Grade: 4.5

Every now and again, I need off-the-wall weird. This book was absolutely the weirdest I’ve read in a long time…if not ever. Alien/human relations may not be the weirdest you’ve ever heard of, but what about if the alien is not humanoid? What if he’s more insect based? What are your thoughts then? My thoughts were “let’s do this.”

Zylar (our alien) is on a mission. He’s failed 4 times to finish the bonding rituals and he only gets one more shot. Byler (our human) is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Damage to Zylar’s ship means he has no idea where Earth is in the universe and can’t return Byler. The choices for Byler are to be dropped off at a space station and find a job or go back with Zylar and try to win the bonding ritual. She goes with Zylar.

I am not a fan of overly alpha males. I like my main characters to be evenly matched. Zylar and Byler are beautifully matched in my opinion. Both are sort of lost in their own worlds and haven’t had luck connecting with others. I enjoyed a main hero that was emotionally available, but still physically strong.

The dog, Snaps, is quite the character. In the process of allowing communication, he is able to be understood and I thought it was a hilarious turn of events. I am usually disappointed with how authors deals with dogs, but I thought Snaps was written perfectly.

I found the book delightful. Lots of humorous events caused by completely different species getting to know each other combined with what I felt are relevant topics involving loving someone based on who they are, rather than their appearance.

I have to be completely transparent and say I read this with a friend who disliked it as much as I liked it. While I don’t agree, I still want to share that she had a lot of issues with the way the author glossed over the physical differences between the two and thought the emotional scenes were over the top.

Bottom Line: I am very upset the author doesn’t currently have more books in this series I can read and I am anxiously awaiting the next one!