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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Alienated by Melissa Landers

Alienated (Alienated, #1)
I first saw this book while I was browsing the shelves of Barnes and Noble and ultimately I didn't buy it because I wasn't sure if I would like it. So instead I checked it out from the library I work at and read it. Boy am I regretting not buying it! When I first started the book I immediately connected with Cara. She's a very realistic representation of a seventeen year old valedictorian in high school.Most importantly I liked how she and Aelyx don't fall in love right away. The book is more than half way over before they get together. So they start out with a tentative friendship and it evolves. I am so very excited for the sequel to come out so I can read it but unfortunately I have to wait until February 2015.

The book starts out with Cara meeting with her school principal and finds out that she has been selected to be apart of the L'eihr Exchange Program that she never signed up for. Cara is a little freaked out because when she expressed an interest in a foreign exchange program she didn't think a different solar system was an option. But valedictorian Cara steps up to the plate and goes through with the exchange program because when the L'eihrs made contact with Earth a few years ago they brought with them a plant that cured cancer and essentially saved her mother's life. Her parents are ecstatic at the prospect of hosting a L'eihr exchange student name Aelyx (pronounced as A-licks not Alex). They are also dealing with the reality of Cara's brother, a marine, going to the planet of L'eihr and being the first human there. Cara in true overachiever fashion emails the L'eihr in charge of the program to make Aelyx as welcomed as possible on Earth.

Meanwhile Aelyx and the two other L'eihrs in the exchange program are not as happy to be traveling to such a primitive planet and being around humans. L'eirhs have used science to breed superior beings who have risen above the need for emotions and violence. Aelyx and his generation and younger are even more special then the specifically breed L'eihrs, they are clones of L'eirhs that lived hundreds of years ago during the hay day of their planets advancement. So they have this extremely elitist attitude and have come up with a plan to ruin the exchange program and not "swap genetic material with the humans". He and Cara meet in Washington DC in the midst of a protest from people who want the aliens to return home and leave Earth because they are not willing to share the planet. In DC the humans and L'eihrs meet at a fancy party and Cara (a born and breed Midwesterner) is uncomfortable in the dress and garments her mother bought her. So her first interaction with her L'eirh exchange student Aelyx is when she accidently moons him trying to adjust herself so she can be comfortable in her clothes. Needless to say Cara is mortified and Aelyx only confirms his beliefs that humans are nothing more than apes.

Cara tries hard to include Aelyx into her social life and make friends with him and it eventually costs her her boyfriend and closest friend. Aelyx slowly realizes his misconceptions about humans and humanity is wrong and that the humans do have something to offer the L'eihrs as he slowly develops feelings for Cara whom he gives a L'eihr pet name to. While this is going on Aelyx has to convince his fellow L'eihr students to abandon their plan when he discovers that the Earth is in danger and will not be able to support life in ten years time and that the L'eirhs will fix this problem if the exchange program works because they need something from the humans. Since human and L'eihr DNA is almost identical the L'eihr ruling counsel wants humans and L'eihr to "swap genetic material" and breed the emotions and passion the L'eihrs have bred out of the current population in order to return them to the height of their society.

Over all I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to me that this book was not an offender of the DPS (Disappearing Parent Syndrome) so many YA books are guilty of these days. Cara's parents play an important role in the story as they are slowly ostracized by their community for their willingness to accept an alien into their home and lives and support the L'eihrs coming to Earth and even of the relationship Cara and Aelyx develop to a point. No father really likes anyone their daughter dates. There are some strong parallels between this book and the themes in the CW show Star-Crossed but they are two different stories in a similar genera. It was actually this book that led me to watch Star-Crossed. The author Melissa Landers had posted something about the show on her website so that's how I discovered this totally BA show that I will review here soon.


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