Strange Love by Ann Aguirre is a delightfully weird, heartwarming romance featuring a virgin alien hero, an abductee heroine, and a talking dog. It’s a blend of Alien, The Bachelor and The Hunger Games. It’s also a middle finger to people who claim that romance novels are formulaic and rely on rich, handsome heroes to seal the fantasy.
The hero in this book is Zylar of Kith Balak, a vaguely insectoid alien who comes from a culture almost completely unlike our own. That culture is matriarchal, functions in a hive structure, and relies on an elaborate courtship ritual called the Choosing. Zylar doesn’t have eyelids or knees or even, in fact, a penis. He’s got chitin and mandibles, though. The heroine is Beryl Bowman from Earth. She works at a daycare center and spends most of her free time with her dog, Snaps. Beryl does not have mandibles.
These two characters are so vastly different that they shouldn’t make sense together, yet their love story is compelling, poignant, and completely believable. It’s almost a master class in how to develop emotional intimacy between characters and how ongoing, verbal consent during sex can be incredibly hot. It’s also just tremendously fun.
When the book opens, Zylar has failed the ritual of the Choosing four times, and he only gets to compete once more before he’s banned from mating and forced into a role as a drone. His personality will be stripped away and he’ll be forced into a lifetime of physical labor if this happens. Because no one from his species has chosen him, Zylar is looking to out-bond, that is, mate with another alien species. He’s headed to a planet to pick up his intended when solar flares mess with his ship’s AI and he winds up on Earth instead. That’s when he accidentally abducts Beryl and Snaps.
By the time Zylar realizes his mistake, and how damaged his ship’s AI is, the AI has lost the coordinates to Earth and Zylar cannot return Beryl. He tells her that he can either drop her a space station to find her way, take her to his planet and try and find work for her there, or she can fill the place of his former intended and participate in the Choosing with him. If she chooses the last option he’ll be able to offer her the most support and protection on his homeworld. Since humans are unknown to his people, he isn’t sure how she will be initially received.
Beryl does freak out after being abducted, but you have to take it with a grain of salt that she doesn’t have a mental break after finding out 1. Humans aren’t alone in the universe and 2. She can never go home to Earth. That last part occasionally sends her into brief moments of depression, but you do have suspend some disbelief that Beryl adapts to all of this remarkably quickly.
But Elyse, how do Zylar and Beryl talk, you ask?
Zylar implants both Beryl and Snaps with a translation device, which means suddenly, Snaps can talk. Snaps the talking dog is honestly one of the best parts of this book, and because Beryl spends so much time and affection on Snaps, Zylar initially assumes he is the superior being and must be treated with respect. Which gives us this scene:
The ship came in too fast for her to see if there was any ground traffic, and soon her view was blotted out by other ships and the inside of the docking facility. Spaceship port? Whatever. Zylar was a good pilot; she barely felt the jolt when she touched down. Relieved, she unbuckled the straps keeping her safe, and Snaps promptly peed as soon as she set him on the floor, right on the base of the pilot’s chair.
“That’s mine now,” said Snaps.
Beryl wasn’t sure what alien customs said, but that was how it worked in the animal kingdom on Earth. If you pee on something, it belongs to you. She glanced at Zylar for confirmation.
“I will have the chair removed,” he said. “And ask personnel to bring to your quarters for Snaps to use.”
“I like him,” Snaps said.
So Beryl agrees to participate in the Choosing. In Zylar’s culture this is a multi round event where mates prove their worth to their prospective partners. Some events require a display of intelligence or ingenuity; others show their physical ability to protect offspring from threats. It’s like The Bachelor and The Hunger Games had a baby. Some of the events are deadly, and all of them are watched by spectators.
Zylar isn’t especially attractive among his people and he’s very shy. His AI, Helix, is his only real friend. When he’s participated in the Choosing in the past he has always ended up as one of the males who is not chosen at the end. No rose for him.
Beryl lives with Zylar during these events and he helps her navigate his world and culture. He is always kind to her and always honest with her. He is considerate of her needs and her emotional state at every point. That’s why, despite feeling no initial physical attraction to each other, Zylar and Beryl start to develop emotional intimacy and fall in love.
Zylar has felt largely overlooked his entire life, but Beryl understands him and values the way he treats her. Even though he feels unremarkable, she thinks the fact that he is kind and thoughtful set him apart from pretty much everyone else, human or not.
Beryl was mostly alone on Earth: she had some friends, but no family and she didn’t feel her job working at a daycare center was especially valued. In Zylar’s world, being asked to care for someone else’s young is a huge honor, and he is in awe of her. As she progresses through the challenges on her end of the event, he starts to fall in love with her as her ingenuity, intelligence, and ferocity put her at the head of the pack.
Part of why Beryl and Zylar work is that they communicate almost constantly and they are honest with each other, with removes any assumptions by both parties. Both of them are outsiders, and that mutual feeling of not belonging cements their bond. It was incredibly beautiful to watch them fall in love through a route of kindness and mutual respect. The way Zylar and Beryl fall in love, slowly, with no initial physical attraction or cultural context is the result of a believable and compelling emotional journey. Both characters are incredibly vulnerable when the novel starts, and through their support and understanding of each other, they forge a strong union.
There’s external conflict too. Even as they succeed in the Choosing, there is no guarantee that they will be allowed to pair off. The ritual is complex and there are politics involved. Some of that is related to Zylar’s older brother, Ryzven, who has achieved tremendous success and prominence in their Kith (think clan). Ryzven is attractive, financially successful and basically an entitled douchebag, proving douchery transcends galactic species.
Ryzven wants Zylar to fail purely because he’s an asshole who can’t stand anyone else to be happy, and he wants Beryl because the Choosing has elevated her status. He already has a mate, but like a lot of rich, spoiled dudes, the rules don’t apply to him. He works behind the scenes to ruin their chances of ending up together.
The external conflict feels strong enough to keep the couple apart, even as the internal conflict (different species, he abducted her by mistake, he’s an anxious alien beta hero who never had sex) is quietly resolved.
And yes, we need to talk about sex now. This book has graphic sex scenes in it. As I said earlier, Zylar doesn’t have a penis. This book firmly asserts that heteronormative penatrative intercouse is not the only valid form of sex. Despite the fact that their bodies are very different (mandibles, remember) Beryl and Zylar stimulate each other. And because their bodies are very different, and because Zylar is a virgin, they do all this carefully, talking the entire time. This book is a really beautiful example of how ongoing verbal consent can be sexy.
I started this book on my lunch break at work and finished it as soon as I got home. It’s the perfect example of slow-building intimacy based on kindness, trust, and understanding, it’s got a great example of how to weave consent into sex scenes, the talking dog is hilarious, and overall it’s just really fucking fun. When you add in consistent world-building without info-dump, it’s pretty much perfect. Strange Love by Ann Aguirre is a shining example of just how good a romance novel can be, even if the hero has mandibles, and I recommend everyone go read it now.
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SPACE MANDIBLES. This sounds like Garrus prOn. I might be able to entice my kid to read a romance novel for her one true Mass Effect love.
Have you ever wondered what Kafka’s The Metamorphosis would be like if it were reimagined as a romance? Wonder no more!
I read this in on sitting on an airplane this Sunday. During a layover this is the text I sent my husband:
“I’m reading a hilariously campy kissing-in-space book. An alien accidentally kidnapped the wrong mate (he was alien-equivalent-of-eHarmony dating another alien on another planet but when a solar flare messed up his ship’s AI he wound up on earth and mistook a human for his betrothed and abducted her). Now he can’t return her because he doesn’t have her home coordinates so he’s like “meh, one mate is as good as the next” and he’s trying to talk her into coming back to his home planet with him, and these are the words he is wooing her with:
Her: Are you…proposing to me?
Him: Yes, Terrible One. You are the most hideous mate anyone ever brought back to Barath, and so you will drive all predators away from our nest with ease.
It’s so reminiscent of our courting process that I’m swooning all over again. ”
So obviously the book is an A+ from me.
On KU!!!
Hi. This sounds interesting. I am thinking of picking it up. But, I have just one quick question. ….. Is the alien like any specific *type* of bug? Like, say, wasps or bees? (Yay for me!) Or, are we talking about roaches? (Which would be a squick).
I read this book so fast that I ended up reading it again within a week and was hoping that there was a second one.
aaaand watch me one click this sucker…..
As a fan of the Mass Effect series and of the wonderfully adorkable Garrus Vakarian, this book is already hitting all of my buttons! Can’t wait to read this
If the world-building here is anything like Lyn Gala’s Liam & Ondry series — one-click.
Well, if this doesn’t just sound right up my alley.
LOVED this book!! I read it in hours then read it again. And the dog Snaps is a hoot!!
I JUST finished this book and it is wonderful! Zylar is the perfect beta alien mate. I found this to be very similar in feel to R Lee Smith’s Cottonwood novel. Although with less traumatic events. Click for it now!
Based on the review and the ENTHUSIASTIC comments, I one clicked this sucker. I have other books by this author, I like her style. Thanks everyone
I loved this book. It was definitely a finish in one day book for me and went into my favorite books of 2020 list.
I loved this book so much aside from a few problematic niggles about the Choosing competition. Zylar was so sweet, just perfect for my current mood. I find myself reading more SF Romance these days because there is total wish fulfillment going on in many of them, with matriarchal societies and heroes that are often physically imposing yet otherwise extremely respectful and adoring towards women. Nonetheless, this one stands head and shoulders above most in the inventiveness of its world building (especially the sexual aspects).
It also reminded me just a bit of Radiance by Grace Draven in the way 2 people who initially are physically repulsive to each other start to feel attraction and sexual desire as their liking and admiration of their partner grows.
Any review that sparks mentions of Garrus AND Radiance in the comments is so far up my alley it’s not even funny. This sounds gloriously weird and adorable, and I am here for it.
I read and enjoyed this, too.
@Eliza, I’m another fan of Liam and Ondry. If you have other favorite books to recommend, I’m listening.
In case anyone is wondering, Liam and Ondry feature in the first four books of Lyn Gala’s Claimings series.
I enjoyed Strange Love, but I count the Liam and Ondry books amongst my favorite romances.
A couple of final highlights after just finishing reading the book this morning: Beta H (!!!), great use of pronouns, and appearance had nothing to do with initial, intermediate or ultimate attraction, nor with the HEA. Totally anti-arrogance. Great to read while listening to the impeachment hearings…
@Kareni, I *wish* I had more recommendations for you. I read so few books of this type (i.e. alien love interest), and hardly any m/f anymore. I finished Strange Love yesterday and while I did enjoy it, for all the reasons described in the post and comments, I wished a few times that the author would have slowed down, just a little. I felt Aguirre was rushing through each checkpoint. The world-building was good, certainly, but it really made me want to re-read the Claimings series and, for that matter, The Hunger Games, too. Then again, I have enjoyed many books that others describe as slow-moving.
Did you read Lyn Gala’s Earth Fathers Are Weird? That one, while inventive and clever, was too far out there for me.
This book earned my first 5-star rating of 2020 because not only did I read it in one sitting but it was such a joy!
I’d picked up this book solely based on Ann Aguirre’s ultra-trashy (and surprisingly queer!) novel of revenge The Third Mrs. Durst.
Nothing had prepared me for this book.
LOVED how an otherwise wonky premise (kidnapping) was flipped. Zylar was adorbs, Beryl was badass, and Snaps was the best too! I laughed a lot and deffo believed in how Zylar and Beryl eventually got together. Even better was that the sex scenes took into account the fact that both MCs had totally different bodies and erogenous zones. In short, this is a great book for whoever wants a romp in which the MCs are great, there are v. interesting side characters, and a solid worldbuilding throughout.
Began to successfully rec it to lots of my friends as soon as I finished it. I’d give it an A+. 😀
@Eliza, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I did indeed read Earth Fathers are Weird; I enjoyed it but to a far far lesser extent than the author’s Claimings books.
Have you read The 5th Gender: A Tinkered Stars Mystery by G. L. Carriger? (The author has written other books as Gail Carriger.) I found it an enjoyable read.
In a totally different vein (science fiction/space opera but the merest hint of romance), I’ll recommend Linesman by SK Dunstall.
@Kareni, I just downloaded a sample of The 5th Gender. Thanks so much!
*Kareni*, the sample is *wonderful*!
@Eliza, I hope you’ll enjoy it!
I have to read this! I’m always looking for something new and different. Your review was really helpful.
This is why I am a sbtb regular! A book I never would have found, by an author I don’t know, in a genre ( is it a genre-yet?) I don’t explore, and I loved it! Thanks to Elyse for a great review and thanks to all the commentors who added to the discussion, your comments caused the one click that made my day waay better!
Back to say: Read it, loved it, DEEPLY WEIRD, love that. I read/watch a lot of sf, but the sf tropes that sf romance usually borrows are not for me. This was really atypical, and I was so impressed by how the author made a seemingly impossible setup work.
And if anyone is still wondering, my mental image was more like a giant lobster than a bug? It’s a fine line, of course. There are spikes and claws and hard shells involved.
This book made me reflect on how sometimes a book mainly aims to make the characters attractive to the *reader*, and sometimes they aim to make the reader believe that the character is attractive to the other character(s). Does that make sense? Like, I wouldn’t do you, but I fully believe that the heroine wants to, and that’s what matters. So if you’re thinking “HOW can a giant lobster be hot?!?!?”, that’s a key factor. He’s hot to her. Somehow. It’s adorable.
I read this book not knowing what to expect and LOVED it! My poor partner and sister had to put up with me texting them funny bits of dialogue all day. Aguirre wrote in the author’s note that the AI character would get the sequel if she writes one, so I hope she does.
(Also, thanks for all the book recs in the comments, y’all!)
@Meredith, I went over to Ann Aguirre’s website last week to sign up for her newsletter and discovered that she has started serializing the second book, and as promised, it features the AI character.
I picked this up after reading this review and read it in one day, like others. It was incredible. I’ve been reading aloud and sending via discord many snippets to my friends, the hilarious, the sexy, that hilariously sexy. 😛 will be seeking out more by this author for sure.
This was such a feel good book. :3
I am grateful for this recommendation! I maxed out on Historical, and fell into the Syfy/Space Romance wormhole. I have found a genre that takes me back to my first crush, the Creature of the Black Lagoon, and where I can vicariously realize secret longings for lizardmen or the amphibious hero of Shape of Water. Especially if those alien heroes are neither royalty or assassins, but regular beings just trying to get along in their worlds. Like the review above, I also feel most of the enjoyment is seeing how the author makes the alien more than a cliche, and human/alien relationships believable.
If I can recommend some titles I recently read that were new to me:
The Office Aliens series by VC Lancaster – basic premise: alien refugees resettled on Earth after planet invaded, and focus on 4 from different cultures who take various jobs at a government agency. No, not military operative or undercover agent, but working a phone bank, security, i.t., and purchasing office supplies. There’s 4 major books, and a Holiday edition novella for each. It’s still foremost a romance, but the author has created detailed alien culture that’s not just filler.
Cottonwood and Last Hour of Gann by R Lee Simmons.
Simmons writes epic books encompassing love, violence, politics, morality, philosophy… The books are exciting, horrifying, and thought provoking and contain some of the most beautifully written relationships I have ever read. More believable than a lot of my favorite historicals, as these show beings from other worlds forging connections from overcoming adversity and working to survive, with love growing despite lack of initial attraction or compatibility. I don’t like body horror/violence, but the relationships built in these books, and the characters created made me willing to chance more than one title from this author. I finished both books feeling euphoric and wrung out, and craving just a few more chapters in the worlds of these characters.
I am eagerly skimming this comment section for more titles to enjoy…
-ugh, wanted to add to comment: Also love that the heroes in these books are most definitely alien in appearance, not simply a hot human male with scales. More so with the Simmons books.
Just a note that the author @J.Bolivar mentioned above is R. Lee Smith. I also liked her The Last Hour of Gann.
Thank you, Kareni, for that correction 🙂
You are quite welcome, @JBolivar.
I am so happy you reviewed this book I might not have heard about for a while!
I read it tonight and just totally enjoyed it.
I guess I’m one of the few who didn’t care got this little book. Overall I thought it was a little silly instead of funny, and I had a problem with how sanguine Beryl was about being kidnapped by and alien. Zylar was a great character, sweet and beta. I really wanted to like the book, but I confess I only got about halfway through before I gave up. I found I was putting off reading the book, and that’s never a good sign. I’m obviously also the only one who got completely squicked out by the description of the sexual exploration of Zylar by Beryl. Thankfully,this is presently a kindle unlimited book, so no harm done. I just returned it.