The Alien's Ransom by Ella Maven

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After finishing my reread of the Hathaways by Lisa Kleypas, I wanted something a little shorter that I could get through fairly quickly during the week. I did have a book club book I wanted to start as well, but it was another historical romance. I wanted a little bit of a breather before jumping into that, so I looked through my Alien Romances since I've been in the mood for those lately. I decided to try a new author and series that's a newer release. I finally settled on The Alien's Ransom by Ella Maven. This is book one in her Drixonian Warrior series. Now, it's kind of toted as an alien mc (motorcycle club) romance, but I didn't really get any mc vibes outside of the fact they drive hover motorcycles.

Like a lot of the alien romances out there, there is the normal tropes. Human women are abducted for breeding/experimentation purposes and found by "good aliens" that end up being compatible genetically. The Drix race has also lost all of their females from a virus that devastated their planet. Now even with a lot of those tropes being fairly common, this book definitely felt new and unique in some ways. 

This specific Drix clan is meeting with the aliens that abducted the humans to deliver to the Uldani. Daz, our hero is the leader of this clan and leading the delivery. Upon arrival however, they are very surprised that the delivery is not only humans, but human females. Now as I mentioned before, their race has lost all of the women of the race from a virus. Their culture was mainly a matriarchy and the motto was "She is all." They are very protective of females of any race and immediately change their plans. They are doing this task in return of Daz's captured brother. Frankie ends up getting hurt by one of the bad aliens and Daz feels echoes of the pain. This is the start of them realizing they are mates.

What I enjoyed that's different is how alien these guys actually are. I've complained a little in books I've read previously this year where the aliens aren't alien enough for me. Here it is not the case. Although, sometimes the way their tongues were described really bothered me. I get that they're longer, but sometimes Frankie mentioned him curling it around things and it just really turned me off. Other times it was just a little longer. I liked that these golden tattoos almost appear around their wrists that match and are unique to each couple.  Another interesting mating thing is that it's recognized when the female gets hurt and the bonding completes when the creature that hurts her is killed. I'm not sure how it will work in future books if the creature isn't killed by a mate, or if it's killed by something else. Or even if the women doesn't get hurt, can they still bond?

That's one reason that it was a 4-star read, I was left with a lot of questions. While a lot of things were explained, I feel like there were issues that I would've like to see addressed more. It's one thing if I had those thoughts myself, but Frankie asks those exact questions but they never get answered. I'm interested to see how the overarching plot goes and will most likely continue reading the series. I'd really like to get to Daz's brother's book, which is the 2nd one. Not sure when I'll get to it though. I definitely enjoyed reading it. There was great action and was decently paced. Another thing that really bothered me was the author almost forcing the motorcycle club thing on us. Frankie mentions it throughout, but it really didn't feel like it to me. I wish the author would've just not focused on trying to convince us it was that trope. It just felt forced and kept making me think that Frankie didn't actually know what a motorcycle club was. Like I said though, overall I enjoyed the read.

Have you read The Alien's Ransom?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Alien's Ransom, Ella Maven, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 266 pages, published in 2020