Alienated

First, let me just say how amazing this cover is. I love the contrast between Cara's Earth and Aelyx's L'eihr. As for the actual book, it was a fun quirky read that was really enjoyable. There were some flaws in the story, but I appreciated the world development.

Landers clearly spent a lot of time flushing out the L'eihr society and culture and I was fascinated by how they ran their society. Learning about them through Cara learning was enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the exchange program aspect of this book, it was an interesting way to bring the species together.

I also loved Aelyx's reactions to different human things, especially the food. There were so many witty responses and comments that he made. I really appreciated the humor aspect of this novel. I also really liked the various snippets from Cara's blog and really wished there had been more of them.

But I have to say there was the stereotypical, we cannot stand each other, then gasp we're in love. While that was obviously present in this novel, it did not bother me as much as I expected. The romance did seem rushed, but there was a definite friendship before it became love

I felt like the ending was a little rushed as well as the “solution” seeming to easy to achieve, but I'm sure the “solution” will not be as simple as it seems. The ending will definitely make for an interesting sequel that is for sure.

Overall, this was a solid book that I couldn't put down. While it may not be amazing, its quirkiness definitely added to its appeal.

Alienated by Melissa Landers was a really interesting and cute book. I loved how to created the planet, L'eihr, because it seemed realistic on what may happen in the future. The story can be a bit predictable but it was cute and I really enjoyed it. This book is an easy read and will have you hooked in by the very first chapter.

Alienated is about a girl named Cara whose family hosts a L'eihr in their home as an exchange student. Awesome, right? Who wouldn't want their own alien living with them and able to learn about their planet? Cara seems to be someone who was a little skeptical but wasn't against the idea of the L'eihr merging into society. He own brother was sent in her place to their home planet and she stayed taking care of her exchange student, Aelyx.

[ WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ]

The reader learns that Aelyx and the other exchange students are going to try to get false records of Earth's planet so The Way does not want to become an alliance with the humans. They do not want to become buddy buddy with the humans and it is easy to say that some of the humans don't either. This is obvious though considering the past with humans and change. Even in the real world, we have had to deal with segregation between all races and to think what it would be like if aliens come to our planet? It is obvious this exact reaction would happen but I wish it wouldn't.

I really liked Cara and Aelyx's friendship and I liked to watch it grow. It wasn't fast and the love connection didn't happen till about 3/4 into the book it was fine. I really liked learning about his planet and how advanced they were. It was difficult reading about Cara's best friend, Tori, and how she turned on her... also her boyfriend, Eric, did too. They joined a group called HALO that are against the alien's coming down to Earth.

The L'eihr seem to be very interesting and a kind species considering they have done peace offerings before like curing cancer and sickness from Earth. You'd think Earth would see this as a peace offering but a lot of citizens were against it an still didn't believe it.

The sad part was seeing one of the exchange students, Eron, getting killed off. I was shocked to see that part and it happened so quickly. The author barely wrote about it when it happened but near the end of the book she elaborated more on who he was as a person. I really liked him as a character.

Cara and Aelyx are pretty much on the run once a big mob of people show up at their house and want to kill her family for hosting him. They decided to go to his hidden ship and fly to his planet to save themselves. There is trouble when some of the kids that don't like Cara anymore find her and almost kill both of them. BUT Eric and Tori save them and they are able to get to Aelyx's planet. This is where The Way learns about his plan to contaminate the results of Earth's gatherings that he had to bring back. Cara finds out and she is pissed! She gets in a fight with him then he gets some bad lashes on his back for breaking a law.

At the end of the book, the readers learn that Aelyx must go back to Earth and fix his mistake. He needs to get the humans to agree to an alliance and change their minds about their planet. The catch is that Cara has to stay there.... they will be apart for a while and that is the sad part. It has a nice ending and I hope believe there is a second book. Cannot wait!

It had so much potential but I just couldn't vibe with it the last 20%

OH MY GOD. THIS BOOK. I COULDN'T STOP READING. Had its flaws, but THIS BOOK.

Actual rating: 3.5I almost gave this book 3 stars, but I decided to be nice and bump it up to 4 stars. Ultimately, Alienated was decent. I was entertained by the novel and found it to be humorous at times. The plot wasn't great, the characters weren't exactly ‘memorable', and the romance was not the best. I found myself comparing it to [b:The Selection 10507293 The Selection (The Selection, #1) Kiera Cass https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1322103400s/10507293.jpg 15413183] by Kiera Cass, solely because neither book had much substance, yet I found myself enjoying both books.The plot of Alienated was okay. Just okay. It focused on the alien exchange program that was occurring. Aelyx and the other exchange students were sabotaging the proposed alliance by planting a seedling called sh'alear (no,I don't know how to pronounce that, so don't ask) that prevents crop growth. I was confused by this, because Landers did not do a good job explaining how the plant worked or how it would sabotage relations.The characters were okay. There wasn't much character development outside of Aelyx becoming more ‘human', so to speak. Cara was humorous at many times in the book. And Eric? Eric was so dang confusing. He was nice and then mean. I think his theme song would have to be “Hot N Cold” by Katy Perry.And finally, at long last, the romance. It was, unfortunately, cringe-worthy. Was it insta-love? I honestly don't know. It had traces of insta-love. And then they proclaimed their love for each other WAY too early,and it was a bit upsetting.All in all, Alienated was a decent book. A good romance story. I will be reading the second book, since it sounds better than the first one. Don't let this review be a turnoff for you, since the book isn't horrible. Hey, maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did.