Graham has suffered so much at the hands of the Nall. Ever since he was enslaved after the invasion, he’s been raped and tortured by the Alasharian Supreme Commander and his cohorts. Condemned to die by hanging for his part in the human rebellion, Graham gives in to the inevitable, no longer caring if he lives or dies. But an unexpected event occurs and at the last moment, Graham is saved.
Balor is a guard to the Nall, but he’s also a part of the growing rebellion among the Alasharians. When one of the Nall’s advisors enlists his help in getting a human prisoner to safety, Balor comes to his aid. Startled by the soul match hum that sparks to life when he touches Graham, but unable to do anything about it, Balor is determined to protect his human match at all costs. When Advisor Oman arrives on the scene to rescue Balor as he helps Graham to escape, it becomes clear that yet another alien/human triad is forming—even if Graham may never accept being bonded to two aliens after the trauma he’s endured at the hands of Alasharians.
The time has come to depart to the secret military complex located in the Rocky Mountains where the human and Alasharian allies will stage their final assault against the Nall and the Void. Families are reunited and others torn apart as they prepare for battle. But the biggest question that remains is where Chris has gone. The allies fear what will become of them all if the special human Sha Sha Ar chose to lead them spiritually is no longer there to guide them.
Bait and Switch
Allow me to preface this by saying ... WTF? And nooooo, I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. Although ... well, not entirely in a bad way. Let me see if I can explain.
I like the space-opera-ish-ness of these even though they take place on Earth. Let's face it, they are way, way, way OTT in many respects. Again, not necessarily a bad thing because at least these are consistently OTT in very specific ways that span the entire series and don't try to 'one up' themselves by getting progressively more and more Days of our Lives if you know what I mean.
So why the WTF? Well ... that would be because, after book 3, I somehow had it in my head that things would be wrapping up in book 4. Hmm. Yeah, not so much. Imagine my surprise when another cousin-neighbor-acquaintance comes out of the woodwork and ends up with his very own alien boy toys. Yum, right? But still. I thought we were done!
Am I upset that we're getting a little more story than I expected? Not really. BUT! I'm beginning to get déjà vu à la a certain other alien invasion-type *cough* Kindred *cough* never-ending-series. It's giving me waking nightmares that I hope don't come true. As much as I initially loved that whole story arc, it got really old after about book 13 or so, ya know?
Let's hope these don't end up there because that would be a shame. It's also why I stopped watching a certain daytime soap opera about 10 years ago when real life people were beginning to get demon-possessed [head-desk—thump—head-desk—thump]. Yep. EYEROLL.
Anyway, I digress. I liked this book because we got to see the unprotected human point of view. The MC in this one had it rough. Beware triggers people; there are a few here. He was egregiously abused in every possible way. Every. Possible. Way. It was awful. But his hunky-sweet aliens make up for it.
It's absolutely cringeworthy from a psychology standpoint—the impossibility of an insta-recovery from the abuse this MC suffered—but FFS! This is a story about an alien invasion of Earth. Suspend disbelief folks, m'kay?
That said, if we immerse ourselves in the hypothetical, who's to say the soulmatch/bond thing these triads have going on—in conjunction with that everloving bitch Fate—wouldn't be enough to overcome some singularly human frailties if these things were possible in real life? Suspend disbelief folks! It's worth it because it makes these stories a lot of fun.
This series won't be winning any pretentious prizes for literary achievement, but I give it high fives for entertainment factor and steaminess. Three words: perpetually hot threesomes.
So ... I hope the author doesn't drag the overarching story line out too far, but I really enjoyed the darker side of the human coin we saw in this installment. I'm pissed that we spent the whole book not knowing WTF is going on with Chris. I feel like the author's giving us an unnecessary cliffhanger on that aspect (hate it!).
But the tension is mounting and I'm still thoroughly interested in finding out how it all turns out. Hopefully sooner rather than later. At any rate, that makes it a success in my book even if it's OTT and patently unbelievable if you're using your rational mind. It's still really damned fun.
More reviews by NeRdyWYRM can be found on Goodreads here.
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An ARC copy of this title was provided for an honest review.
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