Title: Strange Love
Author: Ann Aguirre
Pages: 275
Genre: Science Fiction/Romance
Release Date: 15 January 2020
From Goodreads "He's awkward. He's adorable. He's alien as hell. Zylar of Kith Balak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he'll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This 'human being' is not the Tiralan match he was looking for. She's frazzled. She's fierce. She's from St. Louis. Beryl Bowman's mother always said she'd never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn't know what the hell's going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants. They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange."
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Before I even get started on this review, I just need a moment to scream about how much I loved this book. Strange Love gave me all of the Mass Effect feelings that I've been missing and then some! Between Zylar and his awkwardness and Beryl with her sass, I fell in love with this book almost immediately.
Plot:
Boy meets girl. Boy steals girl. Boy gives girl a device to help translate speech because he's an alien and they can't understand each other. Sounds like a pretty standard romance, no? Strange Love is anything but your typical romance story. Dare I say, it's better than your typical romance story. It was the absolute cutest alien science fiction romance book I've ever read. Well, it's probably the only one I've ever read, but still. I described this as Mass Effect meets the Hunger Games with a talking dog and honestly, it's not wrong. I had a blast reading this and following the story of Zylar trying his darndest to find a mate and Beryl coming to terms with her new situation and Snaps just being Snaps. This was so much more than just boy meets girl and participates in some seriously dangerous and deadly challenges to see if they will be approved to become mated. It progressed from the base plot line of what you read in the synopsis into the journey of Beryl and Zylar falling in love organically (or...inorganically? since he's an alien?) and it ended up becoming one of my favorite books that I've read so far this year. You get so much development of both Beryl and Zylar as the story goes on and you're introduced to the world bit by bit, making you more interested in what else could possibly take place within the series. Everything unfolded so well and really kept me engaged the entire time. I honestly had trouble putting it down because I just wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next! If a solid, fun plot is something you look for in the books you read, then Strange Love will absolutely deliver!
Characters:
Characters:
Let's just get this out of the way: I ship Zeryl forever and ever. I loved, loved, loved their interactions from beginning to end and when I say they reminded me of Garrus and FemShep from Mass Effect, I'm not joking. We get to follow both characters perspectives so you really get to see them develop as individuals and as a couple and it's just chefs kiss perfection. The growth that you see in both Beryl and Zylar is some of my favorite character development that I've ever read. Beryl is obviously incredibly freaked out by her situation but eventually adapts to it and getting to see that happen from not only her perspective but also seeing Zylar see her grow (wow what a sentence) is just incredible. He's such an absolute sweetheart and he is genuinely wholesome when it comes to Beryl. He doesn't understand humans at first but his willingness to learn and help Beryl adjust to her new life is so incredibly sweet. You can actually watch him go from "I just need to find a mate" to "I really do care for and love Beryl Bowman and I want to be with her" and truly is some of my favorite relationship development that I've ever read. Beryl's progression as a character and her also being willing to learn about Zylar and his people and the way things are done just shows her dedication to Zylar, even when she barely knows him. The way these two develop separately and then together is such a fun storyline to follow and I really hope we get to read more about them in another book!
Oh, and Snaps is a treasure to the galaxy and must be protected at all costs.
Writing:
Oh, and Snaps is a treasure to the galaxy and must be protected at all costs.
Writing:
This isn't my first experience with Ann Aguirre's writing- and I had already enjoyed what I had read previously- so I knew going into this that if nothing else, I would enjoy the writing. Thankfully, I ended up enjoying every aspect of this book, but it was good to go into this knowing I had already enjoyed something else by the author. As someone who typically is not a fan of multiple POV books, Strange Love is a rare exception. I loved getting to go back and forth between Beryl and Zylar and following how they change and grow on each other as the book goes on. I know that I said it above but it was honestly one of my favorite aspects of the book because I feel like character development like that is rare in books these days. The descriptions were beautiful and I was able to really picture Zylar's world and all of its aspects pretty clearly while reading. Although, I will admit, my brain just inserted Garrus when I was picturing what Zylar looked like. But Ann does a fantastic job at bringing you into this alien (literally) world and really allowing you to learn right along with Beryl. And speaking of learning about alien things, if you were curious about the, shall we say, extracurricular activities between Beryl and Zylar, fear not for those are explored and expanded upon. Multiple times. Never in my life would I imagine that I would be complimenting an author on sex scenes between an alien and a human, but here we are! Again, I really just had a flashback to Garrus talking about making some calibrations and throwing some subtle innuendos at Shep. It was hilarious and wonderful and very well executed, honestly. In short (or not really because I could go on and on about how wonderful Ann Aguirre's writing is) just like everything else in this book, the writing was A+.
Strange Love is the sci-fi romance book you didn't know you needed. With an incredibly fun and exciting plot, characters that you will absolutely fall in love with, and writing that builds the world and allows you to experience it almost first-hand, it will keep you hooked from page one and have you dying for the next book! If you love Mass Effect, The Hunger Games, wholesome aliens, talking dogs, sassy humans, and realistic relationships, then you really don't want to miss out on this book.
Strange Love is the sci-fi romance book you didn't know you needed. With an incredibly fun and exciting plot, characters that you will absolutely fall in love with, and writing that builds the world and allows you to experience it almost first-hand, it will keep you hooked from page one and have you dying for the next book! If you love Mass Effect, The Hunger Games, wholesome aliens, talking dogs, sassy humans, and realistic relationships, then you really don't want to miss out on this book.
