Review of Euphoria

 BOOK TITLE: Euphoria

AUTHOR: Jayne Lockwood

DESCRIPTION OF BOOK COVER: A pale blue face with red eyes, below a city with a galaxy above it.

GENRE: Science Fiction/Romance

PAGES: 310

BLURB:

It might take the arrival of an alien being to remind an isolated man what it means to be human.

With a stressful job, his boss breathing down his neck for profitable results, and an estranged wife and daughter, scientist Kurt Lomax doesn’t think life can get much harder. Until a nonbinary extraterrestrial with an otherworldly beauty, captivating elegance, and a wicked sense of humor inconveniently shows up at his apartment.

Vardam watched the destruction of their own world, and they don’t want to see the same thing happen on Earth. They are lonely, and feelings soon develop between them and the supposedly straight scientist—feelings Kurt reciprocates, much to his confusion.

The arrival of cheery interpreter Tom Soames—whose Goth appearance belies a gentle heart—is like a ray of sunshine in the somber lab. He acts as matchmaker for man and tentacled extraterrestrial, unwittingly instigating a national crisis when the news breaks out.

But will a misunderstanding ruin Kurt and Vardam’s chances for happiness together—along with the hope for peace between humanity and the Var?

# OF STARS:4ish...

***

This was a seriously weird read.

First off, CW and TW:

M/M romance

M/Alien romance

MPREG (male pregnancy)

Depiction of suicide attempt (2x)

Mention and small discussions of drugs, addiction, alcohol, and abuse.

 

Ok, I hoped that would straighten my thoughts out a little, but it did not.

 Seriously weird read.

 So this book has the following:

-Alien. A nonbinary alien which was seriously cool. Consistent use of  they/them and the alien of course is quite puzzled by the concept of male/female.

-End of the planet earth via super virus (hitting a wee close to home for Covid-19, but that was probably the point)

-Time travel

 Did I mention male pregnancy? yeah.

 I honestly didn't know what to make of this book, so let's break down the genres. (maybe that will help)

Billed as a science fiction/romance, it's more of a romance/science fiction since a lot of the tropes of a romance are there and the science fiction is a lot lighter. Yes there is an alien as a main character, yes there is time travel and yes there are things like high end medicine, high levels of technology, etc. But all of that is to serve the purpose of bring Var (Alient) to meet Dr. Kurt (cold scientist) together so that Kurt can learn how to not be a cold jerk. So more of a romance honestly. And quite graphic at parts, which I guess is another CW since it's male on alien romance that is very graphically depicted. Fair warning.

The science itself likely has holes in it, but I don't know enough about that type of medical science to say. The Vardam are described as being very advanced, but very peaceful, and can do tardigrade (water bear) level things like sealing themselves up so they can travel through space like seedpods. Their, er, bodily fluids(?) have some amazing properties such as instant healing of even near death wounds, impregnating others (whoops!) and it's hinted that they can do things like make people more impervious to pain as well as being able to protect people from high falls and fire. That's a lot for a race that is peaceful!

The romance tropes were pretty normal throughout until the MPREG part. Then it got to the point where I was frowning pretty heavily from a 'humans don't act like that' sort of way. Primarily, Kurt and Var, er, get it on and Var has no clue (at first) that they have impregnated Kurt. For his part, Kurt is understandably freaked and this is the final straw on the back of a pile of other bad things that have rained on his head of late. So he tries (CW) to kill himself.

Twice.

Then, somehow or other, even after trying to off himself twice in different ways, he seems to come to accept the whole thing and becomes a kinder, gentler man (mostly).

Yeesh. 

I don't like it when characters suddenly do a 180. This is a guy who, for 80% of the book before, got freaked out by the smell of old books and dust, let alone something as totally out of control as being impregnated and having to have a caesarean. And did I mention gestation only takes 10 days? Not a lot of time to adjust!

But that was kind of the problem for the last 20% of the book or so. There were a few climaxes, but it all felt kind of unsettled like the author was trying to just get everything wrapped up, but didn't quite know how. Bad guy blows up, baby is born safe (the baby is cute I'm sure and I kinda want one, ha ha), and the Earth is informed that the Var can help them in return for sanctuary and I guess people just kind of .... accept that, since the epilogue shows the effects of Vardam going back in time and stopping the virus from wiping out humanity and the var/human hybrids are just a part of society. Sweet moment, but still a bit too pat. 

(Although it did leave me thinking about what a society of people who are very Self oriented would do when trying to work with a society of aliens who are not at all Self. I think it would have been a lot more chaotic than the author gave time to describe, to be honest. And interesting.)

I think that's why I'm struggling with this book. (Yay if you're still with me!) 

The concepts were there - the Var are an interesting race, the idea of a virus that wipes out all warm blooded mammals coming about as a result of a vaccine meant to kill other diseases (overdone, but ok, fine), and I do enjoy romances that aren't the traditional hetero once in a while. The other characters - Tom, Nic, Troy, Rashad, they're all good. (Tom is really really good and I want to hug him. To be quite honest, he's as much a main character as Dr. Kurt. Certainly he's more likeable). 

But there was just too much trope and not enough exploration. I think a couple of fixes could have included Kurt not trying to off himself (or only trying once and then coming to terms with what's happening. Trying twice is going to be hard to just shrug off) and somehow having more with humans coming to terms with aliens that are, at the bottom, very very different from them. I'm not sure how, but the ending felt too sugary without some exploration of the Self society vs All society. 

So I gave it a 4(ish). I enjoyed reading most of it (certainly read it in two days despite work), I liked many of the characters and the Var are a cool species. But it's very weird, a lot of it is too pat, and I'm sure some of the science is wrong.

Will you like it? If you have no problem with MM romance, MPreg doesn't bother you, you want to read a really good depiction of non-binary character (and I guess a Pan character as it turns out), you want a fairly different sort of alien, and you like romance with some sci-fi, you'll probably enjoy it. You will probably think it's weird, but you may enjoy it. Tom and Var are both really cool characters. There was also a side character with Down's syndrome! Serious representation in this book.

Will you dislike it? If romance makes you go bleah, you're uncomfortable with discussions of LGBT relationships, depictions of mpreg, or you want your science to be fully factual and you don't like endings that are too wrapped up in a bow, and you cannot force yourself to do a lot of belief suspension, this is not the book for you. And this is definitely an 18+ book.

Very weird.

***

In other news, I will be doing the final edits and fixes on The Glass Slipper Conspiracy on Thursday and then preorders should be starting up either April 2 or April 3. I have a pushy toddler. Then I'm hoping for a release date of April 10. Hurray! I'll post the links to that when everything is up and going.