Key to the Dead Fall by Susan Trombley [Review]

Key to the Dead Fall (Into the Dead Fall #2) by Susan Trombley
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: July 27, 2018

Into the Dead Fall
1. Into the Dead Fall
2. Key to the Dead Fall - Kindle
3. Minotaur's Curse
4. Chimera's Gift
5. Veraza's Choice

Susan Trombley
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

A fated mate she doesn’t want.

An enigmatic alien she shouldn’t want.

Finding your way in the Dead Fall isn’t easy, but it’s nothing compared to figuring out what your heart truly desires.

Evie managed to survive for months in the strange parallel dimension where she was dropped after accidentally activating a portal in her father’s shed. The Dead Fall doesn’t treat survivors kindly, as Evie discovers when she’s captured by alien creatures and taken to the settlement of Omni to be put on display in a bar.

When a gray alien appears in the bar to rescue her, she wonders at first if she hasn’t gone straight from the frying pan into the fire. Yet, the alien she nicknames Gray proves to be friendly, if a bit too determined to see her meet some destined mate she’s not interested in finding.

Gray tells her she must seek her own destiny, but she can’t help thinking she’s already found it, despite what he says. After all, her knight in shining armor has come to rescue her, and if he just so happens to have a flying saucer instead of a white horse, that’s okay with her.

Doshakeren is a hero. A legend. They sing epic songs about the warrior among his kin. When his most trusted advisor betrays him and locks him away with a strange artifact that casts him into another realm, he faces challenges beyond anything he’d ever faced before—the biggest being his fascination with the human female who makes him have forbidden thoughts that would see him outcast from his nest.

Evie must choose her own destiny, but nothing will be easy for her, least of all the Dead Fall itself, because the Nexus is watching. And waiting.

Author’s Note: 18+ Violence and explicit sex scenes. This is a MFM romance with ménage. These alien heroes are very alien and have mating habits that might not be for everyone.

Thoughts on Key to the Dead Fall: I make no secret of my love for human/alien romances. I've been devouring them lately and...I think I might sort of love these EXTREMELY non-human aliens. I mean, Evie's sister ended up with two aliens with four arms each and she's very happy. Evie found her happy place with an alien gray (who's mostly humanoid) and...Doshak. Let's just say Doshak has some very interesting differences and leave it at that. Because, you know, it's more fun to find out on your own sometimes.

REALLY.

Physical differences aside, the sisters' aliens also have different societal backgrounds from them (and each other). Gray's people don't reproduce in the most traditional sense, so he's open to a whole bunch of new ideas when it comes to relationships once he gets over the shock that he CAN reproduce like a human. Doshak's people don't form pair-bonds like humans do so he's completely comfortable sharing Evie. Whereas, Evie take a while to come around to the fact that she loves two very different men. (Not as long as Alice took to come around, but it still takes her a while to wrap her head around what she wants.)

Not going to lie, I pretty much loved all the interactions between all the characters as they worked through their issues. The Dead Fall is a nasty, dangerous place and it's the last place any of them think they're going to find their other half, but there they are. Falling in love. Sexing each other up. Getting kidnapped.

Oh, did I mention things are a little unsettled since Gray stepped in to save Evie? Yeah. They are. Not just for the inhabitants of the Dead Fall, either. The Nexus is all tangled up and it has ideas aren't necessarily going to end well for Evie and her dudes.

I just...REALLY like this series. It's gloriously post-apocalyptic and alien and it works so hard for me. While the sisters have their stories tied up in the most basic sense, there still feels like there's a lot more we could learn about this dark, dangerous world that's holding on by a thread. Flat out, if more of these books are written, I'll read them.