Alien Barbarian's Queen by Juno Wells

4 Stars

The writing and editing of this novel was clean, with few typos that I caught in the ARC version of the manuscript. The world building was excellent, with the previous novels in the series having done most of the ground work there. I do not recommend that someone new to this series start with this novel. It is a long running series with quite a lot of plot layering and world building, so I recommend starting with the first novel in this series. The characterization was okay in this novel. The development of the romantic relationship was sweet and organic. The plot and pacing was very exciting, with the Draconians helping Earth with the Molten and Vithican invasion. There was very low angst in this novel and very high stakes, which is typically a narrative structure I enjoy in a romance novel. This novel used the Military Hero trope, the Mars Needs Women trope, and the Alien Invasion trope. The world building, plot, and pacing were four stars. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship was also four stars. The combined score of this novel was therefore four stars. This novel ends on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, which is a big plus for this whole series. I recommend this novel to fans of sci-fi romances that feature alien invasions and alien cultures that are matriarchal. I plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this novel, I think. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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