Saving Verakko by Victoria Aveline

Sci Fi Romance
Publication date: ​03/04/2020
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

Another great addition to a great series. Not too surprising, I suppose...

​Plot overview: Abductee Lilly takes to the alien forest for survival. There, she encounters wounded alien Verakko. Sexy times and yummy enemies-to-lovers goodness ensues.  

Trope bingo: action adventure romance, sci fi romance, survival romance. 

I'm relatively new to sci fi romance, y'all. I've only read a few. I mean, I liked the first several books of the Ice Planet Barbarians series, loved the Reylo-esque Neron Rising, ADORED the sci fi rom com Caped and Dangerous by Isabel Jordan, and  handful of others. But that's about it, other than THIS series, which I've 5-starred the crap out of.

Before I get to the review, though, you should know that the series should be read in order because it doesn't precisely stand alone. But trust me, you'll want to read them all, so here's the reading order, just to be perfectly clear:  

Book 1: Choosing Theo

You can check out my review here. 

Book 2: Freeing Luka

You can check out my review here. ​

Book 3: Saving Verakko

See above! 

Now that the logistics are out of the way, here's what's great about this book:  

The heroine

Lilly is a pretty unique heroine. She's independent and knows how to take care of herself. No, literally. She was raised by survivalists and is kind of a MacGyver when it comes to living off nature. Her competence is a lovely departure from a lot of what I see in other book descriptions in the sci fi romance category. (Seems like there's a lot of damsels in the distress there, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it's always nice to see a heroine who can take care of herself.)  

The hero

Verakko had a few grumpy jerk moments in the beginning of the book, but I cut him some slack because he was injured. But grumpy jerk moments notwithstanding, he was always respectful of Lilly and treated her like an equal. They were partners on a trek through the wilderness, not a "damsel in distress and her brave rescuer."   

The tropes

This one kind of starts out in a gentle enemies-to-lovers way (they don't actively try to kill each other, but they are very wary of one another, and their meeting is far from a meet cute), but their relationship actually develops into a friends-to-lovers type of thing. So, this book plays with some standard tropes in a way that I thought was very clever and fun.  

The plot and world building

This book isn't as plot and world-building heavy as books 1 and 2 of the series were. This was more of a traditional survival romance, and I ADORE survival romance. Don't get me wrong--there were some interesting plots, subplots, and alien world politics/customs that I found fascinating. It just wasn't the focus this time around. This was more a character-driven book, and it was a nice change of pace from books 1 and 2. 

Sexy times

Sexy times were of the "damn that's hot" variety. There were also plenty of them, but not TOO many. The balance between emotional times and sexy times was just right.  

So, long-story-short, this book is a solid winner from an author who continues to knock it out of the park. If you're a fan of sci fi romance, do yourself a favor and check out this series. You won't regret it. You can thank me later. :)   

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
No rehab needed. This one's clean and sober.