Alienated (Book 1) by Melissa Landers

Page count 344

Genre: Science Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, YA

“Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.” – Author summary.

Cara Sweeney is a Straight A student, is valedictorian of her class, and an overall smart girl. Which doesn’t leave much confusion as to why she was handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student. Cara is sure that the information she gathers on the super secret species will get her a free ride into her dream college. She will be the only person with the information of L’eihrs, information that any journalist would kill for. Cara doesn’t really know what to think when she sees Aelyx (A-Licks). The humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but Aelyx couldn’t seem any more alien. When Cara’s classmates get swept up in anti-L’eihr paranoia, her school is no longer safe. Cara gets threats constantly from anonymous people and she and Aelyx have to be escorted to their classes by a police officer. Since the whole school calls her a traitor, she leans on one of her only friends, who she realizes she has fallen hard for. But Aelyx has been hiding what he really wanted from the exchange and the possible deadly consequences. Soon Cara will not only be fighting for hers and Aelyx’s life, but for the life and future of her planet.

Interesting summary, I know. I have always heard of this book I never really felt the need to read it. But after seeing some good reviews I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed the reaction that humans had to the Aliens or L’eihrs, it seemed like it was realistic to me. Some people would love the idea of having an Alien-Human alliance and others would be completely against it because they would refuse to trust the Aliens. I really like that in some ways you can understand both sides of the argument. The humanists (Anti-Aliens) don’t trust them because they don’t know what they are capable of doing. And the L’overs (L’eihrs/Alien lovers) want to trust them because they see them as new life, and if they wanted to hurt us then they would have already. I really enjoyed both sides of it.

Now, the main focus of the book is the Aliens, but the crucial part of the story is the relationship between Cara and Aelyx and how they begin to feel about each other. I really liked the slow- burn of the relationship. The biggest point in the story is how they handle everything together and how their own personal motives change as they get to know each other better. I enjoy the dynamic the two of them have together and I find it very sweet. I enjoy the conflict that both of them feel towards each other, Cara with her humanist friends and Aelyx with his ulterior motives.

The story also does very well in showing the point of view of both of these characters, the majority of the story is told in Cara’s view, but at certain dramatic points you see the story in Aelyx’s view of the situations. I thought that was a cool idea to integrate.

Now for the negatives. Even though I thought that it was a really good story I did think that some points of it were sort of confusing or frustrating. When you get more information on the L’eihrs it is told by Aelyx when Cara asks a question. But as cool as the information is, you don’t really get an understanding of the L’eihrs. I mean, you get information on how they live and what they can do, but you don’t ever get a solid reason why. But, this is the first book in a three-part series so I’m not concerned with that too much. Something that did confuse me was the relationship Cara had with her friends, Tori and Eric. As the story goes, they get more and more conflicted and, to say this with as little spoilers as possible, they become estranged from each other and I don’t really get why on Tori’s part. I understand her conflict but I’m confused as to when it started.

Pros:

Nice character depth/development

Good plotline

Humorous

Nice romance aspect

Good Conflict

Cons:

Not enough information on L’eihrs and how they found us or survived for so long.

Weird relationship dynamics

More romance than Science-Fiction

Aliens involved but no real Alien situation.

The Background Characters almost seemed insignificant/uninvolved with the story

 
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to whoever would enjoy.