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Jacque's Review:

United is the third and final book in the Alienated series.  In this installment, the alliance between Earth and L'eihr is being threatened by another alien race.  They demand that all humans and L'eihr's return to their homes or they will destroy both civilizations.  Of course, Cara and Aelyx are not going to go down without a fight.  They are determined to return to the colony and the life they have worked so hard to build together.  

This book was action packed as Cara and Aelyx fight off not only another alien race, but also the hybrids from L'eihr, who are working with the enemy to sabotage the alliance. They recruit Cara's brother Troy, Aelyx's sister Elle, and his best friend Serene, but the odds certainly are not in their favor.  They have already witnessed the power of their competition and both of their governments have agreed that it is in their best interest to terminate the alliance.

Overall, I loved Aelyx and Cara throughout this series, and was happy with how it concluded.  There were a few situations in this book that were VERY far fetched, even for fiction.  Of course, the end result likely gave readers the warm and fuzzy feeling were likely looking for, but you couldn't help but roll your eyes and think... Seriously?  Instead of spending quite so much time on the unrealistic elements, I wish there would have been a larger focus on life on the colony.  After the first two books, I was kind of over all of the drama that was keeping Cara and Aelyx apart.  I would have enjoyed reading more about how the humans and L'eihrs begin working together and seeing the colony flourish.

Alienated was definitely my favorite book in this series, but they were all very entertaining.  I especially enjoyed listening to them on audio.  I read the first book, but listened to the final two.  The narrator did an AMAZING job with the different character's voices.  I especially loved her interpretation of Aelyx's personality.  

Jacque's Review:

Invaded is the second book in the Alienated series.  In the first installment, we were introduced to some L'eihr exchange students who were sent to earth to help foster an alliance. We didn't really know why their leaders were interested in an alliance, but it was clear none of the exchange students really wanted to be there.

Things didn't exactly go as planned during the exchange.  As a result, Cara is sent to L'eihr to help establish the new colony that is intended to integrate the humans and L'eihrs.  Her boyfriend Aleyx and his friend Serene must return to earth to repair the alliance.  As much as he hates life on earth, he will do anything to be able to return to L'eihr to be with Cara. Cara, however, is beginning to question her decision to move to L'eihr.  The food is terrible, there is no privacy, their version of gym class is equivalent to boot camp, and someone is trying to set her up for failure.

I enjoyed learning more about life on L'eihr and seeing what it was like for Cara to try and blend into such a different culture.  It is never easy being different, but this was taken to a new extreme.  She was top in her class at her high school on earth, but she is nowhere near as advanced physically or academically compared to her new peers.

Aleyx has his own issues to deal with.  There is an extremist group that continues to jeopardize his safety and the success of the alliance.  We also learn more about Serene and her abilities as an emotional healer.  She does a great job of helping others, but she doesn't have anyone on earth who can return the favor.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and have already started reading the final book in the series.  As you can imagine, a long distance relationship spanning a galaxy can certainly put a strain on a things.  Cara and Aleyx survived this difficult period and it is now time to sit back and relax on their new colony.  Unfortunately, the last few chapters hinted that there may be more drama to come and life on the colony may not be a walk on the beach like they are hoping for.

We shared the book summary for Starlight when it was released on Tuesday. So let's jump right into my review! 

First of all: Cover love! I really like how the stars are shimmering in an arc and the contrast it provides on the purple and black cover. High five cover designers!

This book is about Solara's and Doran's journey around the universe, and as a reader I really did feel like I was on a journey. This was a bad and a good thing. I almost felt like I was reading not one cohesive story, but a mash up of different events that took place at different times on different planets. I don't know why, but it kinda felt like, "Okay, there's at a new planet and here's a heist/scene where everything goes wrong. They escape. A few weeks goes by on the Banshee, but we are told about it, we don't read about it. Then here we are a new planet and a here's the new heist that they need to pull off..." And repeat. Not that I didn't enjoy reading about the different happenings, because I did. 

For some reason, I wasn't really into Solara either. I think there was potential to make the reader emphasize with her more by telling more of her backstory or showing us more how she came to be the handy mechanic that she is. But there was kind of a disconnect there, and it left me feeling indifferent towards her. I did really enjoy watching Doran's story unfold and seeing his character arc from beginning to end. Doran and Solara also had hot, amazing romantic tension! Whew! Those two really had some great scenes.

It's a testament to how well Melissa Landers did in getting me to know her characters that I got teary eyed at he end. Someone at the end -- Solara, I think? -- says that the Banshee crew is a family, and they really are. They all have skeletons in the cloest and they are far from perfect, but they have each others' backs. It looks like this is the start of a trilogy or a series or something, so I'm interested to see what's in store for them next.

Jacque's Review:

Until Midnight is a short story that bridges the gap between Alienated and Invaded.  It was a free download from Barnes & Noble, so of course I had to pick it up.

Cara and Aelyx spend their last day together on a transport ship before he has to return to Earth to repair human/alien relations.  The humans are still leery of the aliens after some of their crops mysteriously started dying and the aliens are more than resentful for the loss of one of their exchange students.  Aelyx has his work cut out for him if he is going to be able to return to Cara on L'eihr.

To spice up this short story, it takes place just prior to Christmas.  To make it a special occasion for Cara, Aelyx researches ALL of the Christmas traditions and tries to recreate them on the ship.  Of course, resources are limited so he does the best he can.  I literally laughed out loud a few times during the Christmas festivities.  My husband's family is from Belgium/Germany, so I could appreciate some of the European traditions Aelyx discovered, but Cara was more than confused by a few of them.  She did appreciate his thoughtfulness and tries to come up with an equally meaningful gift for Aelyx.

This was a very entertaining story and a great refresher since it has been a little while since I finished reading Alienated..  It was nice to return to the Alienated world and I can't wait to start reading Invaded.  I was equally excited to discover there will be a third book in this series.  United is scheduled to be released in August 2016 and will be the conclusion of this series.

I had a chance to meet Melissa at a signing in Columbus and thought she was extremely sweet.  There are some great quotes in this book as Flo mentioned, but it was actually Aelyx who made me laugh out loud.  He spent a considerable amount of time preparing for his visit, but he gets some figures of speech mixed up and makes some very blunt remarks in key situations that I found to be hilarious.