2023 SF/romance, third of a trilogy. Lexi Bowen, professional thief,
fell for human-adjacent hottie Nilo Shoren, but he dumped her and
stole her job. But why does he have to be so nice?
This is unusual for a female-focused romance story, because the
problems standing in the way of the happy ending are basically all
Lexi's. She has trust issues, and commitment issues; he sits there and
puts up with her, giving good advice which she ignores because she's
Strong and Independent, and occasionally sighing wistfully.
It still just about works, because Mihalik's writing is always
enjoyable and because as in previous books there's action as well as
romance. But the weight of this book is more on the relationship side
than previous volumes were, and I found Lexi sufficiently
unsympathetic that I was unsatisfied overall. (Also, perhaps there are
only so many variations to be wrung of out "female ex-military
ne'er-do-well hooks up with honour-bound male human-like alien" in
this particular universe, and we've read two of these incidents before
as main plots and more in the background.) Some of the side characters
seemed more interesting than the principals.
I will seek out more of Mihalik's work because the bones remain good,
but this was a slightly disappointing example of it.