Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Captured: An MM SciFi Alien Prince Romance by Sam Burns & W.M. Fawkes

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I do love me a good alien/human romance and this one was a doozy! It has a really interesting premise.

The opening chapter really does set up the narrative perfectly with Lucas abducted by an 8ft blue topless man as he drunkenly wanders home the day his ex-boyfriend married the guy he cheated on him with.

It has a mixture of humour and vulnerability throughout the story, as Lucas comes to terms, along with his other fellow captives, with the fact they’re heading for another planet.

Our other protagonist, Kaelum, is also having a bad day when we first meet him, but he soon finds that his life’s about to get more complicated when he comes across the cargo ship carrying Lucas and the other 17 humans under attack by his race’s enemy ships.

One rescue later and the scene is set for what follows. It’s an interesting mix as the plot treads the fine line between accepting your fate and being able to change it. Lucas and Kaelum are clearly attracted to each other but Lucas feels conflicted.

As it becomes clear to Lucas that the Thorzan world on which he finds himself is currently in the midst of a crisis over Kaelum’s right to the throne, the issue of hybrids – those born with both Thorzan and human DNA – becomes even more important.

What I really loved about this book was that it avoided a lot of the kidnapped by aliens tropes which can skirt very close to non-con or dubcon. Instead Kaelum, because of his human mother, is very much aware of the need to allow not only Lucas, but all the humans who end up on Thorzan, to be the architects of their own fate.

It’s what drives the majority of the conflict throughout the story and provides the series long plot arc for the world’s survival as a race of uber warriors facing extinction because an element of their society is so focused on purity they’re missing the abilities of the hybrids.

The pace cracks along beautifully and as Kaelum shows Lucas his world, and they find out things haven’t been all they seem with the rest of his human travellers, it becomes clear this pair are going to shake up more than just the bedsheets!

It’s medium steamy, although the smexy times are made much more interesting by the things which make Kaelum different 😉 (and that’s as much as a clue I’m giving you there!) and while it has a quite short timeframe, I totally bought into their mutual attraction turning into something with more depth.

Throw in the intrigues and a reawakening of magic type abilities as Kaleum and Lucas become fully committed to each other and you get a cracking fun adventure at the start of this new series.

Now, what’s happened to Jax and Wesley?!

#ARC kindly received from the authors in return for an honest and unbiased review

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