Laurel Chin led an ordinary, comfortable life.While many might think waitressing wasn’t a great job, Laurel Chin loved it. She enjoyed meeting the customers and working side by side with her family in their small Jamaican-Chinese fusion restaurant on the edge of Birmingham’s Chinatown. Like everyone else, she’d been astounded at first when the aliens first appeared, but as they offered friendship … offered friendship and trade, she soon lost most interest in the news about them. If there was anything to worry about, she trusted Prime Minister Simms and Parliament would let the public know. She settled back into her routine of work, Sunday lunch at her mother’s, and hanging out with her sister.
Tellan was honoured to be named Ambassador.
Tellan knew the Mylos were in need of fresh genetic trade. The humans of Earth were a bit less advanced socially and technologically than their past trade partners, so great care had to be taken when offering treaty terms. If all went smoothly, he’d soon see human institutions of higher learning teaching Mylos science and philosophy and Bride Registry Centres open across the globe. Then the Bride Fleet assigned to Earth would arrive and Tellan could return home for less fraught diplomatic duties.
All was not as it first seemed.
Neither Tellan nor Laurel knew that their governments had already made certain arrangements. Laurel definitely would have been wary of taking social media quizzes had she known what was about to happen. As for Tellan, he was matched and that was that, no matter how much he disapproved of the method used to do so. They had to try to make this work- the fate of both their worlds and a galactic civilisation sat upon their shoulders. It was duty, but if the match was accurate, it was also a fated love.
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This one was a bit of an insta-love story, but what more can you expect when mates are involved. I enjoyed listening to this book and it’s unique way that the aliens and their world were described.
A romantic short story
This was a short story. Well developed characters and great world building. Well written
Spoiler Alert! Some spoilers in my extended review.
1.It had a lot of potential to be better and it would have felt more fulfilling if it had a climax. There is no climax. It’s just a straightforward story of an alien and a human falling in love… then again…
2. I don’t even know if they’re ever told each other they loved each other. Maybe I missed it? is it love yet or they just content being together? I am not sure.
3. The way it started off, I would have thought the alien would have been more resistant, considering the fact of how it wasn’t something that he planned to do for himself. It was kind of done for him he felt inconvenienced. That friction would have been great tension. but he went from shocked and annoyed to all of a sudden he just went along with it like he was grateful for it. it felt kind of off to me for him to do that when he felt like his whole world just got interrupted because he wasn’t even looking. I mean he wasn’t looking for himself. he was just looking to help get the program set up for other people.
4. The author has a lot of potential with that element in their story where the males have to mate or die. But it didn’t really feel like there was this ticking time bomb. They took their own sweet time and there were zero signs of distress. I mean to know that if the couple didn’t mate that the guy was going to die there should have been more of an understanding of that. I would have liked to see him a perfect gentleman and be respectful and patient but I would have liked to see and him kind of start withering away a little bit so that the female main character could understand the gravity of the situation. Thats would have been some nice tension.
5. There weren’t enough intimacy between the couple to be believable for her switching from separate beds to okay lets do it. There werent enough intimacy between them to believe they were more than still friends. Maybe a few scenes of them watching the tv together? He seems more like her tour guide then her lover.
6. another thing is the female main character is a black woman. I love this! Love diversity in fiction. but nobody mentions any type of prejudice or racism that black people experience all over the world. I feel like if this is a alien race and they’ve been kind of learning observing our culture, they would have learned that humans are pretty prejudice against each other for stupid stuff like skin color. and I feel like this would have been a good opportunity to show realism considering the author showed everything else that is flawed with Humanity. Everything except racism. And you have a black female main character so this would have been personal for her. As a black reader it felt a little disingenuous.
7. overall I think the author did a really great job at world-building and her characters well developed. I mean she did really a great job of World building and the author has a strong writing skill set.
8. The narrator did a good job.
9. I would have liked for there to have been a climax. It had the potential with pointing out that there were not everybody who was on board. It makes it hard to believe that with all the radicals going on, that nobody tried to do any type of attacking of any of the stations or ships or anything like that. And maybe a little bit of danger would have made the book a lot better.
10. The book itself I would have gave three stars but because you have a black main character I’m going to give it 4 stars because we need more diversity in fiction and they was a huge huge plus. It made the book so much more enjoyable.
11.My only negative about the female main character is the book said her family came to the UK in the 1920s but she still has a Jamaican accent. In modern day the children would not have a Jamaican accent. They will have a Londoners accent because they grew up in London their whole life. So that was not well planned unless I missed something or this book took place in 1920s. but it can’t be in that age considering that it mentioned popular modern day works like Star Wars and Star Trek.
I really enjoyed the world building involved in this story – it was unusual and detailed enough to make it intriguing.
Laurel and Tellan are great characters and this is a really sweet romance!!
My tags for this Sci-Fi Romance novel:
Easy to read / Original / Great world building / Romantic / Wonderful characters / Entertaining / Happily Ever After
Format read: Unabridged Audiobook
Narrated by: Ashley Taylor
Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
Release date: 05-08-19
Publisher: Pahoa Paradise
Series: Brides of the Mylos, Book 1
Ratings
Overall: 5 stars! It was very short, but the storyline and details hooked me quickly. I wish the entire series was already available in audiobook format.
Performance by Ashley Taylor: 5 stars! I really enjoyed her vocal acting choices, and she did both feminine and masculine voices really well to my ears. I hope that she is available to do any future Bridges of Mylos audiobooks produced for this fascinating series.
Story: 4.5 stars!
The main characters Laurel and Tellan were both so likable! The pacing of their “arranged” marriage worked for me. I loved how they worked to understand their cultural differences, very quickly agreed to work toward merging their lives together, in addition to finding a way for more human females to be paired up with Mylos alien males in a more honest way than their governments initially did with them.
The world building was great, and I want to know how each human female and her matched alien male counterpart interact and what roles they will have in the new normal Earth and the Mylos alien species create through their political agreements as well as romantic partnerships.
Final thoughts: This was the very first novel of author Loretta Johns, but hopefully, it won’t be the last one. Since I read 99% exclusively in audiobook format, here is my sincere plea to the Audiobook publisher, Pahoa Paradise:
Please, please, please produce the subsequent novels in audiobook format so that this audiobook junkie can find out what happens next.
Ashley Taylor does a good job bringing the characters to life in this story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I have listened to the two books after this and this brought a lot of clarity to questions I’d had in those books. I love the idea of the bride fleet and it makes me chuckle each time someone is matched. The getting used to being on a space ship also made me smile a lot. On the lighter side I really enjoyed this.
For once the government gets it right and matches a human and alien who are fated mates. Laurel adjusted quickly and seemed to blossom under Tellan’s guidance. Cute and entertaining story.
It’s nice to have aliens with morals and manners. I was a little worried that the heroine was going to be super submissive because she never really signed up to be matched yet she was “okay, let me pack my things”. But it turns out she is just very open minded and open hearted. I really liked the hero and his wanting to make her happy. Ashley Taylor gave the characters great distinctive voices. I look forward to more of this world!