Alien Betrothed by Luna Kingsley

3 Stars

The writing and editing of this novel was great, with only a few scattered typos in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building of this novel was excellent, with the landscape, peoples, and animals of this world coming to vivid life. The characterization was excellent, with the hero and heroine being fully fleshed out, sympathetic individuals. The development of the romantic relationship in this novel was the best in the series so far, with these two believably, naturally, and organically falling in love. The plot was infuriating, and the pacing was fast and exciting. *Spoilers ahead* Here is my major problem with this novel: the Scaahni deserve to go extinct. The human "brides" are not actually brides. They are slaves. They are imprisoned until they are sold to whatever male buys them, regardless of their own wishes. They are exploited and their rights as sentient beings are totally disregarded. The comment is made that only willing women are supposed to become brides, but my question is, what woman would willingly sign up to become a breeding slave with no rights in a technologically primitive society? The resolution to this novels' plot was infuriating. I hated the fact that these disgusting people only allowed the heroine to marry the man she wanted to marry because he had already gotten her pregnant. The only acceptable ending to this novel would have been if the heroine of this novel had cut off the head of the man they were forcing her to marry and thrown it on the steps of the Council building, while Council was in session. *End spoiler* There was a medium amount of angst in this novel and very high stakes. This novel uses the Mars Needs Women trope. The world building and pacing rated four stars. The development of the romantic relationship and characterization rated four stars. The plot was infuriating and rated one star. Therefore, the combined score for this novel was three stars. This novel ends on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus for this novel. I would only recommend this story to readers who enjoy sci-fi romance and don't find the systematic abuse and exploitation of women triggering. I do not plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this novel. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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