Alien Ascension

The Alien Series, Book 3

By: Tracy Lauren

Narrated by: Noelle Bridges, Mason Lloyd

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Vivian: I'm the last person who should have ever been abducted by aliens. For me, this new life is a death sentence. I'm no hero like the other women I was abducted with. No, I'm a coward. They'll do whatever it takes to help each other, and I'll simply do whatever it takes to survive, no matter what the cost. But there's one alien who refuses to accept my outlook on life. As a matter of fact, he's determined to change my mind.

Dax: I know I am the only male who will be able to pull Vivian from the darkness consuming her. Finding an opportunity, I decide to steal her away from the others, if only for a short while. What she needs is adventure, a little fun and excitement to remind her of all the beauty there is in life. I try to tell myself this is all just a game to lift the human's spirits, but deep in my core I know my feelings for Vivian will change me forever.

Dax and Vivian begin their journey with an innocent enough adventure, but just as they start to find love in one another, an evil crime lord rips the pair apart. Without Dax to light her way, Vivian plunges back into darkness. Her alien mate's life hangs in the balance and she is forced to fight for both his survival and her own.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Tracy Lauren (P)2019 Tantor

best buy ever

This has it all twists that you don't see coming. comedy that made me laugh so hard I sprayed my coffee every where and hot sex! this series rocks! cant wait for the next one!

Sweet story with a dark twist

This is the third book in The Alien series that I've listened to and I have to say that the writing improves with each book. I was excited to read about Dax's and Vivien's adventures, especially since Dax is such a likeable character. It was good to see Vivien's growth from being a crying mess into a strong woman.

The story started with some fun adventures, but it took a dark turn about 2/3s of the way in. It does end happily ever after, but the path there was tough. I am glad that I listened to this book, but I'm not sure that I would have started it if I'd known how disturbing parts of it would be.

So be aware that there is a lot of violence toward the end. I don't want to give any spoilers, but you should know that a woman is punched in the face repeatedly, beaten up, threatened with rape, put through painful procedures, emotionally and mentally manipulated, and has her bodily autonomy removed for a time. The more disturbing parts brought me to tears.

Noelle Bridges does an excellent job with the narration. Mason Lloyd is also good, although not as strong as Ms. Bridges.

To sum up, this is a well-written story that is mostly fun and light. Just be aware that it takes a pretty dark turn before the happy ending arrives.

Meek to Sleek

I love watching her grow from a timid wallflower to what grows into! Also, reminds us what true love should be like.

Laughing Out Loud - This is so fun

UPDATE: Finished it and while it didn't go off the rails it did get pretty serious and ends a bit abruptly. Lots of loose ends, but no cliffhanger with the HEA couple.

original review:
I'm laughing so much and enjoying Mason Lloyd's voice acting of Dax. It is clear he loved voicing this character and really brought him to life.

I'm actually only on chapter 15 and just loving this book. It was well written and easily on of my favorite narrations so far. I think the only thing that could make it better would be it this was in a duet style so the characters would've been even more tit-for-tat.

just loving it and highly recommend. Unless this really goes off the rails, it will be one of my top favorite Audible books!

Series gets better and better!!

Love the character development and story. It doesn’t feel cobbled together after the fact. Also having other character’s perspectives was very effective in taking a step back and looking at the female protagonist’s evolution.

Pretty Good

This book made me laugh out loud throughout the story; Mason has a comedian demeanor and was hilarious with his thoughts. The storyline offered action, romance, comedy, and intrigue. Narrators were great.

Wow, it’s action packed

This story just keeps moving. It was a fun listen and there were some dangerous parts. I felt nervous for V on several occasions. Overall, V and Dax are a great couple. I think I liked this story even more than the first book which is the only other I read so far.

So much better than the first novel

I was so surprised I enjoyed this book as much as I did. In the first hour, I just wanted to chuck my phone away! Vivian was such an annoying little baby! And, Dax.... we all need a Dax in our lives. As the relationship developed, we finally got the budding of first their friendship and then romance. The banter and the arguments had me laughing out loud in the middle of the family as they looked at me like I'm crazy. But hey, they should know better by now!
The transformation of Vivian to V was pretty badass. The narration was great as usual but I had difficulty discerning different male characters with the male narrator. Still trying to figure out what that crime lord has in store for V but I guess it is a story for another novel. Excellent work, Tracy Lauren!

Finding inner strength!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Romance: 💚🖤💙❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌎
Character development: 🤓🙂😎😕😍

The heroine: Vivian - she is a self proclaimed coward and cry-baby. After being abducted by aliens, bought by gargoyle like aliens who save them from sex slavery, then crash landing the cargo ship onto an alien planet, she sees nothing but danger every where she looks. She is afraid for her future and the huge gargoyle guys make her afraid as well despite the fact that they have treated the women very well.

The Hero: Dax - he is one of the gargoyle-like aliens that rescues the human women from slavery. He has worked for the UPC (military for the United Planets) and most recently for his friend Rennek who’s family is very wealthy. They run a cargo ship gathering flora and fauna from different worlds to terraform new planets. They buy some of the cargo from a shady dealer and find that human women are among the cargo, so they buy as many as they can afford and inform the UPC of the dealer who is illegally capturing and selling the human women (who look like the goddesses that they worship).

The Story: After their ship crashes on an alien planet, the crew and the women are getting along well. Though Dax sees that Vivian isn’t doing well and seems to sink deeper into depression every day. He thinks that the others are not helping by catering to her. He thinks that he can bring her out of it if he sneaks her away and gives her an adventure where she will be forced to be brave and she will gain confidence and end up enjoying everything life has to offer.

The book is told in dual points of view via dual narration. The narration is done by Mason Lloyd and Noelle Bridges who do a great job. I like Noelle Bridges as she is able to portray emotion through her voice and she also has a very different and deeper voice that she uses for the males. Mason Lloyd is terrific at alien romance. He speaks in a stilted voice that works wonderfully for alien males who have a different language so are heard by the female through a translator.

Although Vivian was exceedingly annoying at the start of this book, I liked how Dax brings her out of her shell and forces her to ‘man up’ so to speak. His plan definitely works and they travel over the planet they crashed on to find the escape pod, they travel through space, landing first on another planet where they meet the natives and then to a space station and more.

I love the ‘odyssey’ like travels in a story like this. This is a longer book for an alien romance and though Vivian is still afraid at points throughout the story, she does eventually become the strong character Dax knew she could be and the way she does that is exciting.

Characters

I liked that V found herself and wants to do good. That they would able to get free.