Ensnared
Ratings22
Average rating3.7
Not a bad book! Just ended up putting it down for a while and don't feel in the mood for it at the moment. May continue another time if in the mood for this type of story.
I can't believe I'm writing this, but ENSNARED had me falling for a giant spider alien. I've read a lot of monster and alien romances over the years with all manner of shapes, colors, and appendages. But this was the one that had me questioning if I'd finally gone too far. I mean come on, spiders?! But I was barely halfway through the book and I was already really enjoying it -- from its attention to detail, to its wild setting, to it's strangely beautiful spider hero.
One moment Ivy was being put into cryosleep for a journey to colonize a new planet and the next she's waking up an unknown amount of time later to a giant spider man carrying her through the jungle. Talk about a rude awakening! Ivy might not have had a lot of confidence, due to her upbringing and past, but she embraced her new life with a lot of inner strength and resilience. I loved seeing her self worth grow under Kethan's gentle care.
That's right, this giant 7 foot spider was practically a gentleman in the soft way he treated Ivy, taught her how to survive in the Tangle, and protected her from danger. He even cuddled her during thunderstorms and made her a silk dress! He might be a spider man but how is my romantic heart supposed to resist that? And when Kethan learned about Ivy's past and made it clear she deserved so much better? Heart absolutely melted.
Kethan and Ivy's relationship was a super slow burn but I truly appreciated seeing them work through their language barrier and come to understand the differences between the Vrix and humans. That culture clash is often missing in alien romances but it was done so well here! I also liked that they weren't instantly lusting for each other; they each individually had to come to terms with their attraction to someone who wasn't their own species. There was a little bit of dubious consent early on before they could understand each other and because Kethan didn't really know what Ivy was but it was resolved quickly.
ENSNARED was tightly focused on Kethan and Ivy surviving alone in the Tangle but we did get some scenes of other Vrix when Kethan would bring meat back to his people's underground home. The scenes with the Queen, who wants Kethan as a mate even though he's not interested, were intense and I have no idea how this will get resolved but I'm ready to jump right into book 2 to find out! I also loved Kethan's friends and I can't wait to see their reactions when they finally learn about Ivy.
Content Warning: threats of a forced mating (not between MCs); some dubious consent because Kethan doesnt understand human anatomy and language; parental abandonment; past manipulation from a partner
This book deserves 2.75 stars in my opinion. The start of the book was a little hard becauseI had to get used to the world, their names and style of speaking but it got better by the end. I could say it is a guilty pleasure of mine but it lacked story plot and character development in order to receive more stars.
It lacked build up. Everything happened kind of fast. He found the ship. He found her and kept her. She woke up. They had a day or two of fighting but then catched “feelings”.
My pet peave was that they started to understand each other's language in just a few days.
Also it was way to much sex in my opinion. A single, well-crafted scene could have been impactful, but the repetition led to a sense of monotony, and I found myself skipping those pages.
Are the characters lovable? Well yes but they are also boring because they have nothing more going on than being horny for each other
But it really is a guilty pleasure of mine as it had made my heart throb a few times.
Look, I'll admit it. I came for the weird monster sex, but I'm totally staying for the good sci-fi. The world building, the politics, the adventure, the survival... actually decent story telling.
I need to immediately go read the next book goodbye!
This was a genuine surprise as far as what many assume and expect from a “creature smut” kind of a book.
We start off strong with learning about our main character Ketahn, a “vrix” that is similar to spiders. There's a sense of the world and the politics amongst other Vrix and we quickly learn that the Queen Vrix has been desiring for Ketahn to mate with her, deeming him the only acceptable vrix to give her offspring. This fact becomes the core of the plot and tension in this.
Ketahn comes from a family of Vrix weavers, but when the Queen took reign he was essentially forced to become a Warrior Vrix instead. The reasoning behind this as we learn plays into the “why” he refuses the Queen's advances. But now, he's meant to protect and provide for all the others. He's off to go into the “Tangle” a jungly mess of an area filled with various and harmful creatures and predators, to find food and other offerings for the village. This is when Ivy comes in.
Ivy is awakened in her Cryochamber and immediately Ketahn is completely consumed by her, never having been around humans before (obviously). There's a language barrier but you can still understand what Ivy is communicating, a lot of it written out like phonetically so us as readers can figure out what's happening. And it doesn't take long before the language barrier isn't even a trouble between them. Both of them being “quick learners”
The story progresses with us learning that Ivy was space traveling to live in a new colony and planet. A rash decision on her part after experiencing some horrible things back on ‘Earth'. She quickly takes to Ketahn, understanding that he's her only sense of hope in survival. Ketahn also aptly aware of this wastes no time in teaching her how to hunt, fish, weave things like baskets, start fires...
While the writing is decent, and I appreciate the world we're being immersed in, I struggled to find the attraction between the two of them. And I had no issues with him being a spider, lol. They take on a relationship that's like, Teacher and Student. Parent and Child. Sometimes even Child and Child. Both having so much to learn and overcome in their differences. There's the moments that's supposed to make me feel giddy and excited, waiting for the love to blossom but Ketahn too suddenly felt like a sweet old man to me. He's apparently very fast and strong but something in his written demeanor I felt like the way some action scenes went or his way amongst other Vrix couldn't solidify Ketahn as some strong warrior type who could save Ivy and himself but more easily breakable and unsteady. Me unintentionally starting to see Ketahn as sweet and frailer and that his age could suddenly catch up to him causing his demise, took away any desire I had to see him in a relationship with Ivy.
Ivy is sweet and simple. I couldn't turn off my critical brain when reading however at a certain point and I got lost in the idea that she only started romantic emotions towards Ketahn as he was her only savior on a strange alien planet. Outside of that, the relationship felt neither rushed or too slow.
This is me taking a creature romance book too seriously so I'll end my review here lol. It was nice but overall not quite what I was looking for, so I don't think I'll be continuing the series.
Spider fun times
Interesting read with some fun world-building. The characters are cool and detailed. I'd give it a read to anyone interested in spider man fun times.
Definitely a book, and definitely entertaining. I am still unconvinced that the spider makes a good boyfriend, but I admit that it's not because he's a spider, but rather because he's a love interest in a romance book and therefore has the behaviours typical of his kind.
I do have to note that I absolutely imagined that spider from Bug's Life every time the queen was mentioned, which made the book infinitely more enjoyable.
I just don't understand how Ketahn could resist her
I'm not even going to pretend like I didn't love this book. It has the slow burn, it has Avatar vibes, it has world building, it has it's own made up language, it has all the best parts of a sci-fi/fantasy romance. Okay yeah, the main dude is a spider man hybrid, but like, he's nice...
