Menura Press, $2.99, ISBN 978-1370141623
Sci-fi Romance, 2016

The kompli-komplan mate bound was so rare and precious that most people didn’t believe it existed. Prince Aster found it with the Earth woman Evie. He couldn’t let her go.

So he claimed her and took her aboard his ship.

That’s from the opening page, and the author has saved me the effort of telling people that Nancey Cummings’s Bride of the Alien Prince is a direct continuation from Claimed by the Alien Prince and recapping what happened in that other story. Well, I guess I should also point out that the bloke alien is blue all over. I imagine he looks like the butt baby of the genie from the Disney version of Aladdin and Fabio, and turns the statement “Blue balls, baby, can be good for you!” into a prophecy.

Of course, with this being a kompli-komplan sequel, my kompli-komplaints carry over here as well. It’s hard for me to care about what happens to a couple after their initial bump and grind when their whole romance is founded on the tired “I smell your stench and I know you are my mate!” trope. After all, if the romance were predicated on the stench of one’s underpants after a long day, or something like that, there is no point of character or relationship development, is there?

One way the sequel can work is that the author just ramps up the heat and have the whole story be about acrobatic blue alien sex, which will be terrifying or erotic depending on the reader’s preferences. Another option is to crank up the absurdity, like maybe having the heroine give birth to singing tadpoles or something. The author almost has the right idea by starting the whole thing with a sex scene, but then comes the dreaded plot.

Our couple reach his home planet, and his parents are like, “Eeuw, humans!” So, Evie now has to go through some tests to prove herself worthy of continuously receiving Aster’s daily blue benediction. Personally, I would have nope’d my out of there and take the first space-cab back to Earth if I were her, because no way would I bother to go through all the nonsense to prove myself worthy of some blue dingaling’s affections, but you know, in this sort of romance, once he smells you, it’s forever and ever and ever and there is no escape. Even should he get fat, pauper himself, and reveal that he wants to wear her unwashed undergarments and make her put her nose close and take a deep whiff, this is a mate bond, baby, so there is no getting out.

Anyway, Evie of course passes the tests.

I couldn’t imagine this as my life a year ago, mated to a big blue alien, living on a farm with a child on the way, but now I couldn’t imagine anything else.

Good for her. Who cares? Not me, I’m more curious as to what their kids will look like…