Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖 (This started really strong for me but my interest waned about halfway through)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (I wanted just a bit more emotional aspect when compared with the details)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (a lot of these felt lighter/short – the beginning ones were the longest I think)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥+
Humor: Yes
Perspective: First person perspective from both hero and heroine
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, several months later (plus a bonus scene that takes place 2 weeks before the epilogue)
When mains are first on page together: Pretty soon in (chapter 2)
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy from the author in e-book form

Should I read in order?
I think this is the first in the series? Some other relationships are started in this one so might be best in order for this series.

Basic plot:
Stevie is trying to survive the alien apocalypse with her sorority sisters when aliens arrive. Luckily, Marrec and his companions seem to be on their side.

Give this a try if you want:
- post apocalyptic Earth and alien setting
- human heroine/alien hero pairing
- sorority involved heroine
- huge hero/tiny heroine – this hero is at least 2 feet taller than our heroine
- protective hero
- hero nurses hero back to health (light)
- aliens bring higher technology
- fated mates
- virgin hero
- lower angst
- hero cooks for the heroine
- mid to higher steam – there’s a number of scenes but some were short or on the lighter side

Ages:
- heroine is 22, hero is 28 in Earth years

First line:
An apocalypse did this to me.

My thoughts:
I adore the inclusion of playlists with books! I love that Mann included this in the beginning of the novel.

I really loved the first half or so of this novel. I thought it was a more unique spin on scifi romance – kind of a post apocalyptic Earth where a virus has created zombies and the last thing you’d expect is an alien spaceship arriving ready to eat them all and help you out. And as absurd as that sounds I just loved that idea! I thought the beginning was quite funny and I was very curious about getting to know the aliens and see what would happen.

Right around the fated mate reveal though (which I thought was rather anticlimactic? It seemed like a really big deal for the secondary couple, then how it happened after with our mains just felt like ‘oh, us too? Cool’ – and how when they had spent more time together??) I started to lose a bit of steam for this read. Part of it is probably it’s a bit lower angst – which is really great for a lot of readers, but I tend to eat it up. Without the angst I needed something else to really pull on me. Things were happening but a lot of it was pretty smooth sailing through the book. The second half kind of felt like a nice, peaceful extended epilogue to me. This could totally be my mood too though.

The sex started off great to me but seemed to get quite a bit lighter as we went on. I appreciated the bonus scene though, very much ;)

Endearments

The hero calls the heroine ‘little blossom’.
Heroine calls the hero ‘baby’ and ‘honey’.

Cock/Hero Stats/World Building:

- aliens are called Aprixian (of planet Aprix)
- aliens have English language implanted
- 2 feet taller than heroine
- Marrec has a red, metal left arm
- bright green eyes
- understands english but struggles with nuances and some words
- long red hair with sides shaved
- hero has each ear pierced twice
- bullet proof
- gray skin
- many males are not mated and die alone due to the population being mostly male
- cock is distinctly larger than human, no foreskin, and hairless
- he can have an orgasm without risk of getting her pregnant – to breed he must stay inside and warm her with his cock “My seed must be heated deep within your cunt to latch. It will make your stomach shake, and your temperature rise.”
- semen tastes like vanilla ice cream
- when pregnant, the mother’s stomach will glow with their ‘life seed’

Quotes/thoughts: (Any mistakes are my own)

“You can set me down now,” Stee-vee whispers. Her cheeks have turned nearly as red as her blood, and I’m worried that perhaps setting her down is not the best idea. I can continue to cradle her. I will walk where she needs me to walk, and stay where she needs me to say.
---
Shifting my hands to brush her hair over her shoulders, I nod. The back of my knuckles brush along her collar. “I would make my pledge of devotion closer to the powerful organ in your chest. Treasuring the peaks beneath your coverings that I am so curious about. I wish to put my mouth on them too.”
She swallows, her small neck shaking once like a heartbeat. “Wow, that’s uh, are you sure?”
I have never been more sure. “Shall I show you, my mate?”
“Um, if you’re positive that you want -”
I have her on her back, knees parted in the air and feet planted before she can finish speaking.

 

Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)

- scenes of zombies
- mention of parents most likely dying in the outbreak
- mention of slavery
- harassment of heroine by a male side character
- violence (fighting, sword)

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex? 

No but hero is a virgin and he can choose if he wants sex without pregnancy risk or 'breeding' sex 

 
36% - 🔥kiss leading eventually to breast play and fingering/oral for her, hero comes in his pants
48% - 🔥 missionary
58% - kiss
61% - 🔥blow job (incomplete) followed by sex that only has light details and is a few sentences
64% - 🔥 oral for her (it’s a bit light)
74% - blow job (incomplete), shower sex (it’s very light…)
76% - 🔥her on top
89% - 🔥fingering for her, light anal play/oral for her, missionary
95% (in the bonus scene) - 🔥 sex on a bookshelf