Kral by Ava Ross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A stoic Vikir warrior meets his match in a spunky Earth woman determined to show him what he’s been missing.

After she’s kidnapped on her way to Crakair, Mila’s not sure she’ll ever meet her arranged mail-order alien match. Until Kral falls – literally – on top of her during his heroic rescue mission. Who wouldn’t be attracted to a gruff, scaly green alien doing all he can to save her from the bad guys? But with space stations and ships exploding around them, it soon becomes clear someone is determined to make sure she and Kral don’t reach Crakair.

Kral has settled into his role as Kral the enforcer and Kral the loner, the person he had to become after his father was murdered and he was forced to assume leadership of his clan. He signs up for the Selection, never expecting to develop feelings for his Earthling female match. Despite the danger they’re in, she makes him laugh and shows him that life doesn’t always have to be serious. But with an enemy chasing them across the galaxy, Kral will have to tap his Vikir warrior skills to protect his Earthling bride.

Plenty of steam and lots of action!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚💜❤️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 😟🙁🤓😍
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Mila – a virus killed of most of the human males and also killed the females on the planet Crakair. Recently the Crakair males made a deal with Earth for technology and in exchange they opened an agency to send brides from Earth to Crakair. The brides are matched with a male from Crakair and when they arrive on the planet they have ten days to decide whether to stay or they can return to Earth. Mila was a physical therapist on Earth, before being matched to Kral and she was on a starship on the way to Crakair.

The Hero: Kral – he is a Vikir warrior and the chief of his clan, since his father died. The Vikir made their home in the treetops on the mountains of Crakair. He is known as Kral the enforcer, Kral the leader, Kral the untouchable, which he had been since his parents died in a fire. But his people also know him as a loner, and he had been accustomed to that until he signed up for the mail order bride program and was selected and matched to Mila. When she went missing after their ship was attacked, Kral did what any leader would do and went out to find his female, following a lead to an upcoming breeder auction.

The Story: Mila awoke tied-up in a room with white walls, looking at a rectangular creature above her. She found that she was on a spaceship. Not the spaceship she was taking to Crakair, but one owned by the four-armed, blue skinned aliens that attacked the ship and took the girls captive, planning to sell them as breeders. Mila was determined to escape on her own, she knew she couldn’t wait to be saved. She didn’t know if anyone would come.

Kral knew he was in the right place when his mating mark appeared on his palm. He just had to land on the space station and find his mate. The four-armed Alkirins were docked in the space station, but his mate was not on board. Mila escaped the Alkirins and she had been living in the basement of the space station for days, keeping under the radar while searching for her friends.

The setup has all the bones of a gripping, emotionally satisfying arc—the world feels perilous, the stakes are personal and high, and both characters have that wounded strength to be explored. Mila’s proactive nature and Kral’s fierce protectiveness were charging toward a collision of mutual rescue. There was plenty of tension when they finally cross paths: Mila’s fiercely earned independence clashing with Kral’s desperate need to keep her safe. Also, when Kral finds Mila, their adventure wasn’t even close to being finished. They still had to escape the space station and much more. There was plenty of steam and lots of action in this one.

This audiobook was narrated from multiple perspectives, done in dual narration by Teddy Hamilton and Tawnia Murray. Teddy Hamilton is one of my favorite male narrators and he always does a terrific job. He has an awesome voice and is very expressive, he is also great at using different voices for different characters. Tawnia Murray is not one of my favorites and her voice bothers me at times for no specific reason, though overall she does a good job, and I like her for the most part.

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