Captured Stars by Claire Abbot 

IF I could tell you over and over again why I love Alien Romance you would think me insane... I mean a little.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶 

(HE CAN CHANGE HIS PEEN INTO WHATEVER HE OR SHE LIKES)

SYNOPSIS:

On the frozen moon of Erevon-9, Dr. Mira Hunt breaks the laws of her own species when she spares the life of an alien commander imprisoned beneath glass. Elion Quinara was once a god among the stars—until humanity turned his light into fuel.

When he opens his eyes, their souls collide. A psychic bond fuses them—mind to mind, heartbeat to heartbeat—blurring the line between science and surrender.

Now every breath binds them deeper, every secret unravels the war that doomed them both.

And in the darkness between worlds, love might be the most dangerous experiment of all.

Lush world-building • Alien x human • Fated mates • Emotional, slow-burn intensity

My Review:

“Captured Stars” by Claire Abbot absolutely surprised me in the best way possible. For an alien romance, it doesn’t lean entirely on the love story, and honestly, that made it even more fascinating. Instead of drowning us in insta-love or predictable tropes, Abbot gives us a taste of a much bigger universe, one filled with danger, moral conflict, and a whole lot of mystery. It felt like the beginning of something epic, which is exactly why I found myself wishing this was a full-length novel. I wanted to sink deeper into the world, peel back more layers of the characters, and really live in the tension and emotion between them.

The worldbuilding had me hooked. Everything from the icy, isolated moon to the complicated geopolitical conflict felt rich yet tantalizingly unexplored. And the aliens, wow. Unique, vivid, and so thoughtfully designed that I could already imagine fan art exploding across the internet. You can tell the visual inspiration behind this story is going to be phenomenal.

Now, I read alien romance like I change my clothes, frequently and with enthusiasm. If alien romance was the only genre left on Earth, trust me, I would be perfectly content. And since there were zero Goodreads reviews when I checked, I decided mine needed to be a bit of a deep dive.

The story begins through the eyes of Mira, our brilliant FMC and a scientist stationed on a remote frozen moon. Humanity is entangled in a morally gray mission: stealing the life force of an alien race capable of powering entire worlds with a single being’s energy. It’s as wild and ethically messy as it sounds, and of course, it sparks a brutal war. I mean… who wouldn’t fight back if their very essence was being harvested?

Mira is knee-deep in this dark project when everything changes, her captive alien awakens.

Enter Elion.

Beautiful, terrifying, and heartbreakingly desperate, he bonds himself to Mira in a moment of panic and instinct. Humans are the enemy, the reason his people are dying, yet Elion chooses survival. In those breathless, emotionally charged moments, he does the unthinkable, he links his fate to a human scientist who never expected to be anything but his jailer.

The story may be short, but it radiates heart. It’s surprisingly emotional and incredibly engaging, the kind of novella that wraps itself around your attention and refuses to let you go until the final sentence. When I finished, I had that bittersweet ache of I’m not ready to leave this world yet.

I truly, truly hope this is only the beginning of a series. There’s so much potential here, and I’d love nothing more than to follow Elion and Mira’s journey, whether it leads to healing, rebellion, or something even more profound.

Claire Abbot, if you see this: I’m ready for book two. And three. And four.