Bound to the Alien Barbarian by Leslie Chase

4 Stars

The writing and editing of this novel was super clean, with few if any typos that I caught in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building was excellent, with the alien hero's underground city and the Temple coming to vibrant life. The characterization was also excellent, with these characters being richly drawn and sympathetic. The development of the romantic relationship happened organically, especially considering how much was going on with the plot in this novel. The plot and pacing was exciting, with me rapidly turning pages so that I could find out what was going to happen next! There was very little angst in this novel and very high stakes, which is one of my preferred narrative structures for a romance novel. This novel used the Fated Mates trope. The world building, plot and pacing all rated four stars. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship also rated four stars. The combined score for this novel was therefore four stars. This novel ended on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big element in this novels' favor. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys sci-fi romance novels that read like adventure novels. I considered it a rollicking good time! I will not be buying myself a keeper copy of this novel at this time, but I may end up buying the whole trilogy if the other novels in this series turn out as good as this one. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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