Arak’s Love by Michelle Howard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Half-Argoran shifter, Arak O’tir knew good people existed. He worked with some of them. But as a deadly Jutak warrior, his work often took him into the less savory elements of society. So much so, he shielded his heart from those he’d rescued. That was, until one particular mission leaves him longing for a specific female. Someone who made him tremble even if she wasn’t from his world.

Sylvia Forrester never expected her quest for a husband would lead her into danger. Nor could she have ever foreseen that her search would find her captured by aliens and added to a list of potential sex-slaves to be sold for a high profit. While her captors should have broken her, destroying any hope she’d had of a life happily-ever-after, Sylvia’s savior has her wondering if her earlier dreams could still come true.

But Arak and Sylvia soon discover love and passion has its own price.

Arak’s Love

Good, but with some plot holes and overuse of the word ‘moist’!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚❤️💜
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌏🌍
Character development: 😉☺️😘🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration

The heroine: Sylvia – a virus decimated most of the male population on Earth, and the men that were left ended up with all the power to live life how they wanted and have as many women as they could. When it was found that most of the other planets in the universe had compatible males to Earth, even many that didn’t look much different than humans, an off-world singles program was created so that chosen women from Earth could choose which planet’s males they wanted.

The Hero: Arak – he is a Jutak warrior, they are known as the strongest and most dangerous warriors in the galaxy. Arak is half Argoran shifter. He and his team went after Meranian slave traders and often rescued the slaves. Though he had to harden his heart because of the depravity he often witnessed.

The Story: Sylvia was excited when she was chosen for the off-world singles program and couldn’t wait to find someone to love and have a family with. However, she never expected her journey would end up with her being captured and abused, only to be ultimately sold as an intergalactic sex slave. However, her luck improved when the Jutak warriors arrived and saved Sylvia and her friend Joni.

Arak couldn’t be a part of the choosing with the off-world singles program because he is half Argoran shifter, and they had a thing called true mates. His mother had originally been part of the program and became a chosen and had children, but ten years later she found her true mate and wanted to leave her chosen. After that Argoran’s were no longer allowed to be part of the SP, so Arak didn’t think he would ever find a woman, though as soon as he saw Sylvie, he knew she was his.

One thing I have noticed more than once in this series is that the Michelle Howard seems to use the word “moist” a lot during the intimate scenes. Though that term doesn’t bother me much, I do know that a lot of people seem to have a huge aversion to that word. So beware if you are one of those people. It is kind of like people who fear clowns, so though I don’t fear them, I seem to notice them more when they pop up in books like these.

I liked the story, especially the rescue from the slavers, it was suspenseful and realistic. There is plenty of steam in this series, but there are also some pretty good storylines, and the narration is terrific. I just now decided to pick up some more audiobooks in this series. Though there were some plot holes in this book. When it comes out who the traitor is on the Jutak team, he says the reason he did it was because Torkel was their leader and he was a Meranian, so anytime he could become a slaver. How does that make sense? You are helping out the leader of the slave traders because you are afraid that at some point your own leader may or may not become a slave trader? Can you say Cra-Cra?

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via Duet narration. It was narrated by Michael Pauley and Samia Moon. The first book was done in solo narration, so I was happy to see this one was duet narration. I liked Michael Pauley’s deep voice, and he is good at putting emotion into his voice. Samia Moon was new to me and has a pleasant-sounding voice. I also liked the fact that there were sound effects, like alarms, footsteps and other background noises. It added to the experience.

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