Book Review: Alienated (#1) and Until Midnight (Alienated #1.5) by Melissa Landers

(Blurb): Interplanetary relations have never been more exciting! The first in a funny, romantic YA sci-fi series.
Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L'eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she'll have inside information about the mysterious L'eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara's blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn't sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L'eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn't seem more alien. She's certain about one thing though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn't just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life-not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.




Book Information:

Publisher:Disney-Hyperion; 1ST edition (February 4, 2014)
Genre: Sci-fi
Age: Young Adult
Length: 352p (Alienated #1) and 112p (Until Midnight #1.5 includes Alienated and Abducted teasers)

Until Midnight (released December 23, 2014) is currently FREE on Amazon. It includes a few chapters of Alienated if you're interested in a test run.

Review: 

What drew me to Alienated #1 was the book cover. I was on a blog hop discussing best covers of 2014 and this one popped up. The artistry immediately hooked me and I was on Amazon in less than five minutes buying a book in a genre that I did not read a ton of (Science Fiction) and of an age group I was particularly picky about (Young Adult). That's how powerful a cover can be.

That aside...

What I liked

I'd put Alienated in more of a mature young adult age group (15-18-year-old). There are many euphemisms throughout the book and the romance, while not explicit, is a little more than what you'd find in the 12-15-year-old age group. That is one reason I really got into Alienated; it provided many mature chuckling points. For example, using the alien L'eiher words like fashia as a substitute for a human four-letter-word, and humorously showcasing language and cultural barriers:

 "But before you take your stocking, we have to play 'hide the pickle.'"

Cara's eyes flew wide and she slapped a palm over her mouth to trap a laugh. "Really?" she asked, giggling. "In front of all these people? It's not supposed to be a spectator sport, you know."

The overall plot was very relatable even though it was Sci-fi. The book starts off two years after the L'eiher and Humans have discovered one another. Upon meeting, both species decide to create an alliance to help each other out. Part of this alliance includes a student exchange program so that the more...impressionable... of both species were the ones creating the alliance (if you happened to catch Star-Crossed on the CW this past year, this is very similar). But as many parts of Human history have shown, not everyone is accepting of change. Alienated does a great job at showing the cultural divide between the two groups and how simple misunderstandings, misinformation, and overall ignorance can create large riffs between even the closest of friends and family.

Another thing I really liked was the simplicity of the names (Aelyx = A-licks and Elyx'a = E-licks-a). I read a lot of Fantasy and Paranormal and am no stranger to mucking my way around exotic names. It's frustrating when you get to the end of a book (or sometimes a series) and then the author decides to put in a pronunciation key. Or better yet, the name is all consonants... 

What I'm neutral about

There is a fair amount of L'eiher world building with color descriptions and various L'eiher species descriptions, but since Alienated  takes place on Earth and Until Midnight is a short bridging story for Abducted (#2) there is not a full L'eiher world immersion. I expect a lot of that to happen in Abducted.

Until Midnight is not a required read to understand the series. It describes Cara and Aelyx's last night together (before Abducted) and is a fun, quick read that takes place around Christmas.

What I didn't like

I did not have any major dislikes. I expected a little bit more of a language barrier between the Humans and the L'eiher, but because the L'eiher are so far advanced (and because Aelyx is a communications expert), there isn't much of one. Even when Cara meets other non-communication-expert-L'eiher there isn't one. 

Some L'eiher words are sprinkled about and they're used enough to where you understand their meaning quickly, but there is only a handful of L'eiher words used. One thing that stuck me was that the L'eiher continuously call telepathy "Silent Speech" -- which is obviously neither a L'eiher word nor the correct Human terminology (Cara even points this out). And I found it kind of odd that there wasn't a special name for something as characteristically defining to the L'eiher as that. 

I'm still confused as to whether the L'eiher speak their language during Silent Speech/out loud talk or if that was just translated in the book. Through reading, it seems like they predominantly talk in English (via either method) and sprinkle L'eiher words in when talking about their technology.

There are also a few incidences where the author throws in "teen" words like "sucktacular" -- which normally makes me cringe but since it was only used a couple of times (and many pages apart) it wasn't enough to make me throw the book unlike others I've read.

Overall, this series by Melissa Landers is a promising one! I'm not sure how many books will be in this series. At this point, I could see it ending after Abducted as long as there isn't a plot upset somewhere along the line. It's not a book full of complicated jargon and the relationship and climax pacing is perfect. There are emotional highs and lows, and the romance gets pretty intense considering it never goes there...There's something to be said about a scene where everyone's clothes stay on and it is still fun and hot.