3 stars
This was an alright story but I definitely had some issues with it. Riley was the quintessential annoying heroine and I hate those so there were times I almost DNFed this book.
Riley is a bounty hunter on Earth and found out that her boss and his dad (the local sheriff) were doing some illegal stuff. She found out some info on them (that she planned to hand off to the cops) and was leaving town when her car broke down and Riley got kidnapped by aliens. She was sold to a mining company, which is where we come into the story.
Vox is the King of Sarafin, an alien planet. His people are humanoid but have feline characteristics and can actually shift into some sort of big cat (think tiger). Vox is supposed to be mating so he can produce an heir for a treaty with the Valdier people but he wasn’t in any big hurry to complete that treaty. He’s captured by an enemy and ends up a captive on a mining asteroid, which is where he meets Riley.
Apparently, the aliens that run the mining asteroid have both male and female captives but they make their captives pair off, thinking that a mate will make the males easier to manipulate. Riley is the last woman brought into the choosing room and there are 5 men left. When she finds out that any men she doesn’t choose will be killed, she insists on taking all 5 men (and Vox is one of these men). The aliens that run things seem to have some sort of issue dealing with her as they’ve never met a bossy/abusive woman so they let her have her way. They also allow her to keep her suitcase and purse and everything in them (including a taser, pepper spray, tool and other items). At this point, the situation was pushing the incredulity factor but ok, whatever. The fact that Riley is a BBW but insists on calling herself a “maturely shaped woman” also messed with me…women don’t automatically become BBW when they mature and Riley wasn’t that old anyways so WTH?
Vox recognizes Riley as his mate right away but she’s to determines not to trust him or anything going on. I swear, at times it seemed like Riley was being contrary just for the sake of being a pain in the butt! I wont go into details but it seemed like every time I turned the page, Riley was doing something annoying just to be contrary. And when she wasn’t, something else in the story happened to cause a “mis-understanding” between Riley and Vox that would keep Riley pissed at him. I mean after her ruined her second coat “by accident” I was getting really tired of that plot device being used constantly to cause issues between them. The escape does happen but things don’t go much better for Vox and Riley after the escape. Eventually, things do work out and Riley and Vox end things with a HEA.
This story had some enjoyable moments but overall, it was just adequate for me. Riley was portrayed as being a badass with a soft heart underneath but she just really came across as annoying and TSTL. She was unreasonable and contrary and seemed to ignore reality frequently. Vox was a good hero overall but he didn’t come across the best because of the story itself. Overall, the story was alright but I wasn’t too hot on it and Riley was like nails on a chalkboard for me.