Kissed By The Alien Mercenary

A lathar series book about Lizzy and her alien who is so sweet and caring. Lizzy is Jessica's twin and thus Laarn has claimed the role of father/ brother in law... and because of this he drives away Saal, her alien. <br /><br />This leads to all sorts of mistakes and misunderstandings...<br /><br />New sets of characters are introduced too, a mercenary group called <b>the Warbournes</b>. The Warbournes are a bunch of kickass crew too.

I was looking forward to this book but found it underwhelming, I liked the concept of this series, the alien/human universe was interesting, and some of the human women were badass, but most of the books felt rushed and disconnected. <br /><br />I feel like there was too much emphasis on the physical aspects of the characters such as how small the human women were and how large the male aliens were, which was uncomfortable.<br /><br />I expected more interactions between the characters and more information about how the previous characters we were introduced to continued their lineage which was the whole point. I also thought there would be a book about the emperor’s mate because he’s been in every book.

Read today as part of project “get over the migraine” and while I did enjoy the story, there was a heck of a lot of threat-of-rape (with a side dish of men-can’t-help-themselves in a particular scene) that nudged me a bit off the romance, but I did like Lizzie and her alien beau.

<strong>5 stars ⭐️ </strong><br /><br />I love Mina Carter and her Warriors of Lathar series. As with all previous books of this series, this one doesn’t disappoint.

3.5<br /><br />Lizzie, Jess Kallson's twin sister, awakens from her mysterious "sleeping sickness" to find herself among the Lathar and having to learn a whole new culture. She finds romance with Saal, an orderly in the healing hall who has been sweetly enchanted with her since she arrived and cared for her in her sickness. The two feel an automatic "soul mates" connection. But Saal is of a lower caste and deemed unacceptable by Lord Healer Laarn, Jess's mate, and conspires to keep the two apart. Some villainous Lathar also want to claim Lizzie since she's an unmated female.<br /><br />I really liked the romance part of this story between Lizzie and Saal. Both characters are very likeable and Saal is very attentive and sweet with Lizzie. He's almost beta, but he's still a bad ass, as evidence by the fact that he becomes a mercenary among the Warborne. But as much as I liked that, this story felt rushed there towards the end. At that point you've got Laarn, who was a total dickhead, more or less getting off completely free and Lizzie heading off on a mercenary ship to live with Saal...but is she going to be happy with that? She's a botanist more or less and pretty much leaving all plants and nature behind. And now because of Laarn and his stupid ass antics (and prejudice) Jess and her mother have to lose Lizzie again for who knows how long...and Jess isn't the least bit upset with Laarn? The ending just needed to be further fleshed out...like about 50 pages longer to really work here. I mean, we never even find out if Saal gets his mating marks... So this tops the charts for me as far as romance goes, but the plot needed expanding just a bit. <br /><br />This obviously establishes a sort of spin-off like series with the Warborne as the center of it all. As interesting as the characters seem to be, I'm not sure I'm going down that divergent road. I just want to finish this series and be done with the Lathar...as a general species, they have a major problem with consent.

<strong>So good</strong><br /><br />Laarn is a jerk. Lizzie is awake and seems the voice she heard in her dreams. She find him and is drawn to him. Saal has spent weeks reading to and talking to Lizzie. He can't stay away. Laarn interferes with their relationship and it leads to a misunderstanding between the couple. With an abduction comes the truth and a rescue. It was very sweet. I love this series. Zero is up next. Can't wait.

Finally I got to find out what happened to Saal who had protected Jess more than once and Lizzie, Jess' twin sister who was taken from earth on her death bed. Saal was so sweet in this book and my heart went out to him. I didn't realize from the other books that he was from a much lower caste and that it should have any bearing on things. There are still plenty of dangers for human women on the planet that have to be dealt with and the Lord Healer will have to learn that you don't mess with the love life of a human woman.<br /><br />There was definitely a HEA and the bonus is we have been introduced to another set of quirky characters that I already love.

To be frank, it seemed like this book was written just to introduce the next series about the mercenaries. <br />It had potential, there were some sweet parts, but it just didn’t feel fully developed. It’s been a while since I’ve read the previous books in the series, so I was left with quite a few questions. Like - what the heck is this sleeping disease - was she catatonic? How did Saal know how to pleasure a human woman? And what was the tension with Laarn about - what did Saal do? What is Lizzie going to do as a job or even a hobby? Will she be safe? <br /><br />Btw I always thought Laarn was a d!ck, and this book confirms it. Yet again he was forgiven far too easily. Poor Saal.

Waking the sleeping beauty<br />I have loved all of the Warriors of the Lathar, but this one may just be my favorite. There is just a sweetness to the relationship between these two characters and the many obstacles they have to overcome seem almost insurmountable. Especially when your own family is not 100% on your side. The author did such a fantastic job with this book and the ending certainly brought tears to my eyes. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

Finally, Lizzie is awake! Loved Saal at once when he had tried to charm Jess in Book 2. They are soo perfect for each other. Their courting was soo tender and sweet. Their claiming was so passionate too. I just wish, it was more than a short story. Cant wait for Zero's storyline.