4 out of 4 stars
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The Matriarch Saved is book one of the Hive series by J.Y. Olmos. It is classified as science fiction and available on Amazon for $4.99. The book is around 400 pages, but the font is fairly large making for a quick read.
Alien ships have shown up around Earth and have begun stealing resources. They start with the Great Lakes as well as most of the world’s iron. Evonne and her family are preparing to flee the city when the alien’s kill her husband and child. Evonne is spared and finds herself on a ship filled with other females of breeding age.
The women aboard the alien ship are trapped in a cycle of being gassed, experimented on, and waking naked in a room. Quite a bit of time passes before they are rescued by another ship full of seemingly human males (albeit quite large, human males.) Evonne is separated from the rest of the women leaving her to wonder exactly who these people are and what they want with her. The leader of the ship, Kalerant Torneau, has ordered her to stay in his quarters for the duration of the trip.
The plot is fairly straight forward and develops quite nicely throughout the book. We learn about the aliens as Evonne does, which allows the reader to empathize better with her situation. If I had anything negative to say about the plot, it would be that not much is mentioned about exactly what went on during the alien abduction. I didn’t find myself missing anything, especially as the story developed further (I wouldn’t want to read the gory details anyway). However, some may be left wanting more details specifically about that time.
The book definitely belongs in the science fiction genre, and the author does a great job of creating alien species and planets. I don’t want to give too much away, but the aliens that are featured in this book have quite a different way of life than what we are used to. This left me intrigued and dying to read more. I will say that there is a definite element of romance included in this novel. The author is very tasteful in how the sensuality is presented with no explicit sex scenes, but the romance is unavoidable. Those that are looking for a science fiction book without any element of romance will want to steer clear of this book. Yet, because the author has handled the issue with such delicacy, I would say this would be appropriate for older teens.
It also bears mentioning that there were very few errors in this book. I think I saw only one or two in the whole 400 pages. The formatting is also well done. Although it is not strictly necessary – the author does a good job of explaining terms throughout the story – there is a glossary of terms in the back of the book. This glossary covers not only foreign terms, but characters as well.
There is no doubt in my mind that The Matriarch Saved deserves a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I started out thinking that it would probably end up with 3, but the story just grew on me. I was not ready for the book to end, and I do need to point out that there is a cliffhanger ending. I realize that not everyone will appreciate that; but, in this instance, it simply made me want to hurry up and buy the second book. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good alien romance, including any young adult readers.
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The Matriarch Saved
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