I was initially thrown off by the captive/prisoner perspective, but it was intriguing to see how Varna spun it in a way that worked.
I like that Ziri is the one that ultimately has to make the decisions though I think I would have liked to know a little more background of the Pruxnae before the fight.
The whole book also setup a great launch point for a series of books, there are certainly other aspects of the universe that I am very interested in seeing! Ryns family has so many intriguing characters.
I prefer the Daughters of the People series, but this was a very welcome and unique read that Id highly recommend to science fiction fans,
Warning: Contains sexual content and violence,
Who should read it Science Fiction and Romance fans! I had never tried a mashup of the two genres, but was pleasantly surprised!
See all my reviews and more at sitelinkwww.
ReadingToDistraction. com or ReadDistract ,stars
Plot: C
I love the premise of this book, I really enjoy reading about other worlds, and heroes that capture females to be their mate, and all that ensues, Bit the execution of this story was poor, It lacked spark, and a wow factor, It was a bit boring, It wasn't romantic at all,
Characters: D
Ziri was an EXTREMELY frustrating character, I get that she was kidnapped, But she treated Ryn so poorly even though he was totally awesome, She
even kissed somebody else, and then wondered why he acted the way he did, She keeps thinking about choosing someone else, I want to punch Ryn's sister in the throat after smacking some sense into Ziri, . Ryn is awesome. I felt bad for him, That he got put through so much, He worked so hard to get a woman, and he treated her like she was precious,
Heat: D
Not spicy at all, Only of couple of blah scenes, I skipped through most of them,
Overall, this book was not to my liking, I couldn't stand Ziri's flip flopping and indecisiveness, She ruined the story for me, This is an excellent entry into the "Mars Needs Women" trope of science fiction romance, Ryn belongs to a race of men long accustomed to raiding for wives, Ziri has the misfortune of catching his eye, The setup is such that you expect a chestbeating alpha, intent on mating, What you get instead is a sweet love story, with a hero who has been counseled by his father to be patient and kind to the woman he captures as his prize.
Lucy Varna has borrowed from various, familiar stories and cultures to create her own world for the Pruxnae and the Tersii, The science fiction elements are a loose frame around the central love story, The Pruxnae culture resembled a Viking civilization in space, with emphasis on raiding and trading practices abroad and a bucolic yet boisterous life at home, Both the Pruxnae and Vernii societies seem to lead primitive home lives i, e. sheep farming, loom weaving and paper bookstores where technological advances are not integrated into daily lives, The method and fear engendered of a Sweepers attack reminded me somewhat of the Reavers in the Firefly/Serenity universe, but the Sweepers had a distinctly different morphology.
As bad guys, they were pretty creepy, but I couldn't get away from the sense that I was in the middle of a video game skirmish as the battle scenes between the humanoids and the Sweepers unfolded.
Even the download of the Pruxnae language to Ziri seemed borrowed from "Johnny Mnemonic, " For all that I recognized these bits and pieces, they were seamlessly woven into Varna's novel,
A lot goes unexplained in this book, We never find out why the Pruxnae have so few women, We never learn why technology is not more integrated, And why are the Sweepers getting more aggressive But since this is book one, I can only hope more is to be discovered in future books,
Ryn operates on the theory that you can attract more flies with honey than vinegar, Ziri operates on the theory that she has to get away, It is a lot of fun watching Ryn practice his wiles on Ziri, all without the benefit of a common language, Hand motions and a few hot cuddles say a lot, The truth is, I really liked both these characters and was rooting for them,
This book does not end in a cliffhanger, but there are clear avenues for more stories within Varna's Pruxnae universe hopefully featuring some side characters we meet in this book I'm voting for Ryn's sister's story next!.
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