Love Beyond Book 1
This book caused a bit of a buzz on a Facebook group. The post said that the heroine is treated like a pet and the hero takes her to the vet. Well, colour me intrigued.
Delaney McCormick was abducted and taken to the planet Lorien where she is treated like an animal rather than a person.
Torek Lore’Onik Weidnar Kenzo Lesh’Aerai Renaar (yep, that’s his full name) is an alien intelligence officer for the Lorien Federation. He’s described as having full body hair and horns, so I imagined him like some sort of ram-headed humanoid.
Humans are a previously unknown species, and considered unintellectual and inferior, like animals. The population of Lorien apparently love “owning foreign domesticated animals”. Torek has been ordered to have an animal companion as part of his PTSD therapy, but he’s afraid he won’t be able to care for Reshna (her animal name) properly.
Torek does, in fact, give Reshna a bath and takes her to the vet! This is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. There are grey, to the point of black, areas regarding consent. As Reshna, Delaney is subjected to some degrading treatment, but she puts up with it in order to keep up the charade of being of a lesser intelligence after she witnessed a murder.
There’s also lots of name dropping, and like Torek’s, they’re long and difficult to pronounce, and it’s a bit confusing to put names to characters. The plot also inspires a lot of curiosity from the start. The author gives minimal details about how Delaney got to the alien planet, the planet itself, and it’s place in the universe. It’s revealed in snippets, which can be a bit frustrating at times, but I suppose it does it’s job and keeps the reader turning the pages.
My overall feelings about this book are as strange as the premise. It felt very surreal, and uncomfortable, reading about a growing love between characters who were so imbalanced. I mean, a romance between a pet and their owner? It immediately feels a bit depraved. However, it wasn’t, and there was no crossing that boundary until Torek realised Delaney was a person rather than an animal. There was also a decent element of suspense which made it a very nice read, despite initial concerns about the owner/pet elements.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
