The Warden by Sage Alder

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: The Warden
Author: Sage Alder
Series: Alien Bride: First Conquest #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 25, 2023
Format: eARC
Pages: 361
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Source: Booksprout
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

Just when I thought life couldn’t get any harder, I’m abducted by aliens and dropped on a hostile alien planet. Everything is trying to make me its next snack…even one of the natives that call the planet home. Tall, grey-skinned, with piercing amber eyes, Zarris watches me with a different kind of hunger

I tell myself I don’t have time to notice the fearless, scarred man who makes my heart race. Finding a way back home has to be a priority. However, my determination to return to Earth sets into motion a chain of events that won’t only change my future but Zarris’ too.

And once I save us both, there’s no turning back.

My Review:

I received a free copy through Booksprout in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — This was exactly what I was looking for and needing with the mood I was in.  I know the author said the book turned out longer than she expected, but I honestly didn’t notice at all…and if you’ve been reading my reviews lately, you know that’s something that doesn’t work for me, when a book is long for no reason.  The pacing felt good and I was absorbed and wanting to keep reading.  I will admit the way the ending played out wasn’t what I was expecting.  It’s not cliffhanger-y AT ALL, but there are world threads that aren’t finished and make me excited for the next book without leaving me unsatisfied…which is kind of the perfect combination for this reader.

I will say that the start felt a bit rough for me.  Adriana gets thrown into the deep end of some crazy shiznit, and the glimpses we get of her before she’s abducted really give NO indication of who she is, what her life is like, or anything…just hints.  And I’m like a teensy bit disappointed in that, but I did enjoy who I got to know as the book progressed…it’s just sometimes nice to know more than just who they are in the crisis.  But honestly, I kind of forgot about that until later near the end when I realized I had no real idea what she was wanting to go back to.

Adriana was that perfect combination of tough and vulnerable — she’s not impervious to fear, but she compartmentalizes well enough to survive until she can relax.  I felt like we got to see her broken down into survival mode, as well as protection mode, before getting to see more of her personality open up and flourish in her new environment.  I loved how she tried hard to respect another’s cultures and customs while still holding on to her own beliefs and being unable to let some things go.  I appreciated that she tried really hard to understand from different perspectives.  In the end she was a perfect fit for that first heroine thrown into this crazy bigger world.

Zarris was pretty great himself.  I felt for him being such a fish out of water in his own world, unable to let go of his own sense of right and wrong.  He was a pretty good blend of gentle and respectful with his own touch of possessiveness and aggression…basically the good sides of an alpha male with the kindness of an…omega?  Non-beta or alpha?  Do we have a term?  Normal decent guy?  I’m not much of an alpha girl, but his moments of control didn’t chafe at me because he loved her fire and spirit and wasn’t looking to dim it, just revel in it.

And I appreciated their connection and how it grew at a good pace.  It wasn’t immediately jump into the physical bits, we got a bit of all kinds of connection along the way.

The Anrothe world was both fascinating and disturbing from a human perspective…not like horribly so, just in those subtle ways it was meant to.  I appreciated the nuances of navigating a society that needed some change but was reluctant to do so.  And the wider world was both horrifying and interesting.  The Oebri in particular were fascinating.  I fully anticipating them being villains, but I loved that they ended up being way more complex than that…at least so far.

So yeah.  I’m fully invested in this new series, and can’t wait to see how it plays out.