Stolen by Alison Aimes

2 Stars

The writing and editing of this story was clean, with few typos that I found in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building was competent, with the Recency type culture of the Earth life under the dome coming to life. The characterization was all right, though the heroine made some really weird choices which meant I did not find her to be a sympathetic character. She was in danger, and the hero would have helped her at any time if she had just asked for help. There was nothing stopping her from doing so for the majority of the novel. She also had plenty of opportunity to tell him about her thievery and she chose not to, for no good reason. The hero was also kind of a douche. He was verbally really cruel to the heroine multiple times. I could not figure out why the heroine fell in love with him. The development of the romantic relationship was marred by the heroine's unwillingness to honestly communicate what was going on in her life and her total unwillingness to ask for help, for no good reason. Near the end, the hero also physically assaults the heroine, which did NOT impress me, let me tell you. The plot and pacing kind of dragged for me. This novel had high unjustified angst on the side of both hero and heroine, which really detracted from my ability to enjoy this novel. The stakes were really high, but could have been significantly reduced with the application of honest communication, so I did not enjoy the high stakes like I usually do in romance novels. This novel used both the Refusal to Honestly Communicate trope and the Great Misunderstanding trope, both of which I typically despise. If you typically enjoy those tropes, you will probably enjoy this novel. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship were both two stars in this novel. The plot, pacing, and world building were slow and unoriginal, so they also rated two stars. This novel ends on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus to this novel. I don't recommend this sci-fi romance to readers who enjoy romances between people who have healthy communication skills. I do not plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this romance.

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

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