Possessive Alien Mate by Sue Mercury

2 Stars

The writing and editing of this novel was super clean, with no typos that I caught in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building of terraformed Mars and the "Martian" culture was competent. The characterization was okay, with the heroine being a sympathetic character, though she came across as somewhat infantilized in the novel. The hero was alarming and quite unsympathetic, exhibiting many of the behaviors of an abuser, with his jealousy and possessiveness, his threats to lock the heroine up, and his effusive apologies after his rages with romantic courting behavior. I was quite unhappy that the heroine ended up staying with him at the end. I was not convinced she would be safe with him. The development of the romantic relationship was quite unsatisfying for this reader, because of the behavior of the hero. The plot and pacing of this novel was somewhat slow, with not much external plot happening. This novel contained sky-high angst and low stakes, which tends to be my least favorite narrative structure for a romance novel. This novel uses the Mars Needs Women trope (literally, in this case!). It also uses the Mail Order Bride trope. The world building, plot, and pacing rated three stars in this novel. The development of the romantic relationship rated one star, because of the abusive behavior of the hero. The characterization rated two stars, because of the behavior of the hero and the infantilizing of the heroine. The combined score of this novel is therefore two stars. This novel has a Happy Ever After ending, which I would normally consider a big plus, but I don't consider the heroine ending up with this hero an actually happy event. I do not recommend this novel to readers who might potentially be triggered by the hero's behavior. 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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