Made with love
© Victoria Gryson 2024
Eva has no idea that a trip to the alien outpost that has been established in Portland, Oregon will completely up-end the rest of her life. Certainly, things have gone a tiny bit off the rails, but Eva and her best friend Daisy are trying to stay positive and make it work.
Callan is King of the Shade Dimension. When he senses his Fated, he searches to no avail. But when the opportunity arises for a distraction, he takes it. Stopping traffickers is just the sort of action that could be a nice little break. Callan has long worked incognito for the Inter-Galactic Council as their judge, jury, and executioner as needed. Little do they know that he is actually King of the Shade, wielder of magic that they are frightened of, and a dimension that they don’t have communication with. He has no qualms about heading to the newly discovered Earth to put a stop to this group of slavers.
We all know we’re not alone in the universe (I mean… come on), so having first contact happen shouldn’t surprise us. However, it might be a surprise that they’ve come to help us evacuate our dying planet. Unfortunately, there are also aliens with more… corrupt and moneymaking agendas finding their way to Earth. Queue the Hunter and his band to find them and get rid of them… well, amongst other things, as his Fated could well be an Earthling herself…
Scenes and environments were well described, going into detail when needed and leaving your mind to fill in the blanks when not. I enjoyed that; it made for really smooth reading!
Our main female character in this installment is Eva. She and her best friend Daisy work and eventually own a bakery when the aliens arrive. It is hard work, but they make ends meet… barely.
She’s a smart cookie (har har) with her heart in the right place.
Callan, King of the Shade Dimension but better known as The Hunter by the people on the intergalactic council, is trying to find his Fated. When a mission to Earth pops up, he decides to go in the hope of finding her there. Callan has a lot of power, and I don’t think we have seen all of it yet in this installment. He is kind to those close to him and ruthless to the ones he hunts.
In my opinion, the characters were somewhat superficial. We don’t know much about them, and even when Eva finds out she’s Callan’s Fated, she goes with the flow instead of freaking out even a little bit about being together with an alien. I would have liked to have a lot more depth to the characters.
That said, the characters are interesting, and I loved reading about them!
A bit slow at the start, which is perfectly normal, as our characters get introduced, and the stage is being set. Once it gets going, you’re sucked in, so beware 😉
Good balance between conversations and action.
The book was well written with only a small error here and there (but I’m going to guess those will be gone by the time the book goes live). There is sexual content described (if that is important to you).
The book is 422 pages, spread over 32 chapters, and is told from multiple points of view. It can get a bit confusing as it’s not clear who you’re following at that moment, and it jumps quite a lot. But once you get used to it, you go with it 🙂
I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley, and all in all, it was a fun read. It felt like it could be much more in-depth, especially character-wise, but it was a fun and easy read. While it’s listed as Fantasy on Goodreads, it should, of course, be Sci-fi.
I will be looking out for the next installment of the book. I love the “fated mates” trope 😀
© Victoria Gryson 2024