This was a fantastic start to a new series which is going to take you on a journey with new alien life that is closely related to our own. I have been reading this author since I found Claimed for free on Amazon and as I branch out to other works find that she can do no wrong for me. I love her vision of the alien hunks who have a soft spot for earth women and the worlds that she has populated our galaxy with. The best part is that it is not set in some distant future but is still within a time frame that is more or less contemporary.

Sarden de’Lagorn has come to the newly opened station circling Earth looking to find a female for trade. The Commercians have recently started cataloging the women available on the planet for their Alien Mate Index and he is the first customer. Zoe is having a very bad day, her crazy boss has thrown a stapler at her head and she is in the women’s room talking to her best friends on the phone when her life takes a turn she could not see coming.

Zoe finds herself naked and looking up at a man/male who looks a lot like the devil and being told that she has been bought and will never see Earth again. This does not sit well with her and she starts to plot her escape as soon as the shock wears off.

The story is told from multiple points of view which means you get a full view of everything that happens. There are some great pop culture references regarding movies and TV series. The characters have complex personalities which helps to draw you in. The new aliens are different from a lot that have been seen in the past. The world’s visited are familiar and yet still alien in how things are done and the ways that it looks.

If you liked the Brides of the Kindred then I do believe that this will be to your liking. If you have never read the Kindred than you cannot go wrong with trying out this series, it will make you want more. I highly recommend this series!

** Listened to the audible book this second time and enjoyed it but there were a few things that made it kind of annoying for me. This is read by Mackenzie Cartwright who I thought did a wonderful job of bringing both the male and female characters to life when she read specifically from Zoe’s viewpoint and William Martin who I found to be not so animated or diverse in his voicing of Sarden’s sections because he came off as reading in a monotone. Still think it is definitely worth taking time out for.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“And the ‘lock’ they put around your planet is what I believe you Earthlings refer to as an ‘ozone layer,’” said the proper butler voice, which seemed to be coming from the golden dragonfly. “Now that much of it has been removed and your planet has begun to heat, outside investors are free to harvest Earth’s females. Females such as yourself, who are most valuable because they have not bred with any of the other peoples of the known universe. This is why we dub you ‘Pure Ones’—because you have only the pure blood of the Ancient Ones running through your veins.”