A review by raven168
Choosing Riley by S.E. Smith
3.0
This book was quite entertaining for a while with what Riley's personality is like. She is so out there that at times you just couldn't help but laugh. But after some time, I grew tired of it and just wanted her to grow up. Seriously, enough is enough and she just kind of got annoying with how hard of a time she always gave Vox. Poor, poor Vox having to have her as his mate...
Riley's life has never really been all that fantastic. Her and her sister having been abandoned by their mother were raised by their grandmother. Clearly not the best influence because Riley is mouthy, selfish, and mean a lot of the time. One thing that Riley has decided from seeing what she has as she grew up, is that she will not be with a man without a ring and no child without marriage. Oh, and one thing that surprised me was how old Riley was. From what we had gotten from her in Carmen's book, I had really thought she was a quite a bit older than just 24.
Riley's life takes another turn for the worst after she finds out the horrible things her boss and his father have been doing. Fleeing with evidence to use against them, one thing after another goes wrong until she finds herself abducted by alien traders and sold to an Antrox mine. They use females in order to control the males and when it's Riley's turn to pick one, she picks all five presented to her. Including Vox. I don't get why the Antrox pretty much bend over backwards for her and allow her to get and do what she wants. Yeah, she beat one of them up or whatever, but seriously? There are a lot more of them and they have weapons. How is she that hard to control? Take away her damn suitcase or purse and you could probably cow her. Vox immediately recognizes her as his mate and he cannot understand why she does and says the things she does to him. And only making it worse is the four other "mates" she had taken in order to save all of them. During their time on the mine, Riley is constantly torturing our Sarafin king without even realizing it. And his two subordinates can't help but want her too. It soon becomes apparent that Riley is not like any other female they have encountered before and because of that they start planning their escape. Of course that doesn't go as planned, but they still get away because of some button smashing Riley does without thinking. But again, things just keep going wrong and they soon find themselves under attack. Que Creon. I remember that part of Carmen's book when they show up to save Vox. I was definitely curious to find out more about this couple then. While aboard the Horizon, Carmen tries to explain to Vox that human women don't usually react well to the warriors claiming them like they do and that he needs to give Riley space. And she tries to tell Riley that it's actually not bad to belong to them. They don't stay too long because Vox has his own traitors to weed out, and Riley is dragged along quite unwillingly. Where she continues to fight Vox left and right even after he tells her how much he loves her, and she knows she loves him. Mostly because he refuses to give her a marriage. Well maybe if she told him what it was he would have said yes! Ugh. This was another book where so much drama was created because the girl wouldn't explain anything and would rather lash out. When they eventually get to his palace, things are still rocky and Riley even attacks Vox's father. But then we jump ahead two months and Riley has finally calmed down and accepted her life. Umm...what happened during that time skip that finally had her calming the fuck down? Is it simply because Vox asked her to marry him after she finally explained what it was? Is it something Vox's mother said to her? Even Vox's father did a 180 on his opinion of her. It seemed that a lot of the book was full of fluff so that when it got to more important things, it was all rushed or skipped to make it fit at the end. Which is unfortunate because I liked Riley more then.
It was kind of sad that Vox is supposed to be a feared and powerful alpha male, but more often than not he was whipped by Riley. He's still all alpha, but Riley has too much control in the relationship sometimes. And she was always causing him to lose face in front of his men, which could be a disastrous thing for a king. Plus, I didn't think it fair all of the mean things she would say or do to him all the time.
One thing that kind of disappointed me was the whole shifting thing. I was hoping it would be simply where the warriors could shift. Not that it was going to be the same as the Valdier where it's a separate entity within them. And that the mate could be changed in much the same way. Except with the Sarafin there could be some serious repercussions with what they do, which, by the way, we never even find out.
Riley's life has never really been all that fantastic. Her and her sister having been abandoned by their mother were raised by their grandmother. Clearly not the best influence because Riley is mouthy, selfish, and mean a lot of the time. One thing that Riley has decided from seeing what she has as she grew up, is that she will not be with a man without a ring and no child without marriage. Oh, and one thing that surprised me was how old Riley was. From what we had gotten from her in Carmen's book, I had really thought she was a quite a bit older than just 24.
Riley's life takes another turn for the worst after she finds out the horrible things her boss and his father have been doing. Fleeing with evidence to use against them, one thing after another goes wrong until she finds herself abducted by alien traders and sold to an Antrox mine. They use females in order to control the males and when it's Riley's turn to pick one, she picks all five presented to her. Including Vox. I don't get why the Antrox pretty much bend over backwards for her and allow her to get and do what she wants. Yeah, she beat one of them up or whatever, but seriously? There are a lot more of them and they have weapons. How is she that hard to control? Take away her damn suitcase or purse and you could probably cow her. Vox immediately recognizes her as his mate and he cannot understand why she does and says the things she does to him. And only making it worse is the four other "mates" she had taken in order to save all of them. During their time on the mine, Riley is constantly torturing our Sarafin king without even realizing it. And his two subordinates can't help but want her too.
Spoiler
One thing that make my jaw drop every time in a "I can't believe they said that" kind of way was when they talk of drinking her milk. Yeah, I get that their cats...but that's just...not...right...It was kind of sad that Vox is supposed to be a feared and powerful alpha male, but more often than not he was whipped by Riley. He's still all alpha, but Riley has too much control in the relationship sometimes. And she was always causing him to lose face in front of his men, which could be a disastrous thing for a king. Plus, I didn't think it fair all of the mean things she would say or do to him all the time.
One thing that kind of disappointed me was the whole shifting thing. I was hoping it would be simply where the warriors could shift. Not that it was going to be the same as the Valdier where it's a separate entity within them. And that the mate could be changed in much the same way. Except with the Sarafin there could be some serious repercussions with what they do, which, by the way, we never even find out.