[ARC Review] Craving the Alien Vampire by Ro Singh

Publisher's synopsis: I thought being abducted by aliens and auctioned to the highest bidder was the worst things could get. But I was wrong. Because the man who bought me is unimaginably dangerous and sinfully sexy–a big, brooding vampire alien.

When he sees a bruise on my cheek, he kills the man who hurt and sold me, nullifying his purchase. To keep me from returning to the auction, we have to get married.

We're complete opposites. I'm a cheerful and optimistic dreamer who always sees the best in people. He's a guarded and gruff smuggler who always expects the worst. Yet we'd both be lying if we said we didn't crave each other–body, heart, and soul.

But I want to return to Earth and he wants to return to his life of solitude ... even if we both wish our marriage of convenience was real.  

My thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed Ro Singh's alien/vampire novella, finding both Maya and Torin to be interesting characters that I definitely wanted to read more about. The plot was intriguing and action-packed, and when I got to the end, I truly wished this was a full-length novel just so I could've gotten more time with these main characters. 

Singh immediately throws readers into the action, but it surprisingly didn't take long to get acclimated to the alien location or to the aliens themselves. There were plenty of new species to get used to, but I thought Singh did an excellent job at detailing what was going on as well as what these alien lifeforms looked like. 

Being a novella, this story was rather short and I thought there were some areas, and some scenes in particular, where Singh could have added to the story or fleshed out the action. We get snippets of Maya's background and how she ended up in her particular situation, but I would've loved to see those scenes actually on the page, rather than just mentioned in a brief comment. Likewise, I would've loved to see more of Torin's background, or just have gotten a chance to know him a little bit more as a character. These two do feel instant attraction, but it was hard to feel the connection between the two of them when I felt like I barely knew these characters myself. 

Overall, this was a quick, but pretty solid, read. I do wish this was more than just a novella, as it felt like I was just getting to know Maya and Torin and then the story ended. But the plot was enjoyable, and I thought Singh did a wonderful job developing the alien culture that we get a taste of in this story. 

[A huge thank you to Ro Singh for providing a review copy of Craving the Alien Vampire.]

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Release date: 9/4/23

Format: eARC

eARC provided via: BookSirens