Review: Until Midnight + Invaded by Melissa Landers

Title: Until Midnight
Author: Melissa Landers
Series: Alienated 1.5
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Pages: 112
Format: E-Book
Received: IT IS FREE!
Published: December 23rd 2014 from Disney-Hyperion
Stars: 4/5

Book Description:


Don't miss the *free* romantic holiday story that connects ALIENATED and INVADED! Cara and Aelyx only have one day to spend together before he returns to earth and she travels to Aelyx's home planet, L'eihr. Homesick and worried about the upcoming year apart, Cara is desperate to make these final hours count. Worst of all, Cara is missing Christmas, stuck on board an alien spaceship. When Aelyx learns that Cara is forgoing her favorite holiday, he tries to recreate Christmas in space by researching traditional earth customs…but a few things get lost in translation. Coming December 23rd, this FREE short story will include multi-chapter excerpts of both ALIENATED and the sequel, INVADED.

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Review:
Until Midnight is a short holiday story that takes place in between Alienated and Invaded. Cara is away from home for Christmas and Aelyx takes it upon himself to recreate Christmas in space, despite having zero knowledge of the holiday. As you can imagine lots of hilarity ensues as the two try and spend the last of their time together. I read this in one sitting and absolutely fell in love with these characters all over again.

I loved Alienated! It was fun and exciting. Melissa Landers created characters who don't take them selves too seriously and they are really enjoyable to read. This short story was a great precursor to the next book and lightens the mood significantly before you start Invaded. The best part this novella was Aelyx's confusion about Christmas traditions. It was so sweet to see him try and recreate Cara's favorite holiday, but he completely failed at most of his christmas on L'ehir projects. Some of them were because of the availability of similar materials or his lack of knowledge on Cara's personal traditions, rather than the ones he found through an internet search.

This was just adorable and perfect for the holiday season, which is when I read it. I love Aelyx and Cara's relationship, they are such a cute couple. If you have not read Alienated yet then you totally should. It is such an enjoyable read, but you will feel the feels and definitely get hooked on their relationship. 

Title: Invaded 

Author: Melissa Landers

Series: Alienated #2

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Pages: 368

Format: E-ARC

Received: For Review From The Publisher (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!) 

Releases: February 3rd 2015 by Disney-Hyperion

Stars: 5/5

Book Description:

The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them. Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her. Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side. Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life. The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

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Review:

Invaded by Melissa Landers was one of my most anticipated 2015 releases. Alienated was one of my favorite 2014 releases. It was funny, fast paced, exciting, and full of romance. Cara and Aelyx are a great couple who started out from a love-hate relationship from them being from different planets. Alienated and Until Midnight both ended on a bit of cliff-hangers so I was so anxious to read it Invaded as soon as I got it in my hands. Once I started reading this, I couldn't put it down.

I love that this series is wonderfully entertaining. It has mystery, humor, and romance. You just get hooked and fly through it. Melissa Landers didn't disappoint for fans of Alienated and kept up the same level of awesomeness from book one with even more excitement. I wasn't sure how this book would go with the characters separated for a majority for the story but it really worked and I never felt like I wanted to skip through a character's POV because the other character was more interesting.

Invaded doesn't have that second book syndrome of here is this happy couple so let's throw a stupid conflict to make them break up. I think every problem Cara and Aelyx have is always realistic, yes he is an alien but their relationship isn't. This series is fantastic because it would work 100% without the science fiction elements. If Aelyx was just a foreign exchange student from another country I would still enjoy the story because I was emotionally invested in the characters. I cried when I read Alienated, I cried when I reread it, and I cried when I read Invaded.

I loved seeing more of L'eihr and more of those who lived there. Melissa Landers had done a lot of great world development through Aelyx in the last book but we finally got to fully experience the world.

For those of you who hate love triangles, Invaded is free of your dreaded triangles.

There is the possibility for a sequel but Invaded ended in a way that was resolute. I would be happy with this ending but I want more of these characters and this world. I know Melissa Landers has another YA science fiction novel coming out and you can bet that I will be reading it (and most likely loving it).

I highly recommend this series. If you are a fan of the Lux series, lover of paranormal romance (yes this is science fiction but feels like PNR), or missing the canceled CW TV show Star Crossed then you must check out Alienated, Until Midnight, and Invaded!

Have you read Alienated? What did you think of this series? Have you read Invaded? Are you holding out hope for book 3? Cause I am!