Claimed is set in 2030, five years after the Earth is attacked by the menacing aliens known as the Scourge. Earth is saved from another alien race called the Kindred. The Kindred are alien warriors, humanoids, and ones that are bigger or massive when it comes to human males. The Kindred were able to defeat the Scourge and now live in ships above the surface of Earth. They come to Earth for brides since they’re lacking their own females. A human female can even belong to two male Kindreds, where there’s a four week ceremony allowing the Kindred males or one lone male to court his bride. Week one is where he feeds her and caters to her every need. They also sleep in the same bed and can touch. Week two is when the bathe together and some intimate scrub-a-dubbing goes on. Week three is the tasting period. The Kindred male tastes his future bride in whatever way he likes (licky licky that secret area on the female), and week four is where they finally consummate their relationship and bond together (the male attaches himself inside his female with his “mating fist at the base of the Kindred’s shaft which is engaged only during bonding sex with his mate”. This brings to mind the whole barb scenario ala Lora Leigh or JR Ward.) From that they’re committed and married.
Baird anxiously waits for his female to claim as his bride. He’s been having dreams about Olivia Waterhouse for a long time. When he was captured and tortured by the Scourge, he thought about her constantly to keep him from going insane, and feels she saved him. Olivia is also having strange erotic dreams of some unknown man. (Take a guess who it could be?). These dreams disturb her because they don’t make any sense. And then when two draft officers come to her home and take her to Baird, she really freaks out. It seems human woman are placed into a draft to be married to a Kindred. Olivia has been drafted as Baird’s chosen bride.
Olivia is scared, and rightly so. There’s a good possibility she’ll never see her sister again and her friends because when a human woman is claimed by her Kindred husband, she barely goes back to Earth. Plus since Baird is a Beast Kindred, she knows he’ll be overly possessive, on edge and too big for her to handle. (Poor well-endowed Baird). Baird is so excited to finally claim Olivia, although he knows it will be hard work on his end. And when Olivia is forced to go with him, she’s not receptive to his gruff charms. She tells him she’ll give him his four weeks, but refuses to bond with him. Now Baird has to figure out a way to court Olivia gently and with respect in order for her to fall into love with him and want to stay with him forever.
Claimed is an inventive and quirky sci-fi romance with an adorable hero who lacks some social skills, including how to romance a woman. He’s very persuasive with his body in the way that Olivia can barely deny him. Baird is le sex on the alien stick. At no time does Baird overpower Olivia or force her to do what he wants, and that means when they are intimate. He may start something, but leaves it up to Olivia to finish it. Poor Baird walks around frustrated and is cranky at times. He also has some self-esteem issues because he thinks Olivia is scared of him and doesn’t find him handsome. If only he knew how much Olivia is attracted to him, but holds back because the idea of being separated from all she knows and those she loves is something she can’t accept.
There are some funny scenes, especially when Olivia tries to learn and navigate the Kindred way of life. When she investigates Baird’s home, she has a few problems, one being a rug in the bathroom that’s more like a human vibrator and a pet of Baird’s that looks like a cuddly teddy bear, but one with fangs for teeth. She also thinks Baird is drugging her into submission with his overpowering sexy scent. The sexual tension between Olivia and Baird is amazing, and Baird enjoys cuddling, taking baths and cooking for Olivia. This is my ideal man.
The only down side of Claimed is that it’s too long. There are long passages of internal dialogue from Olivia and shifting back and forth between her sister on Earth and then back on the ship. Also the ending with the Scourge seems tacked on in order to invoke a more emotional response so there can be a believable HEA to cement why Olivia has fallen for Baird.
Otherwise, I did enjoy Claimed. It’s a very sexy and sweet story with a close to perfect hero as you can get. Fans of Christine Feehan will like Claimed. I look forward to the future stories in this series and one I recommend you check out. (available on Smashwords for 2.99)
Final Grade: B
2 comments:
Emma Holly with her aliens comes to mind as well :) Thanks for thumbs up!
I've read Evangeline Anderson before so downloaded this one for my nook...OMG, great story, but I agree with you that it was too long. And even though I understand the need to see those for weeks of the Claiming through...if I had to hear Olivia protest one more time, I was going to scream. She was the epitome of the lady doth protest too much.
That being said I am looking forward to the rest of the books that result from this story...just hopefully shorter stories.
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