I became a captive myself

I normally Netflix binge but after the first book, To hell with Netflix. I am a delivery Driver and after a long day behind the wheel I found myself pulling into me driveway and still sitting there listening. The characters, the plot, the actors ,the passion. the struggle. Hell all of it captivated me. I went looking for book five. She has got to give us book five .We demand it!!!!!One of the best Series on Audible. I was sad when Book 4 came to an end. Book 5 Book 5 We want Book 5!!!!!!!

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what the....

I don't need everything tied up in a bow, but there are too many questions left unfinished. What happened on the planet the daughter went to, and I really needed the closure of the really bad doctor's death. (I'm very vague so as to not ruin anything for others) The only reason why I'm writing this review is that it's such an amazing series. The last book was written in 2018, and I'm hoping there will be a few more books.

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Is it finished?

After listening to the whole series it felt unfinished. Lots of unanswered questions remained. The author includes a bit at the end promoting the next book but I did not find it anywhere. If you like your books to have closure....

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Very good stories all!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚🖤💙❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: ☹️🙃☺️🥰
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Solo Narration

The Captive:

Cassie and Khazaar - Khazaar is the head warlord of the Qua’Hathri, a humanoid alien race who came to Earth and free humans from the oppressive rule of the Sethari, an alien race who feed off human energy. The Qua’Hathri are a dying race and need females to breed, they ask for one volunteer female for each of their warriors that died in the war, which amounted to something like 140 women. Cassie is chosen by Khazaar to be his wife.

Cassie has some psychic powers which seem to grow once she is on the spaceship. She initially balks at being chosen by Khazaar, mostly because she and the other woman weren’t volunteers like they were supposed to be, but were forced into service. Khazaar tells her if she doesn’t want him, then he can get someone else easily enough and to go with the other women.

Soon after, Cassie figures out that she was in fact attracted to Khazaar and wants to be with him, but when one of his generals overthrows him with the help of the Sethari, he wants Cassie and keeps Khazaar and the rest of the women inprisoned. Cassie and Khazaar use their psychic abilities to meet and make a plan, which ends up with the ship crashing on Betania.

At this point, Cassie thinks she is the only survivor and is found in the wilderness by a man named Zeyliv who wants to use her for her abilities. He looks human but she soon finds he is very predatory and travels with big cats. Each of the men in the village has a spirit animal and he is the leader of the village, who leads with an iron fist.

This book was narrated by Stella Bloom via solo narration. She does a great job and is terrific at doing different voices for different characters and showing emotion through her voice. I liked the story for the most part, though it went to places I didn’t expect at all and so many of the aliens were likable but did things worthy of hate. That I didn’t quite know what to think, but it did get me thinking so that was good.

The Prey:

Mara and Johar - Mara is daughter to Dr. Ruthiel, who did the genetic experiments on Zeyliv and his people. She is a doctor in her own right and lives to make her father proud. Johar is a Cyborg and Mara hates Cyborgs, though she appreciates that Johar was well made and is an impressive member of his kind. Though half-humans as they are derogatorily called, are looked upon as not as good as humans or genetically enhanced humans.

Dr. Ruthiel tells Mara and Johar (who is the best bounty hunter in the galaxy) that they need to go after Cassie from The Captive whom they know is with Khazaar who may be dangerous since he is a Qua’Hathri. They want Cassie since she is pregnant with twins (on is Khazaar’s and one Zeyliv’s).

Mara is interested in making humans stronger so they are not seen throughout the galaxy as weak and easy marks, like they were when the Sethari conquered Earth Before the Qua’Hathri freed Earth in exchange for women. Mara thinks her father is working within legal guidelines, but she feels that something is wrong with the assignment her father gave her.

Mara is not very likable at the beginning of the book. She is definitely prejudiced against cyborgs and sees them less like people and more like robots. She is also a bit too eager to please her father and not too worried about what they are doing to human beings at the research center. She thinks all his experiments were done on people that volunteered for them in order to be released from prison and that those who escaped did so due to aggression issues that were a result of the experiments, not that they were mistreated in any way.

This book was also narrated via solo narration and narrated by Justine Eyre who is a veteran narrator and I like her style. She does a great job and this story was interesting. Mara and Johar pose as smugglers and lovers. There are a bunch of secrets that Mara is not aware of that come out in the telling of this one.

The Human:

Cat and Talon - Talon thought it beneath him to pick up his King’s bride, a human female won in an interstellar poker game. He was once a Kanthari warrior and the most experience fighter and he would rather be hunting space pirates. However, when he was asked by his king to analyze the kings battle strategies in the last campaign, Talon had told him the unvarnished truth about the tactics that cost hundreds of his soldiers lives, so the King demoted him to the King’s official bride collector and harem guard.

Cat had found out about the “Woman Poker” and had heard that the women were paid generously and offered a safe existence in the form of an alien husband such as the King of Kanthari, King Fethoris III. Cat couldn’t live on Earth anymore, there were too many dark memories, so rather than kill herself, she decided to change her life by volunteering to be the prize in the poker game.

This book was narrated by Angela Daw. This is the first time I have heard her narration. She is a good narrator, had terrific tempo and was able to show sarcasm and emotion in her voice. I didn’t like her voice though, for some reason. I think because her voice was kind of deep, though it wasn’t masculine at all.

Cat has a psychic gift, though she promised herself she wouldn’t ever use it again. Not after what happened last time. Though what happened in her past doesn’t come out right away in the story. When she meets Talon, she is afraid since he is so different than what she is used to, so big and predatory. She was afraid he was there to kill her and she thought he was the husband that won her.

Cat had grown up on Earth, never meeting her parents. Her adoptive parents had died when she went to the mind reading institute. Her brother Coran had disappeared when they were fifteen. She still wanted to find her brother, but had to escape the mind reading institute and saw the poker game as her way out. However, when they were on their way to the mother ship Solaris, they got a communication that it was under attack by Pirates and they wouldn’t make it on time, so they had to go back to Earth.

I get the whole thing about fated mates, but these two fell for each other way too fast and I didn’t enjoy the story at first as much as the first two in the series, but it got much better as it went on. The adventure/journey was good and I loved the fact that Shazul, from the first two books was in this one as well. He was a great character, very lovable.

The Dragon:

Chloe and Coran -Coran is twin brother to Cat from The Human and son to Cassie and Khazaar from The Captive. He half human/half Alien and is a spy and an elite soldier in the Black Squad. He is tasked with going to Dassuria and infiltrating the fighting ring owned by the barbaric Shor Dasquian, the dragon lord. Coran is like a sociopath, he doesn’t feel emotions, though had learned to fake his expressions by looking at others.

Chloe is a human female who, like the women in the previous books, has psychic abilities. She has an agreement with Dasquian, to manipulate the emotions of certain fighters so that Dasquian can bet on the sure winners and make bank, but like Coran, Chloe is really there for another purpose. She is trying to find and rescue her sister Isabelle who is Dasquian’s woman and is addicted to drugs.

When Chloe goes into the mind of Coran and tries to manipulate his thoughts, it doesn’t work and has walls in his mind that keep her from accessing his emotions. So Chloe gets in trouble with Dasquian after Coran wins the fight that she was supposed to sway him to lose. She knows that Dasquian will fire her and punish her sister for this.

This book was told in dual points of view via solo narration. I generally don’t pick books that have only solo narration, but this audiobook came with the first three books for one credit in audible. However, I really liked the fact that each book was narrated by a different narrator. D.C. Cole does a great job and has a pleasant voice. This was the first book in the series narrated by a man, which I like.

This book had a good story and adventure like the first four books, the only thing I disliked about this series was that they didn’t really have HEA’s. They weren’t bad endings, but things weren’t all roses and rainbows either. Though every once in a while I read a romance that doesn’t have a HEA and I am ok with it.

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not an hea yet

ok, had to think about this to put it in the correct light. 1st book, good characters. love them.
2nd book, still love the characters.
story is great and tragic.
3rd book... ho-hum
4th book picking up a little and almost got a little hea.
this book cliff hanger of a future potential hea. probably won't get it because I doubt I have it on me to get through another one

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How they are, all held together with strong women, even if they do get a little dinghy here and there with telepathic abilities

I’m a truck driver and I truly listen to every minute of this in two days… Make sure you get the collection it is well worth your credit not a lot of heat but that’s OK in these books, but they had a sweetness that you can’t help but you want to melt into…

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Series summary

I really liked this series but I have to disagree with the author for the end. I really feel that the series has more potential for wrapup and one more book. I really was hoping for that. Sorry but I like my happy ever after ending’s. I want to see the brother and sister meet & explore there potential as a team. I want to see them meet their parents. And what about the mad scientist? I guess we’re just supposed to assume that he gets his just desserts.

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5 people found this helpful

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE END

where is the rest of the story. bad ending. I hope there is another book to this. you left too much hanging.

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4 book series

The books were good to pass the time and had just enough action. As romance novels go it was good.

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Not your typical Science Fiction/Alien romance novel

I really loved reading and listening to the Betania Breed Series. From Cassie and Kharzar I really liked all of these stories none of them had a true happy ending but left the tale open to what are the possibilities. I’m going to go on to the next story from the author and truly look forward to seeing what happens with the family when they are reunited and back together again.

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