Review: Taken Unaware by Summer Devon

Resisting alien invaders is easy. Protecting her heart is another story…

Leah’s plans for the weekend didn’t include dealing with an alien invasion in her kitchen. But there’s something about the wary, vulnerable, refugee half-breed Gabriel that compels her to hide him when the authorities come knocking on her door.

Gabriel has good reason to be suspicious of both humans and his own kind alike. He’s a halfling—half human, half Dar—the product of a breeding program undertaken for one purpose. To use the offspring’s inbred powers to influence humans on a deeply emotional level. So deep, they won’t know until too late that the Dar have gained more than a toehold on Earth.

Raised in subhuman conditions, all Gabriel knows of life is how to endure it. Then Leah opens his eyes to a life richer than any he’s ever known. Suddenly he’s not so sure he wants to be a pawn in the Dar’s non-violent, but no less insidious, plans.

Leah and Gabriel go on the run to seek help from the government, only to discover the invasion’s tentacles have gotten there ahead of them. In the final confrontation, the bond Leah and Gabriel have forged may be more than an emotional haven. It could save her world.

I kind of went into this with some reservations. I’m never sure how to take alien stories. In this case, I think that worked in my favor. Since I wasn’t expecting WOW, I was pleasantly surprised with what I got.

Gabriel is deposited on Earth after spending years in the equivalent of a prison because he’s a human/Dar halfling and not accepted by his kind. He’s told there will be a place for him on Earth, but when he arrives he quickly realizes that isn’t the case.

All her life Leah has heard stories about when the evil Dar invaded Earth and tried to use the human race for their own personal breeders. So when one of them lands in her backyard and forces her in the houses, she’s prepared to die – or worse. She doesn’t expect to actually like Gabriel, or to be attracted to him. But the longer she spends with him, the more she realizes he isn’t at all what she expected the Dar to be.

When other halflings show up demanding that Leah be “bred”, both she and Gabriel realize there’s more going on than they know. Her and Gabriel form an attachment to each other that seems to protect her from the mind control the Dar use against the other people in her town. Determined to save them, she and Gabriel escape to the capital to seek help from a Senator he believes to be his human family. But there’s more going on than they realize, and the bond between them may be more than just a physical connection.

The storyline itself was interesting enough, though I do think at times something was lost in translation. Especially in the beginning and again later, when Leah and Gabriel were on the run. The first couple chapters started out well, with Gabriel landing in Leah’s backyard and following her inside. Though they’re both wary of each other at first, it doesn’t take long for them to warm up to each other. I really enjoyed this part and was totally into the story.

The next few chapters kind of lost me, though. It was almost like the author started out one way and then decided randomly to go in another. It was slow going for awhile, but after that the story picked up again. One more time later it took a turn that didn’t make a lot of sense, but again she brought it back.

Both Leah and Gabriel worked for me. Gabriel hasn’t known any love or kindness in his life, so when Leah shows him basic kindness he isn’t sure how to take it. Though they don’t have much time together before more of Gabriel’s kind show up, they start to form an odd attachment. I really liked them when they were together, but I didn’t feel we got to know Leah outside of her relationship with Gabriel. We learned a lot more about him and his background than we did about her and hers.

Overall I really liked the story and characters, but feel it needed to be pulled together a little tighter so a few minor kinks were worked out.

3.75 out of 5

This book is available in e-format only from Samhain Publishing. You can buy it here.

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