I cannot express how disappointed I am in this book. I’ve read every single book in this series and its companion series. It’s actually making me question my own memories of these series. Like were they really as good as I thought they were? Did I just glaze over things? How could this one be so bad and the others so good? I’m honestly baffled here.
First off, the editing in this book is truly atrocious. I have countless notes of glaring, obvious editing mistakes like missing words from sentences. Then there is the terrible dialog that just feels awkward, stilted, and unnatural. There’s instances where the author seemingly forgot details of her own universe, like the fact that the aliens of Tarvos don’t wear shoes, but there’s a scene where the MMC is taking off his boots. There’s info dumps in dialog, telling rather than showing, sentences that top out at 48 words long (and feel longer), changing tenses, bad transitions, etc.
Then there’s the story itself. The two main characters never interact but it’s supposed to be a romance. Even instalove stories have more interactions than this. It’s not until 80-90% into the book that the two MCs have ANY meaningful interactions. There’s only 2 semi-positive interactions before that: when they first meet (ends badly) and when they’re chatting over their tablets (they aren’t even in the same room). Every. Other. Instance involves them glaring at each other or fighting. And then suddenly we’re supposed to believe that everything is all sunshine and roses?
I couldn’t feel satisfied or relieved or any other positive emotion about them getting together in this book. Do I think the premise was good? Yes. Do I think it could have been done well? Yes also. She just didn’t pull it off.
