Review: Claimed by the Warrior by Savannah Stuart

Claimed by the Warrior
(Lumineta, #3)
By: Savannah Stuart
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Sept. 10, 2015
Genre: Sci-Fi Erotic Romance
Rating:

Held captive against her will…

When Leilani travels to the mountain region of her new planet, Lumineta, she discovers the remote mountain clan has a law stating that any unmated female in their sector can be forced to live there for one moon cycle. At first she’s livid—until she realizes that being held captive means that the warriors bring her gifts and simply try to impress her as part of their courting rituals. But she’s not interested in anyone except the sexy leader—and living under his roof makes her feel nothing like a captive. He has her rethinking everything she thought she knew about Luminet males.

The last thing he needs in his life is a complicated human female…

Con has never thought much about taking a mate. As leader of his clan, he’s too busy and females are too complicated—especially those mysterious humans. But the longer he’s around Leilani, the more he realizes she’s worth fighting for. Despite his planet’s tradition that says two males mate with one female, he has no intention of sharing—or ever letting her go.

Leilani had no idea that the mountain region of Lumineta (the alien planet she lives on) had a law about un-mated females. So, when her friend/co-worker asks her to make the trip up the mountain to go over plans for housing and buildings in the area, she has no idea what she’s really heading into. You see, normally she’s able to wander around Lumineta on her own. However, when in Con’s mountain region, any un-mated female must stay on the mountain for a whole month while being courted by the males in the hopes that she will mate with one of them. So imagine her surprise when everything goes from totally fine to absolute chaos when the males realize that she is in fact NOT mated.

I’d like to start off this review by saying that I have not read the two previous books in the series. Since every book deals with a different group of characters, this one can be read as a stand-alone. I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t feel a teeny bit left out when previous characters were brought up. However, it wasn’t to the point to where I didn’t enjoy the story. Instead, it made me want to go back and read the previous books.

The one thing I like about this author is that she knows how to write a great story. I found myself really rooting for Con and Leilani from the beginning. Con is the leader of the people from the mountain sector. So, when Leilani is found out to be un-mated thus invoking some archaic law, Con takes it upon himself to house her during her extended stay to make sure she is well protected. However, he finds himself being drawn to Leilani and unknowingly courting her. Leilani was someone who started off not wanting to be mated to anyone but found herself gravitating towards Con. These two characters reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. You had this large surly man who would do sweet things for the female under his care. Meanwhile, you have this head-strong female who doesn’t easily back down from the guy who has “taken her hostage” and instead finds herself softening up to him over time.

My one and only complaint is that this wasn’t long enough. Which, I suppose is a good thing because it means I wanted more of the story. I just felt like some things were rushed in the story line and it could have benefited from another 50 pages. Not going to lie, I’d be totally a-okay with another 150 pages. I really enjoyed reading Leilani and Con’s story and wished I could be a fly on their wall a little bit longer.

There’s a part shortly after Leilani is forced to stay on the mountain where she’s chatting with another human woman who had recently mated. I’m assuming that her story was one of the previous ones. Anyways, while the two ladies are chatting, Con and her mates are talking business. All of a sudden one of her mates blurt out that their mate gave them “the signal” that she’d like them to come over for dinner so that she can talk some more with Leilani. I found this part amusing because The Mister and I have a signal when we are at a gathering and the other one is ready to leave but doesn’t want to outright say, “I’m done and I want to leave.”