Abducted by Evangeline Anderson

3 Stars

This novel was very well written and edited, with no typos that I found in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building in this novel was quite good, with the Twelve Races and the intergalactic community coming alive. However, many parts of the world building of this novel struck me as more of a parody than an earnest attempt at a sci-fi romance world, which I personally did not appreciate very much. The characterization of the hero and heroine was pretty good, with both of them being vibrant individuals. However, I personally could not stand the heroine's inability to communicate straight out what she wanted and her unwillingness to practice emotional honesty and bravery. I cannot stand people who are like that in real life, so I did not enjoy reading a character like that in a romance novel. Not my fantasy by any stretch of the imagination. The development of the romantic relationship in this novel had a glacial pace, with the first sex scene happening at least 85% into the book and both these characters never really coming clean and communicating honestly with each other at any point, with the exception of the hero finally telling the heroine he loved her at 99% through the novel. The plot and pacing moved very slowly in this novel, with me checking the clock periodically while I was reading and being shocked at how little time had passed since I last looked at the clock. The angst the heroine, especially, felt was surprisingly high for how low the stakes felt to this reader, though objectively the stakes were pretty high in this novel, with the heroine being abducted several times and being sold in a slave auction, etc. The stakes just didn't FEEL high. Perhaps that was a function of the slow pacing of this novel. High angst and low stakes tends to be my least favorite narrative structure for a romance novel. This novel used the Human Trafficking trope so popular in sci-fi romance novels. The plot and pacing of this novel was four stars, the characterization was four stars, the development of the romantic relationship was two stars, and the world building was two stars, since it was more parody than an earnest attempt at world building. The combined score was thus three stars. This novel ends on a Happy Ever After instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus for this novel. I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy sci-fi romance novels that are more a parody. I do not plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this novel, because I have never enjoyed parodies of any description. My sense of humor is too dry to enjoy them.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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