Human Required
Interesting plot? ✅
Keep her name out of your mouth? ✅
Alien MMC (who may be a virgin, well at the start 😏)? ✅
I don’t even know where to start. What a great read! Was it perfect? I can’t say it was. Did I love it anyway? Yes, yes I did! If you’re a fan of alien/sci-fi romance this first in a series is the one for you!
It’s a light read that gets you in the feels and also has the power to p*ss you off (in a good way).
Tropes:
Forced proximity
Kidnapping
Enemies to lovers
🚨My review does contain spoilers, this is your warning 🚨
Let’s get in to it:
We have Olivia, a human obstetrician who was previously an army medic in the war alongside her best friend Ben. At the beginning of the book we see that after 2 years she’s still very much mourning the loss of Ben, who died trying to save a cyborg in battle. On the anniversary of his passing she’s kidnapped by Aeon, who chose her to bring back to Planet Alpha because their people are in crisis and are struggling to care for their pregnant women and deliver healthy babies to term. Initially Olivia rails against this, trying to escape but eventually the proximity to these new people open her eyes to the situation and she begins to see the cyborgs as people to care for. Of course she also starts seeing Aeon in a different light too and pretty soon she can’t ignore the tension she feels with him. The enemy in this book is the human corporation CE who owned the cyborgs in the war, treated them as slaves and believed they’d all been decommissioned when the war ended.
One thing I absolutely love in a romance/spicy book of any genre is when the intimate scenes are seen through the MMCs lense, and this book absolutely delivered that! Of the intimate scenes only one is shown from the FMCs perspective. The MMC appears to have been a virgin but wasn’t at all shy about getting down to business after the first couple of minutes.
“I’ve never done this...” he’d admitted softly in my ear, his voice uncharacteristically uncertain. I was stunned. “There hasn’t been anyone who mattered,” ~ Swoooooooon 🙌🏻
I am always honest in my reviews and there were a couple of things that didn’t sit right with me:
1. The ending felt rushed. There was so much content in the beginning and throughout there was all sorts of tension and conversations about the humans coming to reclaim Olivia and start a war. In the end it was a matter of a conversation and the humans left. Further to that it was Olivia’s colleague and a couple of agents of CE who agreed to the cyborgs terms, I’m not convinced they would have had the authority to agree to those terms? I know it’s a series so I fully expect we haven’t seen the last of them but I feel this could have been hinted at in the book.
2. Olivia’s resistance lasted a little too long and became a little petulant in my opinion. I feel a doctor from the year 3036 who’d been a soldier in a war, was aware of other life forms and space travel would have reacted a little differently. I feel she would have railed initially but after meeting the expectant mothers she would have struck a deal to return home after fully understanding the situation. Everything about her personality tells us that until she continues to object for a good portion of the book. I’m not saying she wouldn’t have been snarky about being kidnapped, but I’d have thought she’d use her knowledge as leverage to freedom.
3. The timings feel off for me, the book is set in 3036, however it feels like it’s set in the 21st century. There’s no suggestion that humans have evolved beyond how they lived their lives in 2025 (other than creating cyborgs of course). I wouldn’t think in 3036 we’d still be driving cars, have typical hospitals with 16 hour shifts and where time cards are punched.
None of this takes any of my love and enjoyment from the book, I just would have enjoyed it more with these things 🥰. It was a really good read and I’m looking forward to picking up the rest of the series as and when they’re released.
To the authors Celia and Anne, thank you for creating such a brilliant world and most of all, thank you for introducing me to Aeon and Olivia. I feel like one of the next books needs to be Tegan’s story? Maybe he’ll get a redemption arc 🤔
Anyway, here’s some quotes to try and entice you to pick up this book:
Seven days ago, I hated him. Now? Now I wasn’t sure what I felt. Only that going back to simply being captor and captive seemed impossible.
The realization hit me with such force I had to stop walking: I was terrified of losing her. Not just because our pregnant women needed her skills. Not just because she was teaching others. But because I needed her. I’d fallen in love with her.
“I want there to be an us. Beyond this room. Beyond necessity.”
“Keep her name out of your mouth,” I hissed, my face inches from his. “Or you’ll answer to me.”
I received a free copy of this book 📖