The most overused plot in science fiction romance is a woman who was abducted by aliens is rescued by an alien warlord. She has something that he needs, be it a special power or maybe just the ability to have babies. Thanemonger is all of that (although her special power is a cool one), but the addition of the family dynamic - plus good writing - makes this book worth reading.

Note: this book is in the romance genre with a science fiction setting, as opposed to a science fiction story with romantic elements. Also, it has a "happy for now" ending, and there is sex.

Let's face it, a lot of romance, especially sub-genre romance, reuses a few plots over and over again. Scottish laird romances are all the same damn plot. Not that I don't keep reading them. I was a bit disappointed when I found that Thanemonger was that same plot. However, right from the very beginning, there are relationships besides just the two love interests lusting after each other. A lot of the characters are really well-developed. I would absolutely read a book with any of the sub-characters as the love interest. The captain of the female love interest's guard? Oh, yeah, I bet he would be great! The love interests had chemistry, and the friendships and family relationships all had depth.

As far as the science fiction goes, it was okay, although there was the standard renaming of things that we have on Earth to make them seem more futuristic. I call this the "space cat" phenomenon, and there were even references to something that basically was a space tiger or something. There was at least an okay sense of place, but I didn't feel like it was all that well developed, both in that the political and social system didn't seem to have a lot of depth and that I felt that there could have been more descriptions of locations (like was it cold on the ship? she should have reacted to air quality changes on the ship, etc.).

I'm not going to cover a lot of the plot, as it was pretty standard, although the way that it was resolved at the end seemed really weak. I just can't believe for a second that anyone would buy that. On the flip side, the idea that other women could have been kidnapped and that the "team" should help them, which seems to be the premise for the series, seems like a good one. In fact, it seems so good that I'm kind of upset that there are only two books in this series.

So, who would like this book? I think that if you like SF romance, as long as you aren't sick of the abducted human woman plotline, this book will probably work for you. I will definitely read the next one and also will check out other books by Bex McLynn... or I would if she seemed to still be writing. Her Facebook account stopped in 2022, and no one seems to have heard much from her. Disappointing!