Aurora Rising

“I believe of all the places I have not fit, I fit here a little better.” - Zila, Aurora Rising

...I almost DNF'd this book something like five times in the first two chapters because of the incessant flashbacks. I mean, it felt like every page we were switching between current time and flashback. Look, flashbacks can be very effective, and I like them as well as the next person. But there is a time and place for them and the first two chapters of your book is not the time or the place. That being said, I told myself that I at least needed to meet all the characters and I'm glad I persevered because chapter three came and the flashbacks disappeared.

So, this book is fun. A lot of fun. I like most of the characters - several of them right from the start and all of them did grow on me. I love the dissimilar people having to work together though they don't always agree on everything. Or, really, anything. But, boy, have they got each other's backs and I love it!

I did have a couple of complaints. I wish all the characters had toned down the lust because, early on in the book, there was a lot of ‘he's hot' and ‘she's hot' going around. When things started getting serious, I am pleased to report that that did lessen significantly. (I read some of the one star reviews and there were several complaints about things like characters wanting to lick each other upon first meeting and one character being obsessed with the color of her bra. I can only assume these readers read an ARC, because I can assure you, nothing like this was in my copy. ... Thankfully enough.)

I'm not the biggest fan of the ‘big bad.' This is just a personal thing. I've dealt with big bads like this before in books and they are never my favorites.

I have to make mentioned of LGBT+ rep because this is something that I actually heard a lot about before reading this book. Or, rather, I heard a lot about the lack of LGBT+ rep in the book.

I'm of the opinion that pretty much the whole galaxy here is bisexual and nothing is made of that, because of the way pretty much everyone in the story seems to note how good looking others are without it seeming to matter what gender they are. There is one tentative, possible, maybe future romance being set up. And, yes, it is a F/M pairing. But, nothing has happened there, yet.

There is one character that is pretty darn unambiguously bi. (Even if you don't agree with me that everyone else probably is, too.) There does seem to be a couple little hints that this character could be developing strong feelings for someone. If this couple would get together, this would be a F/M pairing. BUT - and I can't believe I have to say this - a bi character getting into a straight relationship does not mean that that character quits being bi.

There is a kiss in this book. It is a gay kiss. It is a fake kiss. I feel like it was used to great effect to 1) show that there is nothing unusual about same sex attraction in this world and 2) to finally start correcting years of this type of fake kiss only being used for straights that already had some romantic attraction. The kiss-y was flustered and flummoxed, not because of who kissed them, but because they were kissed at all.

YMMV on all of this. But I was happy with the book, I was happy with the characters, I was happy that there wasn't mass romantic pairings off in this book (straight or queer) and I am very happy I didn't DNF this book.