Alienated (Alienated #1)

Ok I officially join Ashley in the L'annabe, and screw HALO!

Well now that I said that :), I wanted to firstly point out how stunningly beautiful this cover is! Like seriously how can you not love it! & I know the say don't judge a book by it's cover but I so couldn't help it with this one. The covers what made me buy it. I am so glad I did to!

Besides the slow start I though Alienated was one of the best Aliens books I have read in YA! Aelyx had me *rolling on the floor* laughing so many times. His reactions on earth are amusing, and his research on human mating rituals, side-splitting! But then he uses some of his research on Cara and *swoon* that was so enchanting and passionate!

I loved the chemistry between Cara and Aelyx. They challenge eachother and teach one another. They start of "rocky", but as time passes and they learn more about eachother things change, and they become intrigued, and then before they knew it they realize they have fallen in love. They were in two words: Hella Cute!

One thing that really touched home for me was the *racism* aspect towards the L'eihrs's. If Aliens ever really become reality and a scenario like this happened I can see it playing out almost exactly the same. Our world may be past they hardcore racism days but it's still out there and exists. I know. My husband is half African American, making my children a quarter and it's sad I can say I have heard harsh comments.
Aelyx's words on Humans fearing the unknown is so true. Which is understandable, but another thing I think alot of people also suffer from is a lack of an opened mind. So many people are set in their ways, believe what they believe to the core, that nothing will change that. Open mindess is needed though, so you can fear the unknown but not be afraid enough to let it control you, so you'd want to understand it and see if it's something worth fearing or in fact be a *savior* in a way. If humans had more of and open mind in this book it could have totally played out differently.

Alienated by Melissa Landers turned out to be a spectacular story of romance, suspense, drama, comedy, and action. I can't wait to continue this out of this galaxy story, 2015 is WAY to far away!

If you are a fan of Aliens, Scifi, and romance that will put smile on your face then you defiantly need to pick up Alienated, now!! This book needs some more love!




Some favorite Quotes:


•?"Hasn't done anything wrong that you know of. Come on, Care. He's a total creeper and he's up to something. Besides, I don't like the way he looks at you."
"Huh?" Cara spun around with a belt in one hand and a skirt in the other. "How does he look at me?"
Tori raised a black brow. Then she made a circle with one hand and stuck her index finger through it in an X-rated puppet show. "Like he wants to dock his ship inside your spaceport." -Tori & Cara

•?"They keep pushing to read that unedited fan-fiction book with all the spanking. They know how I feel about it" - Eileen Sweeney (hahaha I had to mention this quote. I really could ever get myself to read it. It was just WAY to much!)

"It's chocolate. You'll love it."
"That's what you said about Skittles. I vomited a raindbow afterwards." -Cara & Aelyx

This review appears on Reviews of a Sixteen-Year-old. Check it out for reviews, writing and more! Nope, kidding. Just those two.

"What's this?" He brought the brown square to his nose.
"It smells musty."
"It's chocolate. You'll love it."
"That's what you said about Skittles. I vomited a rainbow afterward."
- Melissa Landers, Alienated

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for providing me with a copy of this book!

If it wasn't for the aliens, Alienated could have easily been a perfect contemporary novel. It's still light and sweet, but because of the alien aspect it makes it stand out. What it brought to my eye was a novel with great potential.

What the author has done to the typical alien genre is new and refreshing. She made everything very believable, like it just could happen right now. It has to be one of the most original ideas I've seen yet. An exchange program is very easy to write about. It has always been there as an idea, and most authors are looking for something way more spectacular than that. They forget about the simple things while others can create something very good out of it. Melissa Landers is one of those to have proven that it doesn't always have to be. I really appreciate the believability of Alienated. It really helped me to get into the world. Now that I've come to the world, and more specifically the L'eihr culture, I may be in love. I love their culture. It creates a difference between this book and others I've read because Landers wants to show you the similarities between them and us, when they're actually still foreign and have their own world. Their philosophy and gods are intriguing. I got a clear view on their world and habits without having to read too many details.

I can't picture this book only being told from Cara's of Aelyx' point of view. The fact that we get to see from both points of view did not only make me like Aelyx and understand him more, I understand both of their actions, even when the one of the two didn't. A crucial thing when it comes to points of view, is the clear difference between them. I can rest in peace when I say this was just well done. The point of view itself brought depth to the story, in the way of Aelyx' acclimatisation and the plans of the L'eihrs. It was nice to see something from that in the beginning and watching it play out throughout the book.

The characters themselves are lovely. Cara seemed to be that perfect little girl, which took me by surprise to find out that she's just a normal teenager. She blogs and has a hard time every now and then. Aelyx is stubborn and has many prejudices about eath and its population. He manages to beat Cara in every game and doesn't like chocolate. If it wasn't for the chocolate, I think he'd be on my list of fictional boyfriends. Despite my hate towards the HALO crew such as Eric and Tori, I managed to like them, maybe even understand their actions. It's stupid to deny it: I'd be pretty scared too if my best friend or boyfriend gets to hang out with a sexy alien. The role of Cara's parents are the icing on the cake. They're actually involved with Cara's life and have something to do with the story. They, like every other character, are believable and there when needed. Besides my love for the characters, I also got to appreciate the realistic development of Aelyx and Cara's relationship. They didn't immediately have an attraction or fell in love at first sight. It's normal they didn't. It's that kind of romance which totally fits in with the other contemporary romances. It's cute and makes you smile.

The resemblance between Alienated and a contemporary novel helped to lift the rather heavy topics, yet only a bit. The politics, HALO and protests are not these kind of things you'd want to read about. One time they were just there and there isn't really anything to do about them. This will happen if we would get invaded one day. In the end I was sick of everything us humans were doing. I want everyone to live happily ever after, not react the same way to aliens as we did in the sixties to the black population. On the other hand, it totally makes sense, but just because it makes sense doesn't mean I like to read about these kind of things. Also the predictability of the plot and the slower pace made it easy at times to put it down and go and do something else.

I was expecting a light and funny story. I was glad to have gotten that, with a surprising dark touch to it. The ending left me wanting more. With characters of whom I'd love to be inside their heard again, I will definitely be picking up the sequel.