Alien Tongues by Chloe Parker

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Needing a little bit of a change of place, I decided to pick up a sci-fi/alien romance. I recently added quite a few to my tbr and decided to go with Alien Tongues by Chloe Parker. This is the first book in her Cosmic Bonds series. Also, I absolutely adore this cover, the colors are just so pretty. I was looking at it on Amazon and thought I might buy the paperback copy, but the cover is completely different so I didn't end up buying it. It has a blonde human girl on it, totally not the same vibe. Update: I applied this to the prompt of new to you author for the 3rd board of Summer of Swoon.

We meet Natalie, a linguist from Earth. Shortly after she was born the Lyrans contacted Earth. Of course we all thought that they were here to attack, but they were actually making contact after finding the golden disc that was put on a satellite. The Lyran culture doesn't really understand or have music or entertainment, so they wanted to contact Earth. While we are primitive in almost every way to them, our brains allow for creativity that the Lyrans don't have. Natalie grew up and became a linguist after loving languages, especially Lyran. She is on Logos to study an artifact that they are unable to translate. She gets attacked one night on the way home and ends up with guardsman Kiran guarding her.

This was such a good book. I really enjoyed the different takes on an alien romance and it was super fun that our heroine was a linguist. I loved the beginning and how it branched from real events that happened and how it evolved from that point. I loved Kiran and Natalie and really enjoyed the tension and eventual steam between them. I also loved their little movie night where they watched Kiss Me, Kate. It really made me want to rewatch it, especially since I've been in the mood for older musicals lately.

There are just a couple things that really brought this down from being a 5-star. First, I wish that there was more explored with the mate bond between them. They both dream about each other and feel the bond, but it isn't really discussed between them or Kiran with other Lyrans. While I understood that their way of ensuring the continuation of their race was completely clinical and actual intimate relations are heavily looked down upon, I wish that there was more done. The other big sticking point for me was how it ended. It didn't feel wrapped up. While there was a little set up for the next book, I didn't feel like we were at a good stopping point for Kiran and Nat. I wish there was more between them after meeting Mai (the heroine of Alien Liaisons). 

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was just those two things that really left me wanting more. I'm definitely going to be picking up the next book in the series. I did want to mention, at the end of the book it mentions Alien Liaisons will be released in October of 2021. It actually came out earlier in July and the third book, Alien Pleasures, is set to come out in October. I'm definitely intrigued to read more and am happy to find another fun sci-fi series!

Have you read Alien Tongues?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Alien Tongues, Chloe Parker, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 261 pages, published in 2021