I will go off-mission. For her.I am a cyborg. Half human, half machine. My creator optimized me until I was exactly what he wanted. I have turned into an elite bounty hunter. My orders are simple. Anyone who endangers the certain survival of the human race is my prey.The word failure is not part of my vocabulary.Compassion is nothing more than a phrase.My mechanical heart does not recognize … mechanical heart does not recognize feelings.
Until an assignment leads me straight to Mara. My creator’s beautiful daughter.
To her, cyborgs are nothing more than henchmen who quietly take care of anything that humans shy away from. When my eyes catch hers, I feel an unexplainable connection. Mara awakens something in me that I can neither hunt, nor kill.
She becomes my prey.
The most impossible hunt of my life.
* * * A SciFi Alien Romance. The Prey is Book 2 of the Betania Breed Series. * * *
This Cyborg Alpha Romance Novel is intended for mature audiences only.
Pages: 200
Betania Breed reading order:
The Captive
The Prey
The Human
The Dragon
You can enjoy every word in “The Prey” without ever having read any of Jenny Foster’s other books. You won’t be missing any information. On the other hand, maybe you already read “The Captive” or have been considering it. In that case, you will meet the two lovers from “The Captive” here again, but this time from another heroine’s viewpoint.
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The second installment of this series focuses a bit behind the man who is ultimately behind all of the horrors of the second book. This evil man has a brilliant daughter who he has conditioned to believe that what they are doing is for knowledge, not for war and greed. She’s able to moralize the experiments with her belief that all of their subjects are criminals who are volunteering in exchange for amnesty. They aren’t, of course, and even if they were, offering freedom to criminals with this condition is still morally depraved, but I digress…
Mara’s father asks her to track down Cassie, making this the first mission he’s entrusted to her outside of the lab. She’s elated, but disheartened when she hears a cyborg is to accompany her and be her equal. She’s been conditioned – litterally, to see cyborgs as not human. She doesn’t believe that this cyborg could have feelings or opinions, ever though she exhibits more characteristics of the stereotypical cyborg than he does.
As the two of them do some undercover work to get information on Betania, not only does Mara come to have feelings for Johan that are clearly reciprocated, but her belief that there is something suspicious about being put on this mission grows. She knows Johan is withholding information from her, and for various reasons she also withholds information from him. Ultimately, she trusts him, but he has put his blind trust in an organization they know little about. Mara can trust him, but can she trust who he has put his trust in? Much intrigue follows. Like the other book, everyone has their own agenda, and nobody knows the full story, or what anyone else is ultimately after.
Mara thinks her life has been utterly turned upside by falling for a cyborg, but is is upturned and scattered when the ulterior purpose of this mission is revealed to her, and she catches a life altering illness. The experiences Mara goes through result in physical and mental changes. And the extent to which Ruthiel controls things is exposed.
—Detailed review w/potential spoilers—
It’s shocking enough to see how Ruthiel is behind what happens to Mara and that she is nothing by an experiment to him. But when we see how complex his intention are, and how he has influenced major events throughout the universe, it is mind-reeling. He’s even behind the invasion by the Sethari. It wasn’t so much an invasion as it was a deal: Ruthiel gives them humans in exchange for their knowledge and technology. And when the Sethari are of no more use, he uses Khazaar’s strength and casualties to get rid of them, again, giving humans in exchange for him doing the heavy lifting.
Seeing Shazuul again in this book was wonderful. He was never thought much of by his own species, but the acceptance he has found among others, and the kindness he got from Cassie have made him rebuke his own species. He’s also suffered painful torture at the hands of the Betanians before being released. Mara’s bonding with a creature she once saw as disgusting and utterly beneath her shows the extent of her internal transformation. Their relationship is incredibly sweet, lighthearted, and uplifting. And it helps Mara develop and learn to live with the new powers she has (much like Cassie’s)
The informant who accompanies Shazuul with Mara and Johan is a mysterious one. The fact that he has Shazuul as an acquaintance makes him seem trustworthy, and the joy he shows when Mara restores Shazuul’s snout makes it seem as though he genuinely has at least Shazuul’s best interests at heart, but his story never fully adds up. Considering most of Betanians despise Cassie as having brought ruin and horror to their world, one wonders if he doesn’t just want to find Cassie to help her, but in order to exact revenge.
Ultimately, Mara and Johan aren’t able to fully defeat Ruthiel, but they save the twins and at least temporarily force a stalemate. He has literally created all of them and it’s almost as though he knows their every move before hand due to that fact. He’s the one behind all sides, and at heart it’s just part of his larger experiment. His hand is in everything, person, institution, and events.
As for the relationship between Mara and Johan, it’s realistic in that it’s far from perfect, but they are working on establishing trust and understanding. Their happy ending isn’t clear cut, as it’s not the end by far, but more likely the beginning of an even greater challenge. But they take it on in each others’ arms.
Oh wow! Mara and Johar have this wild ride throughout the entire story. They have fantastic chemistry and it is felt throughout it as well. The second book in the series has so much drama, mystery, suspense and even romance. It twists and turns and has you guessing so much. It is definitely worth reading and doesn’t disappoint.
Okay so it is pretty obvious what is going to happen between Mara and Johar despite Mara’s abhorrent prejudice towards him because this is, after all, a romance novel right. Well I can assure you that that is about the only thing in this book that was obvious because I was surprised by a great many of the happenings, the one thing I predicted correctly was who was going to betray them but apart from that Ms Foster kept me guessing and kept surprising me all the way through. Mara learned truths about herself that would have made a lesser person curl up in a ball and give up but her inner strength and her love for Johar kept her going. I loved the characters, both those central to the story as well as those on the periphery and that ending… I mean NO, just NO!!! it about made me throw my phone at the wall but was in keeping with the wonderful skills the author has put to great use in this book and leaves you, in a way satisfied but in more ways just wanting more.
This series is AMAZING! The characters are so complex. I laughed, seethed, giggled, screamed, cringed and was relieved. I felt so many different things and was so caught up in this book. I love the way it draws the reader in and holds tight until the very end. There are so many twists and so much action, but there is still room for the romance. I highly recommend this book. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
After I saw this book, I went back and read the first book of the series first; the Captive. This book is definitely better. The story in the Captive was rushed and confusing at times and the romance between the lead characters fell flat with me (she went from not liking the guy to calling him her “beloved” as soon as they were separated). Anyway, this follow-on story, the Prey is better. The author allows the romance between the lead characters to grow and mature and I did not find places in the story that were downright unbelievable as in the first book. It’s worth a read since it’s on Kindle Unlimited. If this author keeps improving as she did between the Captive and the Prey, her books will be well worth a look.
This is my first book by Jenny Foster. I enjoyed the plot and characters. I wish it had been from both points of view. The synopsis made me think it would be, so that was a disappointment. The story seemed to move slowly as well. I think if I had read book 1 first, maybe it wouldn’t have seemed so slow…I just don’t know. The book ends with an unusual twist that will make you need to read the next book in the series!
I was gifted an ARC in return of an honest review.