#engineering fate

[tomegnome]

🖤Monster Lover Book Recs🖤

Were you, like me, gaslit by booktok influencers into reading Ice Planet Barbarians? You may be entitled to financial compensation. Call 1-800-blue-peepee for more information. Not really BUT!!! Below is a list of passable monster fucker books I discovered after spite reading like 30 of these after being utterly disappointed by IPB and hellbent on find some that were at least OKAY. Better than Ice Planet Barbarians, at least

The genre being what it is, make sure to check on the content warnings linked on TheStoryGraph if there's anything specific you're worried about. Also there ARE some lgbtqa+ books on this list (you’re welcome).

🕸🕷️Ensnared by by Tiffany Roberts🕷️🕸 I read this so long ago, and I can barely remember it tbh. A big alien spider monster finds a human woman that has crashed landed onto his planet and is like: FUCK this mammoth spider queen hottie who wants me to be her king, I want this gangly little blonde thing I fished out of a dirty hole. Ok. Sure. Pros: This author is committed to the art of monster fucking. This is not just like a guy but furry. Or a guy but scales. This is a big ass spider fucking a lady. And that’s beautiful. Cons: You know that “born sexy yesterday” trope? Because of the communication/cultural differences it kind of felt like they were both each other’s sexy baby. I didn’t really care for the characters or plot tbh, I just persevered because I just had to see how those crazy kids made it work. I was like, “seriously what are the mechanics?” Turns out: webs!

🚀🐱Engineering Fate by Alexis B. Osborne🐱🚀 Sasha tumbles through a wormhole into a part of space uninhabited by humankind--and instead inhabited by sexy cat men (yay). This one starts with the “captured by aliens” trope à la Ice Planet Barbarians, but it’s not a weird, uncomfortable sex thing (yay). Pros: I loved how active the main character was compared to the protags of this genre. She murders soooo many people. I was cheering out loud. Kill those birdmen, girlboss. Cons: Did not really care about the ML or the smut at all. But if you are into breeder kink--or were one of those kids with a huge crush on Simba growing up--then you are in for a treat.  FYI, if you read this and like it, do not read the next in the series. It’s NOT good.

🦖🪐Heart's Prisoner by Olivia Riley🪐🦖Communication specialist studies dangerous--but totally hot--alien prisoner of war “Asset X”. Pros: campy action scenes which I always enjoy. A dinosaur wreaking havoc on a space station in my sex book? More likely than you think., but the ML was fun and sexy. No “soul mates” or “that’s the mother of my child” stuff as far as I can remember, which is always a plus. Cons: The FL has as much personality as an Austin’s sandwich cracker (fyi: that’s the worst kind of sandwich character). 

🐊🔮She Came From The Swamp by Darva Green🔮🐊 She was a girl, she was also a girl--but also a Ukrainian Swamp monster--Can I make it any more obvious? Let me tell you. It is already a challenge to find passable heterosexual monster smut. Sapphic monster smut? Oh my god. But this is cute and good! Pros: adorable leads, relatively simple story that focuses on what we’re all really here for. Cons: sometimes they did it while the swamp monster was in human form, and I was like. Why?

☢️💀Soul Eater by Lily Mayne💀☢️ Post-apocalyptic setting, but also there’s interdimensional portals that have appeared on all over Earth that aliens pour out of it. Aliens ranging from cute critters to blood thirsty monstrosities to shredded gay monster hotties. A supernatural monster dubbed “Soul Eater” slaughters a battlefield of men--leaving only a single soldier. What does the mysterious killer want with Danny? Pros: A bonkers plot with lots of action and violence? Check. A seemingly cold and scary love interest that is actually super soft and protective? Check. An author brave enough to actually write weird monster dick instead of just being like, “it’s big and blue!” Cons: having read a few books in this series the huge lack of meaningful female characters and non-white characters throughout is a bummer. 

[ghostflowerdreams]

Book Review - Engineering Fate (Outer Limits Quadrant #1) by Alexis B. Osborne

She’s been captured, stuck in a poacher’s cage, and slated for sale, but these aliens don't know who they're messing with. Sasha Robinson is a low-level engineer in Earth’s Starfleet, sent to repair satellites alone in deep space. When her little ship is sucked into a wormhole, on the other side is a new and unfamiliar galaxy—and a smuggling operation that salvages her ship and tosses her into a cage. Captured by alien bird men, cat men, and lizard men who can’t understand her, Sasha’s only hope is escape. And when a cat man approaches her cage door… Ardalon Bavara is a Kursh Peacekeeper, working undercover in an illegal animal trafficking operation. When the crew he’s infiltrated pick up a strange new sentient lifeform—one that seems to be trying to communicate with him—his plans are instantly turned upside-down. He’s determined to help the hairless creature and still bring down the smugglers in the process. But can he do it and still protect the alluring new captive? Chaos erupts as Sasha makes a break for it, and she and Ardalon must work together to survive and complete his mission. Navigating the perils of new planets, Sasha soon discovers that the smugglers may have been the least of her worries… Can a low-level engineer swept away into a completely new galaxy navigate the political intrigue surrounding three alien species on the brink of war?

Engineering Fate is an action packed sci-fi novel with dark themes, political intrigue, language barriers, first contact, and a slow burn alien romance. Readers with triggers should check the content warnings found at the beginning of the book.

4 stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story was fun, entertaining, and action-packed. Sasha has to be one of the best female leads I’ve come across so far in this genre (admittedly, the bar is low). She’s resilient, resourceful, and intelligent, striking just the right balance between being strong and still feeling very human. Out of all the books I’ve read, I can probably count on one hand the female leads I’ve liked enough because they were decent and didn’t annoy me for one reason or another.

Where it fell short for me was toward the ending. Certain parts felt rushed or emotionally underdeveloped—for example, Ardalon’s reaction after reuniting with Sasha following her abduction by the king’s cousin felt subdue. The betrayal also lacked the emotional depth and consequences I was expecting. A few plot points were even left unresolved or forgotten, which I hope might be explored more in the next book. Even with its flaws, though, I still enjoyed this one.

That said, this book includes violence, gory details, drugged drinks, and an attempted sexual assault. Although these warnings are listed at the beginning of the book, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to mention a few here as a heads-up for readers.