The Vandal and the Virgin by Michele Mills

5 Stars

This novel was well written and edited, with well constructed sentences and few if any typos that I caught in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building was unusual and super creative, something I had not encountered before in any of the sci-fi romances I have read up to this point. This novel is set on Earth during the early Dark Ages, I believe, during the time when the Roman Empire had split into two. The hero was part of a crash-landed crew of aliens from an intergalactic society. I loved the creativity of the setup and world building. The characterization was excellent, with both of these protagonists being vibrant, sympathetic individuals. The development of the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine was sweet and organic, and the hero's misunderstandings regarding human culture were cute and added some great comic relief. The plot and pacing was excellent, with me being invested in how the heroine was going to resolve her crisis of loyalty and me rapidly turning pages to find out what was going to happen next! There was a medium amount of angst on the heroine's part, but I thoroughly enjoyed it because the angst was caused or contributed to by very high stakes. High angst caused by high stakes is one of my preferred narrative structures for a romance novel. I usually cannot stand romance novels with low stakes, or even worse, high angst AND low stakes. This novel uses the Enemies to Lovers trope, the Fated Mates trope, and the Virgin Heroine trope. The Virgin Heroine trope was intentionally used by the author for some comic relief and social commentary, which I really appreciated. The world building, plot, and pacing in this novel rated five stars. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship also rated five stars. The combined score for this novel, therefore, was five stars. I believe this novel was longer than any other stories I have read by this author, and I suspect the longer story formant is one of the big reasons why this is the best novel I have read by this author so far. I think her skill and authorial voice is best suited to a longer story length to really shine. This story ends on a Happy Ever After instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus to this story and hopefully the rest of the series, if she continues that pattern. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy alien sci-fi romance OR readers who enjoy historical romances set in times and places that are NOT Regency England. Personally, one of the reasons I have a hard time reading many historical romance novels is because so many of them are set in Regency or Victorian England and it becomes incredibly boring. I plan to buy myself a keeper copy of this novel, for sure. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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