She’s on the run from a violent past. He solves his problems with a sword.Fleeing a life of abuse, Sheri climbs aboard a mail-order mate spaceship bound for a distant station, but never arrives… Fate intervenes and her trip takes a quick, deadly turn when she crashes on the planet Atera. She’s surrounded by endless sand dunes, dangerous creatures, and alien beings that remind her of Earth … her of Earth lizards. But one particular lizard hardly leaves her thoughts—a sexy, two legged, muscular male bent on protecting and caring for her at all costs.
Drazan is a fierce warrior, the strongest Ateran of the Red Sands, he rules his dunes with an iron fist and sharp sword, and is honor bound to face all challengers to his position. During one of these battles something… strange… happens. Fire rains from the skies and a strange black metal box filled with females crashes to the sands. All thoughts of fighting are lost to the allure of these odd humans—especially one deliciously curvy female who stirs his blood. Now he finds himself with dark yearnings, strong need, and a hardness between his legs that he’s never used before.
With Sheri consuming his thoughts, Drazan may have forgotten about his last challenge but his opponent’s brother hasn’t. Now he’s determined to see Drazan suffer… even if that means killing Sheri.
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Red Sands is book one in the Warlords Of Atera series by Celia Kyle as Erin Tate.
Red Sands is currently on Kindle Unlimited and that is how I picked it up. It’s a nice start to the series.
We are introduced to a desert planet with lizard like aliens. There are a few different types of colors for these lizard aliens and each live in different parts of the planet. They all come together during one time of the year to find their mates. During this pilgrimage something falls from the sky. They feel it’s from there goddess.
All the human women where on their way to be brides to aliens when something happens to their ship and now they are stranded on this sand planet. The human women are trying to learn and understand this new world and in doing so some find their soul mates.
Drazen is without doubt a sweetie at heart. I liked him. They aren’t without technology they just don’t bring it on their pilgrimage into the sacred sand lands.
Sheri, I didn’t like her. She struggled with trusting and getting intimate with an alien even thou she signed up to be a bride for another alien race. Contradiction.
The romance is a slow build and slow towards the love scenes. The love scenes where successful, even with the physical differences. I’m not sure if I total believed in the romance by the end; because of how against Sheri was of hooking up with an alien.
I liked the world building. I also enjoyed meeting the different tribes and learning about the lizard culture. I would have liked more information about their wildlife and flora.
We are also treated to a little evil plot in that someone is trying to kill the leader of the Red Lizards.
Red Sands was an ok read.
Rated: 3 Stars
I quite enjoyed this one. I’ll admit, I was initially a bit apprehensive about a lizard-man romance, but the cover really caught my eye, so I just had to give it a shot, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. The writing is clear and vivid, the action well-paced, and the characters engaging. Sheri is a good heroine. She has come from abusive relationships in her past, so she’s understandably conflicted about becoming the “kode” of a warlord. But Drazan is honorable and gives Sheri the time and freedom to make her own decisions. The steamy parts were pretty far out, but I actually really enjoyed how the characters delighted in exploring and learning about each other’s bodies. It was a fun read! All around a great alien warrior romance with an interesting reptilian twist. Definitely gonna check out Hard Sands next 🙂
I absolutely loved the characters and world building in Red Sands. The differences in the world than expected – not as earth like as you normally get. The aliens not as human “but bigger” than you normally get. I liked the way that there was miscommunication as well as things that are interpreted wrong. Just as you would get anywhere. The way that the aliens were aligned but not. Their rules and how they found their mates. There were lots of potential strings for future stories.
In this story, we get Sheri and Drazan. Sheri has basically run from abuse and is a little gun shy of falling into it again. Drazan is a warrior who must be seen as strong and honorable. So things get a little dicey between them. It leads to interesting times as Drazan and his people are saving Sheri and the other ladies from a crash. I can’t wait for more of the stories from other points of view.
Well written and believable characters.
The way he used his tongue to catch the smell of her emotions and the hard scales that covered his body were interesting, lets not forget the mating pouch. I could imagine every move of his head and the red eyes and it made it different from the other stories in the same genre.
Really enjoyed this book and read it in 2 days. Looking forward to the second part hopefully soon.
The first book in the Warlords of Atera series a well written story that once I started I was not putting down. Sheri will have so much to go through before she and Drazan a fierce warrior and the strongest Ateran of the Red Sands get their happy ending. I want to read more in this series. I read this book through KU and I am voluntarily reviewing.
Drazan of Ateran is a red scaled lizard Male with a forked tongue that can taste fear of his enemies but most of all he is the warlord of the Red Sand.
Sheri Zaeden is from earth and is traveling on the intergalactic mating agency Tranquility in a stasis pod. To go meet her new husband. When she awoken early to the ship shaking , sparks, fire, smoke, oh things were bad. She had been told many things about her trip . This wasn’t one of them! She wasn’t the only one waking the other women with her looking for husbands were too. It wasn’t long after that they crashed on an alien desert world . Two-dozen had made it.
How Drazan meet Sheri. What went on. Because Drazan isn’t the only warlord on the planet or how Sheri became Gift of Eana, Kode to Drazan. Lol your going to have to read that exciting adventure yourself. It’s full of action, drama, mystery, betrayal, spice, and more! It also has awesome characters I fell for. I loved losing myself in the story. And hope there are plans to have stories for each of the different sands because I can’t wait to see what happened there too. Alien science fiction romance fans will LOVE this one! Voluntarily review a copy and I honestly loved it.
An intriguing start to a new series!
Very enjoyable! The setting is unique, with various indigenous tribes with some different attributes. The sands on which they live also vary somewhat. The world-building leaves many interesting ideas to explore more fully for future books.
Sheri is in a situation that sets off all her alarms, but time after time, Dravan proves he won’t harm her. Fear of the unknown, different mating customs, societal expectations all cause problems for Sheri and Dravan. Thankfully, they’re not insurmountable. I hope we will see more of these two as we meet other couples in future books, as they’re barely begun their lives together. I’m ready for more in this world!
Rough start but promising
Celia Kyle is great at inventing aliens, but the lizard-men of Red Sands didn’t do much for me. Drazan the warlord is so focused on his status as leader that it makes him seem a bit selfish. Sheri, the crash survivor who leads the human women is a born leader as well, but her decision-making is immature, and she seems unable to grasp that she’s not on Earth anymore. With both h and H so self-absorbed, it’s hard to feel any emotional connection between the two. The world of Atera promises to be interesting, but needs more development. Hopefully, future books in the series will have more depth and more relatable characters.