TW: mentions of fatphobia, abduction, non-consensual experimentation, suicide.

The Scorpion's Mate isn't that bad. It's not cringe like some of the other monster romance books are. There isn't much world-building mentioned but there is a good amount of character descriptions when it comes to the alien races. Something that bothered me though was there wasn't a lot of mention of Clair being Plus-sized. I love reading about Plus-sized characters and I felt the author left that out in certain settings. When her body is mentioned its often in a negative way and it would have been lovely to see the mc talk about her body in a positive way. Overall, as bland as some of the writing is for this short story it wasn't bad enough to DNF. I enjoyed this short little romance that had an odd twist that I really didn't see coming. The ending didn't give much, and it felt rushed, but it was a HEA so yay.

A part of the book that had me giggling and laughing(spoiler):

[ Thrax and Clair managed to escape in a tunnel (of some sorts), and when Clair refused to eat the eels Thrax has to figure out how to feed her so she wouldn't die of starvation/dehydration, so she didn't go hungry. He would store food in his body. He basically stored it and made "soup" (idk what else to call it lmao) and the ONLY way Clair could extract it was to give him the glucky gluck. (a bj.) This has no importance to my review I just found it hilarious and needed to mention it LMAO.

This is a monster/alien romance that is a little on the darker side. I thought it was interesting, and thankfully, nothing too triggering actually happens (

The beginning part has a scene where the Iriduans use a machine to probe inside Claire's uterus that was the most disturbing part to me.

). It's mostly about the setting and the love interests having to learn about each other and how to escape together. It has a twist on the fated mates trope, too. 

Thrax is the result of a different alien species, the Iriduans, doing genetic alteration experiments to create the ultimate fighter/weapon. His body and mind are altered from his previous form. 

Claire was well-developed I thought. She is open to alien romance because she's read those kinds of books, but she still has to get used to just how monstrous Thrax actually is. I appreciated that even though there were things about him that were off putting, she knew his body isn't his fault because the Iriduans made him that way. 

For those that may be squeamish about body fluids... 

While Thrax and Claire are trying to survive on the run, Claire refuses to eat the eels that Thrax eats. Thrax's "gift" to feed her is his seed, if you know what I mean. She's thinks it's yummy. 

I am looking forward to reading more in the series. I didn't like this one as much as The Chameleon's Mate (just because this one was a little darker), but I still think this author is creative and writes well. I will be glad to see how the rest of the universe she's created plays out.