Enemy Overnight

ROBIN L. ROTHAM

Synopsis: The last time Jasmine King was aboard the Heptoral, she escaped by the skin of her teeth. This time she won't be so lucky. Trapped on a ship full of sex-starved aliens and out of the pheromone blocker that holds off her physical transition, Jasmine makes a desperate escape attempt...and fails. The consequences are disastrous – she's mated to three horny warriors, and one has a huge bone to pick with her. What's a girl to do but fall in love?

The last time Shauss saw Jasmine, the deceitful little Terran stole his bondmate from under his nose. This time he won't be so trusting. Finally master of his own bond, Shauss names secondary mates Jasmine feels safe with...and lives to regret it. One can't stop puking long enough to claim her. The other challenges Shauss' supremacy by digging into his psyche at every turn. What's a Dom to do but bed them all into submission?

He sets out to do just that, but his domination takes a brutal turn when he discovers Jasmine's deadly secret...

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, published by Ellora's Cave, 2010; purchased new from Amazon.

My thoughts: I had read a post on a blog somewhere about this author and her new release, Frankendom, and it just sounded so interesting and out there that I searched for it on Amazon. It's a Kindle only however, and since I prefer actual books to ebooks, I purchased at random one of her other books that was available in bound format. Thus, I read ENEMY OVERNIGHT, which is actually the sequel to ALIEN OVERNIGHT. I don't normally read series books out of order (other than category romances), but while the book references events from the first book it's still a basically stand alone story.

And it was definitely interesting and out there. Not to mention just plain fucked up weird. Not to mention highly hot and entertaining.

I did have a little trouble in the beginning with Shauss being the hero, because he was so incredibly cruel to Jasmine at first (and again later though at that time he believed she was a traitor and had betrayed him). I gathered that in the first book Jasmine played a rather large role in the storyline, having made a huge mess of things for the other characters and caused some problems. Okay, so I do sort of wish I'd read the first book first.

I've read quite a bit of erotica, and I'm not easily shocked when reading, but this was new territory for me. I mean at one point my jaw dropped and I could not believe what I was reading. So, you know, it's not for the chaste or faint of heart...all those Fifty Shades of Gray fans would probably have a heart attack.

The characters are well drawn. If you know me, you know I like stories that are character driven over plot driven. I like to get to know the characters, be inside their heads, and the author does a good job at making them seem real. I've not read much that dealt with aliens, and despite the physical descriptions I still had a little trouble picturing how Shauss and the others looked. I kind of got this picture in my head of creatures similar to Planet of the Apes – I don't really know why or how and at first I had to keep concentrating and thinking about how they were described to get that picture out of my head.

The storyline was interesting and integral to the plot, and not just back story to weave the sex scenes together. In fact, while there were some sexual situations, there was no actual sex until about halfway through the book. But once the sex started, it was scorching.

The last quarter of the book, I could not put it down and sat up past my bedtime to finish it. This author is now on my list of authors who's entire backlist I must now track down and read.