The story is inventive and heartwarming with good emotional intimacy between characters. There’s solid character development but the relationship development is a bit lacking as the MCs come together somewhat suddenly. I actually flipped back a few pages thinking I had accidentally skipped through.

The world building is intriguing with an inventive alien main character who is almost immediately protective of the FMC—not a bad thing considering they can read minds and communicate via telepathy which gives him insight to her. There are some inconsistencies in the world building and holes in the writing which made the pacing choppy. There were also a few points that I thought were too convenient or unearned but I love a new author who shows promise in their storytelling and I’m definitely going to read book 2.