Title: Caiden
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: October 5, 2015
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B01LXS3UHN
Mandy Thorne thinks she’s just testing the new Intergalactic Dating Agency’s site when she pushes the initiate match button. The moment she does though, she discovers she’s just requested a super-hot alien be delivered to her doorstep the very next day. While Mandy’s excited about the sexy man she’s about to get, the strings attached are a different story.
Caiden TS-461 lands on Earth before he’s been properly trained for the culture, but as soon as he meets his human mate he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win her heart. When he breaks a rule to make Mandy happy, the pair end up back on planet Eroscia to face punishment for their crime, and the sentence could make Mandy resent him forever.
My rating:
In a (not-so-distant-future) half of the male population has been wiped out by a freak plague, leaving the unscathed women to fend for themselves to see to their sexual needs. Some use government approved toys, some settle for one-night stands...For the rest there's a new "exchange" program, still in beta-testing, to import males from a recently-appeared planet, Eroscia, where men are in abundance.
Mandy Thorne's best friend Lexi is the one in charge of beta-testing the new "dating app", but Mandy is the one that pushes the "initiate match" button while fiddling with it. The result: her future husband will be delivered to her doorstep the next morning. The caveat: no sex before the wedding.
In a (not-so-distant-future) half of the male population has been wiped out by a freak plague, leaving the unscathed women to fend for themselves to see to their sexual needs. Some use government approved toys, some settle for one-night stands...For the rest, there's a new "exchange" program, still in beta-testing, to import males from a recently-appeared planet, Eroscia, where men are in abundance.
Mandy Thorne's best friend Lexi is the one in charge of beta-testing the new "dating app", but Mandy is the one that pushes the "initiate match" button while fiddling with it. The result: her future husband will be delivered to her doorstep the next morning. The caveat: no sex before the wedding.
The blurb with the rule-breaking and punishment-facing was promising, but unfortunately that happened in the last two chapters of this 11-chapter story. And even that wasn't as promising as the blurb might hint at.
But let's start at the beginning. The story is told from Mandy's (first-person) POV, but since Mandy sounded like a fifteen-year-old, I was the opposite of impressed. She was immature, abhorred getting bossed about by men (probably thanks to living in a women-ruled society), but had no qualms in bossing her hero around all the time. Even when he specifically told her they were breaking the rules, that there might be consequences, the entitled female simply waved her hand in that no-one-will-know-so-what-can-possibly-happen way.
Well, turns out they did know and something did happen. I wished for the punishment to be harsher (for Mandy, to teach her a much needed lesson), but unfortunately they both got it pretty easy.
Since the story was told from an immature chick's POV there was no possibility to actually get to know the hero, besides the fact he was apparently hot and had cool alien telekinetic ability to "touch" the heroine without actually touching her (in the end, he actually caressed her heart, which is either really gross, or cause for alarm, because it might've been a serious condition and not the touch of her alien, but I digress). He's also bossy and doesn't listen when someone warns him about imbibing too much. A typical male, then. And without personality. At least he knew English and didn't sound like an idiot.
So, we had an immature heroine (without much personality), a cardboard cutout of a hero (without personality), an uninteresting and rather redundant plot with absolutely no conflict despite what the blurb claims.
What a disappointing waste of nary an hour. If it were longer, it would be a DNF.
Title: Hunter
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: October 25, 2016
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B01M7UU4WC
When Lexi Boynton’s best friend Mandy gets in trouble on the planet Eroscia, Lexi negotiates a deal to get her back. Part of the arrangement means taking in one angry-looking alien and finding him a wife. The sizzling-hot Hunter TS-501 ruffles more than Lexi’s hair when she’s in his presence, and while she’d like to be his Earth match, he spells danger in too many ways.
Hunter knows Lexi is his mate, even though she refuses to accept it. He also knows his white-collar criminal history will never fit in with her rule following ways, so he tries to keep it a secret as long as he can. When a security breach piques his curiosity, he wins Lexi over with his expertise. But his past is revealed, and the truth could cost him the woman he loves.
My rating:
In order to save her friend (because said friend couldn't follow the rules governing mating with an alien), Lexi is forced to take on an additional alien and find his match on Earth. Unfortunately, Hunter thinks his match is Lexi herself.
This was yet another story told in a first person POV that offered absolutely no insight into the hero beside what the heroine thought was the truth, hence he came across as one-dimensional, but still better than the snobbish, elitist heroine who thought she was better than anyone (especially the taciturn, brooding alien that made her blood run faster).
I didn't like her, he was merely a beefcake-y ornament, the romance was non-existent and the conflict (which was stupid to begin with) was solved with a wondrous ease.
Title: Logan
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: November 16, 2016
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B01NA6A8CE
Eliza Grady mourns the loss of the majority of the human male population more than most women do. Her life dream is to raise a family, and when it appears her only way to do so is to marry an alien, she finally agrees to accept a match with Logan TS-028. After a rocky start, Eliza falls hard for her sexy life mate and agrees to let him turn her into a celebrity homemaking queen. But when the business begins to overwhelm her, Eliza wonders if Logan’s in love with her, or if what he really loves is what she can do for him.
Logan was just as reluctant to be matched with a human as Eliza was to date him. Until he tried her apple pie. Given no choice but to stay on Earth, he decides to make the best of things. And Eliza presents him with more than a willingness to take care of him—she’s got skills he can turn into a powerhouse business that has intergalactic appeal. As he falls deeply in love with Eliza, Logan gets carried away with his plan, and she threatens to quit. He must take a step back and figure out a way to run his new empire and keep the most important thing in his life—Eliza.
My rating:
It took her three months and she's scraping the bottom of the barrel, but Eliza Grady finally chooses her alien match. Logan also looks like he doesn't want to be very enthusiastic...Until he tastes Eliza's apple pie and a light bulb goes off in his head. He'll turn her into a home cooking queen, even if it means forsaking the wondrous possibilities of their match.
Yet again the story is told from a single POV (first person, at that), so the reader is "intimately" acquainted with the rather immature, introverted heroine with self-esteem issues, while the hero remained an enigma; a supposedly celebrity-hungry enigma that cared for the heroine only once he made her famous (according to her), but still an enigma.
One-dimensional characters in a puerile plot. Bah.
Title: Jake
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: September 15, 2017
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B075HNDD4W
Hannah Sullivan takes the life of a flaky artist to an extreme, so it’s no surprise to her friends when she decides to pick her alien life-partner at random. When Jake28 arrives and she discovers he really can cook, Hannah’s personal life seems perfect. But professionally, she’s still paralyzed by her own self-doubt.
Jake is thrilled to finally come to earth and meet his nearly-perfect match. Especially when he discovers the chemistry between them is beyond what he imagined. As Jake settles into his new life with Hannah, he discovers that more than just her kitchen is in disarray. While he can see Hannah’s true talent below her messy exterior, she can’t. When she pushes him away, he must figure out how to free her muse and claim her heart.
My rating:
DNF @ 25%
Yes, I know it's a short story, but I just couldn't go on. The uber-airhead heroine put me off.
What was interesting was the beginning and the tidbit about the changes to the alien matchmaking program leading to multiple bad matches and skyrocketing divorce rates. Much better reading than what we got next.
Title: Oliver
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: October 7, 2017
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B076441LST
Morgan Jenkins built her coffee shop from the ground up, and when aliens began to come to Earth she benefited from the extra business. But caffeine affects some of the men from the planet Eroscia in dangerous ways, and new government regulations banning caffeine consumption threaten her business. So when Oliver, her alien match, arrives in the middle of her crisis, she doesn’t have the time to cultivate their relationship or the desire to deal with his version of help.
As a nutrition scientist for Eroscia, Oliver is no stranger to how food can impact the body, and he’s willing to do whatever Morgan needs to help save her business. Oliver knows he and Morgan are a near perfect match, and even though his new love is reluctant to let him in, he refuses to back down. But when Oliver pushes too hard, Morgan tells him to take a hike—all the way back to Eroscia. He must find a way to convince Morgan they’re perfect partners in business as well as love.
My rating:
DNF @ 12%
I'm sick and tired of these entitled heroines who, just because the majority of the human male population was wiped out by a freak plague, they're smarter than any other living and breathing organism, and that male aliens couldn't possibly match them anywhere else but in bed.
This particular mini-series is nothing more than tacky fiction that objectifies males (of any species, it seems), all the while making the women snobbish and elitist, and ignoring possibly meatier subjects (like the heroine's suspicion that the female US president is responsible for the previous plague as well as the aliens-addicted-to-coffee craze) that might add some "levity" to the plot.
Title: Tristan
Series: Intergalactic Dating Agency, Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides
Author: V. Vaughn
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: November 28, 2017
Publisher: Sugarloaf Press
ASIN: B077N2XBXY
Everything Cassie Nichols hoped for in life has finally fallen into place. She’s madly in love with her sexy alien husband Tristan, has a client who will make her a partner at her law firm and a baby on the way. But her perfect life falls apart in an instant when she’s taken to the hospital and discovers she has to be on bedrest until her child is born. The condition puts her job in jeopardy, and threatens the financial stability of her family. To make matters worse a startling discovery about Tristan is made. One that could land him in jail. As Cassie tries to save everything she’s worked so hard to get she discovers she can’t do it alone. But can she find a way to trust the Tristan she thought she knew?
My rating:
Wow, what a twist this one offers. The hero and heroine are already married at the beginning of the book. Oh, wow. *eyeroll*
We're once more subjected to an entitled, snobbish heroine who is also a control freak (God forbid her man might make some money while she's unemployed) and a cardboard cutout hero without personality.
The best part of it was the frame-up the president has cooked up, but it was quickly brushed under the rug...and then the story ended.
1 star, bitchslappable heroine/hero, contemporary, DNF, sci-fi/futuristic, short story/novella, V. Vaughn/Violet Vaughn
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