Erion: An Alien Romance Novella by Starla Night

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a forgotten lesser from a former servant world.

The first to voyage across deadly space, knock on the spiky palace door, and demand entry.

But something went wrong.

My mission failed.

Now my family and friends are long gone. Others accomplished what I sacrificed everything for. All that’s left are nightmares and suspicious scars.

Then one day the emperor bursts into my lounge.

He stalks toward me, his beautiful silver eyes flashing with rage.

It turns out my snarky, boredom-inspired annotations on his personal records weren’t so private.

And now that I’ve captured his interest, he’s holding me in his thrall…

Erion

A Wonderful Sendoff for the World of Arris

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💚💛
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋😉😎🤯
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

Characters and Plot Summary

I really enjoyed that Erion focused on two people who had already been broken by time before they ever met. Erion is introduced as someone who sacrificed everything to make first contact with Arris, only for his mission to fail. By the time the story begins, everyone he once knew is gone, leaving him with scars that are just as emotional as they are physical.

Estelle’s situation is equally heartbreaking. She wakes after spending decades in suspension, having been treated as a scientific specimen rather than a person. That shared loneliness gives their relationship an emotional foundation that felt different from the earlier books in the series.

One of my favorite early scenes was when Erion’s sarcastic, boredom-fueled annotations on the emperor’s personal records are discovered. What begins as an embarrassing confrontation ends up changing the direction of his life. I also appreciated how the story gradually revealed the reasons behind Erion’s guarded personality instead of dumping all of his history at once. Watching him and Estelle recognize pieces of themselves in each other’s pain made their growing trust feel earned rather than rushed.

Highlights and Limitations

For a novella, this story packs a surprising amount of emotional weight. I especially liked that neither character was “fixed” by romance alone. Their past trauma continues to influence how they react to each other, which made the quieter conversations just as compelling as the romantic scenes. The moments where Estelle refuses to be treated as fragile, despite everything she has lost, really stood out to me. Erion’s gradual shift from isolated cynic to someone willing to hope again was satisfying because it happened through several small interactions instead of one dramatic revelation.

The political implications were another highlight. I enjoyed seeing how the relationship between these two characters could have consequences beyond their personal happiness and potentially reshape parts of the empire. It made the novella feel like an important conclusion to the series rather than just an extra romance.

My only real complaint is that I wished there had been a little more time spent with the couple after they fully committed to each other. Because this is a novella, the ending arrives fairly quickly, and I would have happily listened to another hour exploring their new future together.

Narration

Willa Jaymes and J.F. Harding made an excellent narration team. Willa Jaymes captured Estelle’s vulnerability without making her sound weak, especially during the scenes where she struggles to come to terms with everything she has lost. J.F. Harding gave Erion exactly the weary, restrained voice I imagined while still allowing flashes of humor to come through during his sarcastic comments and awkward interactions with the emperor. Their performances complemented each other well, and the emotional scenes felt genuine instead of overly dramatic.

Final Thoughts

I came away from Erion feeling like it was a fitting capstone to the Blades of Arris series. Instead of trying to outdo the larger books with nonstop action, it focuses on healing, second chances, and finding connection after unimaginable loss. The combination of Erion’s failed mission, Estelle’s decades of isolation, and the unexpected way a set of private annotations changes everything made this story memorable for me. I would have loved a slightly longer ending, but I finished the audiobook feeling satisfied and genuinely happy for these two characters. If you’ve enjoyed the world of Arris, this novella is a rewarding and emotional sendoff.

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