Summary –

Olivia, is sold to aliens by her older brother. After weeks of confinement she finds herself surviving on a Hunting Ground. It gives The most Dangerous Game vibes, and just like that story these hunters truly don’t know how badly they’ve fucked up. Our FMCs will not simply sit idly by while they are hunted, nor will the group of MMCs they’ve captured. In Livs book she finds herself quickly tossed into battle and then promptly snatched by a new being. Questions running through her mind: Is it an enemy? What’s its obsession with treasure? How do I kill it?

Review – 

I have to say this might be her best book yet.

I think she really found her footing in the last one and this one was even better.

I’m a huge fan of the way her brain works. lol

Each book is diverse, not only in the characters looks but their backgrounds. We have different FMCs from various parts of the world, various skill sets and various ways of thinking. Which I love.

Especially this one, rarely do we get a book where the FMC is autistic and it’s actually written in manner that lets it be known instead of a “oh she’s just quirky”.

Breene writes her beautifully, and she shapes the experiences to match her characters. So the reactions and choices feel realistic for Olivia. It makes sense that she went absolutely ham on the bug-like aliens. It makes sense that she is disassociating. It makes sense that the romantic nature of this story plays out differently than the others.

And I am here for every single “author choice”. Beautifully done.

Words I learned:

• vacillate /ˈvasəˌlāt/ I. verb — [no obj.] 1. alternate or waver between different opinions or actions; be indecisive

“Spoilers, Spoilers” – River Song

*The following is an open discussion about the book. Details will be discussed here and in the comments. If that’s not for you, this is where we part.

Hey, if you are reading this I don’t want to hear “but spoilers”, you had ample warning. lol

Discussion:

Olivia: 

I don’t know where to start. I think the portrait of her autism was spot on. Expertly done. I love that Breene didn’t try to sugar coat Olivia, didn’t try to make it seem like one thing or to downplay autism.

She was written as a normal person, because she is normal. Autism doesn’t detract from her personhood, it simply is a different way of being a person.

I’m glad she crashed on a planet full of reasonably minded people. Ree jumped right in, understood what she needed and got everyone in the same page. I hope she really finds her place with this group, she definitely fits with them.

I love that she gravitated towards Kira. When I was making my guesses I thought Kira’s bluntness would be exactly what Olivia needs. Someone she doesn’t have to figure out. Which was also my assumption for what would draw her to Kroaicho, since zhas emotions are quite literally shown by the colors zha shifts too.I wasn’t exactly expecting her bond with our resident builder, but that’s because I don’t know to much about him yet. I love that we got to see how she views him.

Which is truly my favorite part about long form series where we jump into different characters points of view. When done correctly, it’s beautiful. We get to see the same world through their eyes. Characters we’ve met get reintroduced to us in new way, because our lens has changed. We aren’t viewing them through their owns eyes, with their internal thoughts telling us what they meant to do or sound like. We get to see how they are being perceived. Which is like a psychological candy shop. lol but I digress.

Kroaicho: 

Either zha has traits that would be considered autistic here, or zhas entire culture has traits that would considered autistic here.

The one track mind regarding zhas treasure is a perfect example of this. It takes Olivia actually developing zha species eyes to see what zha sees. Even though zha was trying to explain that it’s not just shiny things, these are things with stories. There is a history to it, and that’s is what makes it important.

Which, I’m glad we got to dust over why zha species values treasure so much. It’s actually the most sensible reasoning for such a compulsion. Zhas home planet was basically destroyed, so everyone is collecting bits and pieces of their world, presenting the stories behind each piece. They are trying to put it back together but in a very different sense than you’d initially think.

I’m glad zha was able to realize treasure can be more than just things, beings also have histories, stories to tell. They are living treasures. It was a nice break through for zha.

Also, love that zha noted that zha was being single minded in zhas way of thinking. Kraicho realized zha was still not being open to others when zha refers to Olivia as zha, instead of she.

I hope we get to see this couples development within the others books.

Sex: 

I love that Breene decided to go an untraditional route here. It’s worked perfectly with the story and the characters that had been written. I was wondering if she was going to skip it entirely or how she was going to let it play out. Having it be essentially non-contact necessary was brilliant. That way we aren’t taking away from Olivia in order to make her fit a narrative that really doesn’t work for her.

It shows us that there is more than one way to skin a rabbit. Love when an author really takes into consideration what’s would work best for their characters.

Overall Story Arc:

 Now, I do wish we could spend more time on this I do understand that’s not her writing style. I just like a whole bunch going on. Everytime one of the characters forgets to mention something or doesn’t investigate something I’m punching the air.

But by now I know she likes to focus in on the couple and then last 70% add in the other characters. So I just have to get over it. Breene prioritizes the emotional story arc over the world building arc. typically it’s not my cup of tea, but man does she have me tapping my foot for the next book. I really what to know what happened to “Blue” and our Birman, I have a feeling they will be linked together. Also I want to see how the builders story plays out as well. i’m fully tapped in.

With that being said, Rin not mentioning the dock in her book was killing me though and them gliding over it in this book also killed me. At least they investigated to room Kroaicho found, I thought for sure they weren’t going to bring it up again.

Questions for you –

Did Olivias autism portrayal work for you, or did it feel different from your expectations?

What do you think the trakeldon is?

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