The Scorpion’s Mate
Iriduan Test Subjects Book 1
Susan Trombley

A very alien-looking and delightfully unique alien SciFi romance

Blurb:

Claire has never really fit in with everyone around her, but she’s carved out a life for herself using her own unique style and artistic ability to support herself on the Internet. The last thing she expects is to be abducted by aliens and dropped into a research facility, where a genetically-engineered alien soldier chooses her as his life-mate.

Thrax’s pheromones are compelling, and his status as a fellow unwilling test subject makes them allies, but Claire isn’t certain she can trust someone who is convinced she belongs to him, when all she wants to do is find a way to return home to Earth—a place that her devoted alien can never follow, because there’s no way the scorpion-like alien would ever be able to pass for human.

Still, she’ll accept help where she can find it, so she doesn’t hesitate to escape with Thrax from the facility, though their time running from their pursuers in the warrens beneath the research facility will forever change Claire, and could make it impossible for her to return to Earth.

But will there be anywhere else in the galaxy they can go where their love will be accepted?

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This alien romance features an alien hero who actually looks alien, strong language, violence, and open door intimate scenes.

Claire is abducted from Earth and awakens inside a research facility. When she first sees Thrax, she thinks he is going to kill and possibly eat her. Turns out he only wants to eat her in the good way.

I loved that Thrax was very alien-looking. It is difficult for us humans to imagine things we haven’t seen before, but Susan Trombley does a very good job of it! As the title and cover art suggest, the closest thing we have to Thrax on Earth is a scorpion. But Thrax is as much different from a scorpion as he is like one. He was genetically changed by their captors to me more like them, more humanoid, more human. He has a human mouth and tongue, and a working man-part, which he wants to use with Claire.

The most hilarious thing in the book is that Thrax can feed Claire with oral sex. He can consciously change the molecular makeup of what comes out of him. One of the things he can make is a fluid that meets all a human’s nutrition and water needs. It’s not just protein! Yes, you can suck him like a straw and not need any other food or water. The latest in handy-dandy survival tools! There are many other funny moments, but this takes the cake (as it is not needed anymore).

I also really loved Claire. She was smart, level-headed, not prone to panic or acts of idiocy, and had a great sense of humor. She was not an unrealistic super-character. Her strengths were all mental and emotional. A strong character, but not a fighter. Not kick-ass, until she has Thrax at her side. Claire taught Thrax to truly feel emotion. They make a great and powerful combination.

Their story is very good, fast-paced with world-building, interactions between the couple, and action scenes. There wasn’t anything I would have cut, nothing that bored me. I particularly enjoyed discovering the world as Claire did. Nothing was front-loaded. There were no data dumps. I read this very quickly and didn’t want to put it down.

This reminded me of Amanda Milo’s Stolen By An Alien series. There isn’t as much humor in it but still a good bit. I loved Amanda’s books, and I loved this.

1st person past tense from Claire and Thrax.

Contains graphic sex scenes, but only two main long ones, both very hot. There is a lot more story than sex here. I really like that we get a sex scene from Thrax’s POV.

Occasional foul language.

It has been very well edited. I found only 9 minor errors (missing words, wrong words, words that should be hyphenated, wrong punctuation, spaces before the first letter of paragraphs, and a blank line that didn’t look intentional).

290 pages.

$0.99 at Amazon and part of Kindle Unlimited.

Further books in the series are $2.99 or $3.99.