We are once again back with my favorite purple horny aliens. I love this spinoff of the original Zandians as much as I loved the original books. Some of these books are RH, some aren’t. Claimed by the Zandian is one of the latter category.
So, Zina is a human slave. She is disabled because of some horrible things that her masters had done to her and now she works as a house slave. She also takes care of the young that her master gets. She’s spent the last 9 years taking care of a human little girl named Enya who is as beautiful as the day is long. Zina does everything she can to hide Enya’s beauty, because being a beautiful slave just isn’t a good thing. But it doesn’t matter what she tries, one day the master sends his henchmen to drag her away so that he can sell her. Luckily, Enya pitches enough of a fit and Zina fights enough that she gets taken along.
Meanwhile, we have Tarek. He is blind and has been since birth. But that hasn’t stopped him from doing what he can for his beloved Zandia. Dr. Daneth did all kinds of surgeries on him, and now he’s got tech in his brain that lets him “see”. Think Geordie Leforge without the visor and purple. He can use that tech to link up to the ships and navigate and pilot them. He’s the best pilot that the Zandians have. That’s why he’s part of the crew that is going out on a very special mission for Zandia, and Dr. Daneth in particular. Right now, they are going after a little girl named Enya. They are going to rescue her and bring her back to Zandia. But when they get there, it turns out that there is a human woman who has done everything she can to keep Enya safe, including attacking the Zandians, so they take her too.
Of course, having been slaves, neither Enya or Zina trust anyone. I mean can you really believe them? I sure as fuck wouldn’t. And heaven love the Zandians, but they are sometimes quite black and white and don’t get some of the difficulties of being a human in a very, very unfavorable universe. I mean, yeah, the Zandians had a hard time, but they haven’t been kept as slaves for generations upon generation. That can be hard and totally change the way that a species looks at the world and the way that an individual acts.
I really like Tarek and Zina’s story. One reason for that is you don’t often see characters who have physical disabilities as the main love interests romances. Renee and Rebel didn’t make their disabilities the main characteristic of the character or the most important characteristic. I truly appreciate that.
I really enjoy seeing the older couples and how they are doing.
I think that Tarek should’ve told Zina what was happening so that she was blindsided by it. I also think that they should’ve let Zina be more involved from the beginning because it would’ve been easier on everyone, I think.
OK, that’s all for today. Go check out all the Zandians. Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 