Claimed by the Alien King by Aline Ash

3 Stars

This novel was pretty well written and edited, with some typos or awkwardly constructed sentences but not enough errors to detract from the enjoyment of the reading experience. The world building in this sci-fi romance was quite well done, with liberal usage of words and phrases in the alien language used by the alien hero and vibrant descriptions of the alien refugees' new home world. However, the characterization and development and resolution of the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine was deeply unsatisfying. The hero ordered and participated in horrible atrocities, and the extent of his evil and crimes needed to be balanced by an equally over the top groveling scene and redemption arc in order for me to believe in a Happy Ever After in which the heroine marries this war criminal. I am one of the few readers, it seems, who is very triggered by the casual use of slavery and horrific medical experimentation by the heroes of sci-fi romance novels. I find the cavalier use of such elements in a large proportion of sci-fi romance novels a deeply disturbing trend in the genre that I otherwise love. I don't know that the prevalence of such elements in the sci-fi romance genre culture says anything good about the values of the community that I love. If the hero had a massive groveling scene 60% of the way into this novel and spent the rest of the novel showing the heroine that his character had changed at a fundamental level I probably would have bought into their HEA. However, the fact that that does not happen and the heroine still marries this person at the end of the novel made me want to tell the heroine that she deserved so much better. I just want to let other readers know that this novel comes with trigger warnings galore. If a slave-owning hero is triggering to other readers, I would advise them to steer clear.

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