Strange Love

Fantastic! I borrowed this from KU on a whim, and I'm so glad I was adventurous. I definitely wasn't expecting to absolutely love it. But it's a really warm and sweet romance, with a good plot and unusual sex scenes.

And just not heteronormative at all! I was thinking that all along, but then Beryl turned out to be bi/pan, so it makes sense. Additionally, the aliens' gender roles don't match human ideas. There is also a nonbinary side character, a plantlike alien, who is on their own path in life.

The blurb gives a good idea of the premise. But Zylar abducts both Beryl and her small dog, Snaps, whose antics elevated this book from enjoyable to hilarious for me. They communicate through technology, and it also works on Snaps, so he can suddenly talk, which is just as great as you might imagine.

I really loved and identified with both main characters, and I totally believed in their happy ending. My only problem with the book was that the villain's true motivation was never revealed, but that was okay, really. Maybe he was just evil and entitled.

I had never read this author before and I'm excited to read more of her work. But I'm sure I'll also reread this one many times. It was a delight!

???Strange??? is the best word to describe this book. It???s light in tone, there???s a talking dog, and the male character is gentle and kind with none of the possessive alpha male behavior common to the alien-in-search-of-a-mate romance trope. The plot revolves around this alien competition or contest (???The Hunger Games??? style), in which people participate to win the right to mate in this alien world. A human female is accidentally ???abducted??? from Earth and ends up on a different planet where this contest is starting. Warning: sexy times were a lit bit cringy because the alien had a totally different anatomy, so, yeah, very weird.??