His Human Surrogate (Monsters Love Curvy Girls Book 2) by Michele Mills

3 Stars

The writing and editing of this short sci-fi romance was clean in the ARC version of the manuscript, with only a few typos that will hopefully be corrected in the retail version. The world building is minimal, but this is also the second book in a series, so maybe most of the world building took place in the first book? The characterization was deft, with both hero and heroine being sympathetic individuals. Where this book really failed for me was in the development of the romantic relationship. In this novel, the hero and heroine spent at least 80% of this novel separated and only communicating via text message and space-age email. They did not spend enough time in person together to really build a life long loving relationship before they married. That made me not really believe in their HEA at the end, because I did not feel like their relationship had a strong foundation and full intimacy by the end of the novel. The plot and pacing was fairly exciting and quick. There was low angst and high stakes, which I typically enjoy in a romance novel. This novel used the Epistolary Courtship trope. The world building was three stars. The plot and pacing were four stars. The characterization was four stars. The development of the romantic relationship was two stars, because the hero and heroine spent almost the whole novel separated except for the hero's kind of stalker behavior, which I found a little creepy. I understand why he did it, but it was still a little creepy. Not my favorite. The combined rating for this novel was therefore three stars. This novel ends on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a plus. I recommend this story to readers who don't mind romances where the hero and heroine spend the majority of the novel apart and some stalkerish behavior on the part of the hero is not triggering. I will probably read the next novel in this series and just put this one down as a misstep. I will not buy myself a keeper copy of this novel.

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

Purchase Link