The Hunter. As the new Game Warden, Xrez Ym’ihla brings patrons from across the galaxy to track prey in a game built to enslave the weak and mate the strong. The business is a long running family legacy and Xrez is determined to succeed as his father had before him. He hadn’t meant to let one human occupy his thoughts, mind, and body.His lies may come back to haunt him, but if he reveals the … but if he reveals the truth, he’ll ruin his chance to capture the heart of the one he wants.
The Prey. Esme Valdez had her entire life planned from an early age. As a chemist, her life was average and mundane, just the way she liked it. Until the impossible happened. Never did she imagine being abducted by aliens and forced to participate in a survival of the fittest game called The Hunt. If she survives and makes it to the end, she’ll be freed. If not, she’ll be forced to mate the one who captures her.
Esme is determined to win at all costs, even if it means putting her trust in a sexy alien who taunts her in the most delectable way.
Their love was built on betrayal. Can she trust him with her heart and life?
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Upon the death of his father, Xrez inherits the successful, but illegal family business—a hunt, in which abducted aliens are hunted by other aliens. If the prey are captured, they are enslaved or mated. If they elude the hunters through three increasingly difficult levels, they win their release.
When Xrez steps in as the Game Warden, a new group of prey have just been brought in—humans, who are generally not used in the hunt and who are protected by galactic authorities because of their weakness. They won’t provide enough challenge, and the disgruntled hunters will raise such a fuss that authorities who’ve been bribed to look the other way will be forced to shut down the hunt.
So, Xrez breaks the rules and inserts himself into the game to assist the humans. However, he quickly becomes obsessed with one particular human, Esme, and focuses on helping her. She comes to trust and care for him, not knowing he owns hunt, and he’s responsible for her being there.
The Game Warden’s Mate is a fresh, fast-paced, fascinating read with awesome world-building and characters. To set up not only the story, but the hunt with all its rules and features, is quite a feat. I thought Esme was realistically drawn, her behavior consistent with how I would expect a person in her situation to act. Five stars and an A+.
I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this crazy book. It’s about aliens and humans being kidnapped and put into a real-life game where humans are hunted by sci-fi characters – Just so not what I thought I would enjoy. I actually felt drawn to the main characters and their budding love story and bought into it hook, line & sinker. It was precious. This is a really good read!
This book wasn’t what I expected but was an easy read with a HEA.
I found this story to be unique and the characters were not run of the mill. Very good read.
This was different! Kept me guessing. I enjoyed it & definitely would love to read about a couple of the other characters!
Very interesting and diverse characters. The exciting plot will keep you on your toes. I totally enjoyed this book.
Excellent story! hard to put down. I will read more from this author.
My first read from A.M. Griffin and I look forward to reading more! This was a fairly original and well-written alien romance!! I loved the survival aspect! Hoping for a couple more stories that tell how things worked out for Miranda/kids and Ben and Jordan/dog!!
This was a new to me author and I loved the idea and the author really made it work. I loved that our two main characters both grew into better people throughout the story and I’d really love to read the stories of the other humans that were stolen for the hunt!
A•R•C ~ I was given The Game Warden’s Mate by A.M. Griffin as an Advanced Readers Copy (A•R•C) from Give Me Book Promotions. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
5 out of 5 STARS
WOW, action and adventure from the first page to the last. This is the first book I’ve read written by A.M. Griffin and I was pleasantly surprised with the entire package, great story about a woman who found her inner strength and bloomed into a confident vibrant person who during finding herself found love and friendship.
Thank you A.M. Griffin for such a great read!
“Nevertheless, she persisted…”
A victim of alien kidnappers turns the tables on her captor in more ways than one – with world-changing consequences – not to mention HEA. This is unlike any of the similarly-themed alien abduction romances I’ve read – and I sure hope there’s more original Alien SF romance from author A.M. Griffin. Great reading!.
So this was surprisingly in-depth and such an imaginative read that managed to exceed my actual expectations massively.
Fabulous world building that built a sense of curiosity within me this managed to grab my attention here almost instantly.
I actually raced through “The Game Warden’s Mate” and though not completely perfect I was invested and onboard here right from the onset.
So this is definitely one for the aliens that look like aliens crowd and in case your wondering that’s certainly moi: In fact, that is initially what captured my interest here.
It reminded me very slightly of a Sci-Fi Hungers Games but with Aliens.
So, This one was quite slow burn in nature which did actually fit the narrative provided and seemed wholly believable to me.
“The Game Wardens Mate” Focuses much more on the storytelling and build-up itself and less on the actual romance developing, don’t mistake me that was there but it just seemed more of a secondary concern to what was actually taking place, in this case, survival.
I myself would maybe have liked to see a bit more sizzle and spice between Esme and Xrez than I did I felt this was a tad lacking in that particular department: on the other hand, I also liked that this had such depth and substance to it and didn’t rely solely on the smut to sell this story.
I also really appreciated the longer length of this novel as I felt this gave the story time to develop naturally without any sense of rushing with the unfolding drama.
I adored Esme as a character really appreciating her resilience and fortitude in the face of such an extreme and frightening situation: I felt the further she progressed here the more she evolved and grew as an individual.
Realising along with Xrez her strength of character, Xrez who had initially pegged her as pathetic and useless because of her species gradually realises she is so much more than what she first appeared.
There was also a much deeper message and implications to impart here beyond the superficial surface stuff.
The ethics and morality alone here behind this type of illegal enterprise are huge and totally make you question that just because something has been running for years and has become the norm so much so that you’re desensitised to the whole unsavoury and immoral business model doesn’t actually make it an ok practice.
This is the trafficking of individuals both Alien and human and lets not even mention the fact that humans are meant to be a protected species here, whichever way you look at things here its a form of exploitation: Whether it be by mate or servant it’s all unwanted bondage.
I liked that this entertained me but equally it also made me think.
A few observations from my camp, I felt that Esme forgave Xrez much easier than I was expecting her to and also accepted her fate in regards to her family without much distress also thought it strange that she didn’t inquire in more depth as to the fate of her previous companions considering her previous attachment to some of them and the lengths she went to avoid be treated any differently than them: Maybe they will get there own journey that would be nice.
I also loved the conclusion here I think that it wrapped events up quite nicely.
Finally, The book title here I thought was really catchy indeed but I must admit I was less a fan of the cover art used but in the scheme of things, this is actually a pretty minor detail.
So that about sums this up this was a really imaginative endeavour that snook up on me catching me unawares.
This intergalactic game of Hunter and prey was quite the unexpected gem.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of “The Game Warden’s Mate”
All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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Very enjoyable, but somewhat lacking in character building. Esme is a super smart good girl dropped in the nice alien version of the hunger games who somehow toughens up enough to survive. Some of the journey to from lab tech to badass is shown, but not everything. Still worth the time to read
I liked the premise and could even buy children in the alien games…aliens excuse a lot and provide ridiculous suspensions of disbelief. However, I didn’t like the characters (except for the human military guy – I wanted to know his story more than the h/H!). My biggest pet peeve is unpronounceable names and the hero’s takes the cake. I could’ve gotten past all this if the writing style hadn’t been so stilted. Too much telling, not enough showing, and the dialogue needs work. I also couldn’t get on board with the heroine falling for an alien who is basically a slaver. He traffics in people for money. The disgust for that trumps any physical attraction. If he had another position, anything where he was not top dog, there’s plausible deniability, but his boss position has none.
I can’t even say that I agree in anyway with the beginning of the story. But as I continued on with the story I began to like the characters and found myself pulling for them as the hunt went on.
Had similar elements to the Hunger Games but different enough to make it interesting and somewhat original. Good characters, lots of world-building, it was one of the more unique sci-fi romances I’ve read in a long while.
I like paranormal books. This book was really well written.
When I started reading this book it was like molasses run down the page. The action was incredibly slow and wordy. As I continued to read there were pages of dialogue that seemed unnecessary. This could have been a good story. But it needed someone with a little more experience behind the pen.