Arrival by A.G. Wilde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You think Earth is a safe haven?
You think the world couldn’t end tomorrow?
Think again.
Our world is no longer our own.
It’s been taken by beings we could never have imagined.
And we are weak.
Helpless.
…hopeless.
Hunted.

They have divided us into groups: Harvesters, Gatherers, and Breeders.
I am but one of the dispensable.
My name is Adira Mosely
…and I am a Breeder.

Arrival

A Brutal Invasion, An Unexpected Rescue

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

Main Characters and Plot Overview

Adira Mosely is a veterinarian who is simply out for her daily jog when her entire world changes. Mechanical alien orbs descend on Earth and begin systematically destroying humanity. The Gryken use the orbs to drain the planet’s water, capture people, and turn the surviving women into breeders. Adira manages to stay hidden for a while, but eventually she is captured and taken inside one of the Orbs.

Adira is held with two other women, and their already desperate situation becomes even more horrifying when one of the women is taken into the deeper parts of the Orb and later returns pregnant and it is stated that once the women have the baby or parasite, or whatever it is, they never return. That scene really brought home just how terrifying the Gryken’s plans for humanity are. Adira isn’t just fighting to survive the invasion. She is fighting to maintain control over her own life and body.

Then there are the Vullan, whose planet Edooria was destroyed by the Gryken. When they discover their enemies are doing the same thing to Earth, they decide to intervene rather than allow the Gryken to become even more powerful. Fer’ro is part of that fight, and his ship barely clears Earth’s orbit as they attack one of the Orbs. Eventually, his path crosses with Adira’s, giving her a reason to hope that survival might actually be possible.

Highlights and Limitations

The post-apocalyptic atmosphere was one of my favorite parts of the story. The opening immediately establishes how completely humanity’s world has been turned upside down, and I liked that Adira’s situation remains genuinely frightening even after the Vullan arrive.

I also really enjoyed the contrast between Adira’s vulnerability and her determination. She is terrified, but she doesn’t simply sit around waiting for someone else to save her. Her experiences inside the Orb force her to adapt, and I cared about what happened to her because the story made her circumstances feel personal rather than treating the invasion as nothing more than background scenery.

Fer’ro and the Vullan added another layer that I particularly enjoyed. They aren’t arriving on Earth because they have some altruistic mission to save humanity. They have already experienced the Gryken’s destruction firsthand, and they understand exactly what will happen if their enemies are allowed to continue. I liked that motivation because it gives their involvement much more weight. It took their planet being destroyed to learn how to fight and kill the Gryken.

My one frustration was that I wanted more time with the characters and the world. There is a lot happening in the story, and I sometimes felt like I was ready for a scene or relationship to be explored further just as the story moved on. I would have happily spent more time learning about the Vullan, Edooria, and Fer’ro’s history. Though I am glad that they weren’t immediately attracted to each other, the relationship between the two main characters developed over time.

Narration

I really enjoyed Julie Branson and Gene Branson’s narration. Both have pleasant voices that fit these characters well, and I thought their performances worked especially well with the darker atmosphere of the story.

The narration helped me settle into the story quickly, and I never found either voice distracting. I particularly liked having different voices for the male and female perspectives because it made the transitions between Adira’s experiences and Fer’ro’s storyline easy to follow.

Final Thoughts

I went into Arrival with high expectations because I had already really enjoyed A.G. Wilde’s Captured by Aliens series, and I’ve been particularly into alien post-apocalyptic romance lately. This definitely hit the darker side of that combination.

The Gryken invasion is brutal, and some of what happens to the captured men and women is genuinely disturbing. The scene where Adira’s fellow male captives are used as some sort of food for the aliens and are slowly covered in vines that stick into them and drain their blood until they die in pain.

At the same time, I liked watching a small amount of hope emerge from such a bleak situation. Fer’ro and the Vullan give the story a much-needed change in direction, and I became increasingly invested in seeing whether Adira could escape the Gryken and what would happen once she and Fer’ro were brought together.

I purchased the audiobooks for the entire series because of my previous experience with A.G. Wilde, and after finishing this first book, I’m very happy I did. I would have loved more character and world development, but I enjoyed the combination of alien invasion, survival, romance, and danger enough that I’m definitely continuing with the series.

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