Ever since Maddie and her sister were woken up from their respective spaceship tubes, she’s been struggling to settle into her new life. It doesn’t help that everyone saw her at her worst while she was angry and riddled with worry when her sister was abducted. Now that her sister is back and settled in better than Maddie could ever hope for herself, she’s left to deal with the aftermath of her actions. The other human women are wary of her, and Maddie doesn’t blame them one bit. There’s only one other person who is out of place, and that’s Hassen. Unfortunately, he’s also the one who abducted her sister, so their secret fling has to stay secret
Eight books in, there’s obviously a formula to these books because the khui chooses who it chooses and we know that the protagonists of each book are getting together. I like the formula, so this is not a complaint. If anything, it’s impossible to get bored with the formula because Ruby keeps busting out new and surprising ways to make things interesting. If this series goes on for something like 50 books, I have faith that Ruby would still keep things interesting and new the whole way! She knows what works and knows how to keep us on the edge of our seats along the way.
This time around, we follow Maddie and Hassen through their rotating perspectives. I really liked finally getting to know Maddie. All everyone sees is what’s on the surface: she’s fat, out of shape, and not the friendliest. She actually is pretty friendly and thoughtful, but everyone’s first impression of her is pretty bad because they met her when she was freshly woken up from a tube. Scared about her new life on an ice planet and both terrified and angry that her sister was abducted right away, she’s got one hell of a first impression to get around. If anything, Maddie is pretty relatable. I also really like that we’ve got a fat protagonist here! Ruby really captured what it’s like to have people nonverbally indicate that you’re not invited due to your weight and took it to a whole other planet.
We also have Hassen, who is surprisingly sweet and devoted. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen him at his worst pretty recently, and he’s now in exile. Hassen truly regrets his actions. His tribe is his entire life, and now he’s on the outs with nearly everyone until Vektal declares he’s no longer in exile. We got to know Maddie a lot better than we got to know Hassen, but that’s okay. I feel like this was truly Maddie’s story, and she’s got a lot to deal with because now she’s bumping uglies with the man who abducted her sister. It doesn’t help that he’s really bad at staying unattached, and she’s really bad at sticking to her own rules because she’s catching feels.
Remember how I said Ruby knows how to keep things interesting? Well, she really outdid herself here! We’ve got a Not-Hothquake, a freaking volcano, and a major discovery that’s a huge game changer. You have no idea how absolutely jazzed I am by this major discovery. When I say that it’s a game changer, I mean that it’s a total game changer! I’m really excited about where this may take the series next!
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