Yes, another alien abduction romance. Choosing Theo is pretty good, despite all the tropes and the occasional element that makes no sense. Of course, the most important part is the romance, and that definitely works.

The characters in this book are here in service to the plot, and I don't feel like they have a lot of depth beyond that. However, the main love interests are pretty good and certainly are interesting enough. Also, this is one of those books where a bunch of the side characters become love interests later, which means that there are male characters popping up occasionally who come with their own plot hooks.

When you set up an alien abduction romance plot, you need to figure out why the woman was abducted. In this book, as in many others, it is because mostly boys are born on this planet, and the population is too low. Despite having amazing medical technology, they can't figure out why there aren't more girls born. They also can _only_ make babies with sex, and no tech solutions work. None. Now, honestly, I find this hard to believe, but there has to be a plot reason why the planet needs women, so I have to accept it.

Of course, there are social consequences for this problem. Women are super special, which means that being able to be with one is a huge deal. As I've seen in other "not enough women" alien abduction stories, there seems to be no homosexuality to make up for this, unlike in historical men-only societies on Earth, which is supposed to have people who are so similar that they can breed with the aliens but not so similar that IVF would work and not so similar that they take care of sexual needs in similar ways, I guess. Anyway. The social consequences also make the women on this planet look bitchy, which makes our human heroine especially appealing. And the reasons that the female characters give for their choices, which are supposed to be to save the population from collapsing, somehow aren't important enough for Theo, the male love interest, to encourage our heroine to follow them.

So, that's all kind of meh. However, if you are willing to suspend disbelief, you can ignore all of this and then the setting pretty much works. There are explanations for why things are the way they are, which is probably enough.

The plot makes sense too. Is it totally unique? Nope! There is a big trope that the second I read about it was obviously going to be how the book resolves itself. However, I liked how the abduction was handled in this book, as well as the imprisonment part. They were short but gave a real feeling of menace, as well as some plot hints.

In the last alien abduction romance I read, the author focused a bit too much on the other plot and not enough on the romance. I think the author in Choosing Theo could have gone a bit too far in the romance direction, but I think it hurt the story much less than in that other book. In this one, the main character was abducted and escapes her abductors. However, there is very little threat for the majority of the book. She is left alone? No problem! No evil abductors show up. One wall of the house is glass? That's fine! No one spies on her. There's a protective pet? Nope, it doesn't notice any sneaky strangers outside! While I felt like a lot of opportunities were missed to increase the tension in the story, the main plot was about whether or not the love interests could really love each other, and every time there was a misunderstanding, I cried. While I was confused about what happened to the other plotline, I was completely invested in the romance plot.

As for the romance, it was really good. Theo was a bit too much of an alpha male for me, but I could still appreciate the romance. I feel like the characters were attracted to each other in a believable and compelling way (hence all the crying). Jade, while different from me, was thoughtful and determined enough to make her enjoyable to read about, and she had to work to get Theo. I mean, yes, he clearly has strong feelings for her, but she is the one who really has to make a serious effort to get what she wants. The sexy scenes have enough plot in them to make them of use to the story, in addition to being hot.

So, will I read the next book in spite of all my complaining? Yes. The end of this book isn't exactly a cliffhanger, but it definitely sets up the next book. I'm very interested. Ultimately, it is a romance, and the romance is done well.

Should you read it? I guess the question is: how much does the scifi matter to you? If you are there for fantastic worldbuilding... well, you are probably looking in the wrong genre. However, let's say you are there for worldbuilding. This book like the whole alien abduction romance genre relies on settings that are a bit improbable to justify needing human women (and why the human woman are better than the alien women). If you are willing to accept the setting, you should be set. The romance is good, and I'm really looking forward to reading the next book for just that reason.