O'Rrin the Protector (Thoherian Barbarians Book 1) by Roxie Ray

3 Stars

The writing and editing of this sci-fi romance was clean, with no typos that I found in the ARC version of the manuscript but pretty awkward sentence structure. The world building was competent, though the alien world the heroine found herself on was definitely not a vibrant character in itself. The characterization was a little thin, with the romantic hero being somewhat of a cardboard character and the heroine being intolerable. She was such a timid person throughout so much of the book that I could not stand her. The development of the romantic relationship was okay, though it was hard for me personally to buy into a HEA where the hero ends up with this timid, passive heroine. *Spoiler* For example, the heroine is carrying around a deadly poisonous flower when the villain abducts her. She could have reached into her pocket at any time when the villain is carrying her slung over her shoulder and killed him with the contact poison. However, she waits to be rescued by the hero, never taking action to save herself, until it becomes crystal clear that the romantic hero will be unable to save her. Only then does she take any action to save herself. That is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with this heroine. *End Spoiler* The plot was not great. (See above spoiler) but the pacing was fairly quick, due to the high stakes present throughout and the fairly low angst. That tends to be one of my preferred narrative structures for a romance novel. This novel used the Mars Needs Women trope, the Road Trip trope, and the Partner in Trouble trope. The world building was three stars. The characterization was two stars. The plot was two stars. The development of the romantic relationship was three stars. The pacing was four stars. The combined rating for this novel was therefore three stars. This novel ends on a Happy For Now ending with overarching plot elements left unresolved instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a plus. I recommend this sci-fi romance to readers who enjoy the Mars Needs Women trope and do not mind really passive heroines. I far prefer this author's Lunarian Warriors series, so I am unsure if I will read the next book in this series when it releases. I will not be buying 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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