SAN’TEN
War
The war has begun.
While my brethren find mates with these new hyu’mankin, I want nothing to do with such relations. There is only one need within me and I have been waiting for a long time to sate it—a need for WAR.
And I get a taste. It is a sweet fire that fills my soul as I destroy the beings who have ripped my world apart. I will know nothing sweeter…
That is…until she wakes.
When Mee’na escapes from Base Zero, I am the only one who can retrieve her. A traitor. She colludes with the very beings I have vowed to destroy. And my vengeance knows no bounds.
I will find her.
I will bring her back.
And she will pay .
But that sweet fire, that taste of war, is nothing like the fire I encounter on my quest. I am suddenly fighting two battles, and the one that will claim my heart, my soul, is the one I cannot afford to lose.
Enemies to Lovers at the End of the World
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💛❤️🖤
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋😀😍😎
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Duet Narration
Main Characters and Plot Overview
Mina is the woman the series has kept in the background since book one. She was a hostage negotiator before the invasion, then the Gryken forcibly impregnated her. The Vullan rescued her and the spawn was removed, but she has been in a healing coma ever since. In War she finally wakes up, and she isn’t quite human anymore. She is connected to the Gryken, and they can track Base Zero through her. So, she slips out to draw them away from everyone else.
San’ten is the scowling Vullan warrior who wants nothing to do with a mate. He lost his world to the Gryken, and he is the one sent to bring Mina back because he is certain she is a traitor. Her blank, detached stare reminds him of a woman he once knew who was taken over by the enemy, so he can’t trust what he sees. What follows is a road trip through a ruined Earth, with plenty of fights and humans who turned out worse than the aliens.
Highlights and Limitations
I did not expect to love San’ten this much. He starts out so hostile, but the moment that got me was when he realizes he was wrong about her. He doesn’t make a big speech. He just quietly commits to protecting her, and that is when the book clicked for me. I also did not see it coming that he is a virgin, which made all that growling feel different. Mina is no passive heroine, either. Her calm in the middle of the final battle, walking through the chaos while everything falls apart, felt like a movie scene in my head.
The pacing in the middle is where I struggled. The shower scene at the apartment bugged me because Mina, a trained negotiator, leaves her only weapon behind when she hears strangers approaching. Later, a frightening stretch where she is attacked dragged on much longer than it needed to, especially since we all knew San’ten would turn up. The subplot with Sgt. Reeves and the military also felt clumsy. They are hostile to the hero one minute and then eager to join the fight, and it read like a detour.
Then there is Fi’rox. His jet goes down in the last battle and the book just leaves you hanging. I wanted an answer so badly. I later found out the author has a free epilogue for him on her website, and I wish that closure had been in the book itself. I just felt like that whole war happened too fast and ended a bit too neatly.
Narration
This is a dual narration, with Macie Miller and Matthew Winchester sharing the story, and that suits a book told from two points of view. The chapters jump between Mina and San’ten, and having two voices made it easy to know whose head I was in. Early on, Mina is deliberately flat, a shell of herself, and I could hear that emptiness in the performance, which made her waking up to anger and purpose land harder. San’ten’s thoughts are clipped and gruff, which fits him. The narration does not have much room for subtle surprises when the writing leans on short fragments and repeated ellipses, but it kept me listening during the road-trip stretches.
Final Thoughts
This is the book I had been waiting for since book one, and though I wouldn’t rank it the strongest in the series, it was still very good. The romance is a real slow burn that goes from suspicion to teamwork to love, and I understood why these two fell for each other. The ending left me wanting more, and the plot logic of the final battle will not hold up if you think about it too hard. But I cared about Mina and San’ten, and the dark tone, the violence and the Gryken as terrifying villains kept me hooked. Be aware that it includes graphic violence and assault by the villains. If you like grumpy alien heroes who melt only for one woman, this is for you. I’m already thinking about Rebirth.
