Exile by Colleen Vanderlinden
on June 22, 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction
Pages: 185
Format: eBook
ASIN: B01HHFHD0U
Goodreads

Two races fight for what remains of a dying planet.
For generations, the Maarlai, an alien race who fled the destruction of their own home world, have lived silently, hidden, exiled on Earth. They watched, year by year, as humanity destroyed what was once a planet full of hope and promise.
Unable to idly watch as the planet dipped further into destruction, the Maarlai left their hidden villages and went to war with what was left of humanity. With the death of the last great human king, the Maarlai found themselves victorious and vowed to protect and restore the planet that had sheltered them for so long.
A treaty made, an alliance formed.
Shannen of House Lyon is a member of the last of the human royal families. While they bend knee to the Maarlai ruler, her people have not forgotten their former greatness, the years of bloodshed and horror... or the memory of their fallen king.
To ensure a lasting peace between their two peoples, Shannen and three other prominent human women are sent to the Maarlai capital. One of them will wed the future Maarlai king, cementing the peace between former enemies.
When Shannen finds herself married to the Maarlai warrior, she discovers a whole new world... and freedom unlike anything she could have imagined. When war threatens once again, she will need to decide where her loyalties truly lie.

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Karen’s Review

Exile by Colleen Vanderlinden has a very interesting premise. It is set in Earth’s future and it centers around an alien race that lived hidden on earth for many years until they rose up to conquer the humans. The reason for this is that the humans were destroying the earth.  So the aliens, the Maarlai, I suppose, are some kind of planet gurus. Hmmm…. Not so much. As the story moves along, I saw no planet revitalization implemented by the aliens. I will admit that unlike most books in this genre, Exile isn’t a brain-numbing sex-filled romp. This books actually has a plot, which is refreshing since most of this genre is filled with aliens banging the humans. Unfortunately, the execution of the story, where the characters are concerned, is muddled. Some characters’ personalities flip-flop during the story making the story very confusing.  I will give you an example: the character is King George, the dead leader of the humans. At one point he was a good guy, and then he is a war-mongering killer of innocents. Or was he a father looking out for his people and insuring his daughter was able to take the throne?  I don’t know which one of these personalities shows me who King George was as a person, because they do contradict each other.  Unfortunately, King George isn’t the only character with a multiple personality disorder.

 <<< This capital ‘a’ appears in error throughout the middle part of the text. It doesn’t make the text unreadable, but for a finished book, it shows a lack of editing. This, in my opinion, is not the author’s fault but the editor’s and the formatter’s fault. If the author formatted and edited the book herself, I strongly encourage her to hire someone.  I am going to give this author a tip: spell and grammar check are not the only editorial tools an editor should use. Your editor should check with a ‘red pen’ and know when semi-colons, exclamation marks, and commas are to be inserted into your text.  Note to readers, I have ‘red pen’ ladies as my co-bloggers.

I wish I could rate this book higher. The author has potential, and this genre truly needs authors who can craft stories. Alas, however, I can not because the author tells me too much of the story rather than letting me experience it along with her characters. In addition, the two main characters argue in circles for part of the book making the read stilted. This, along with the many continuity errors, results in two  and half stars. I believe the full story is locked in the author’s mind with her seeing the whole picture, but, as a reader, I only saw glimpses of the story it could have been. Those glimpses of a great story kept me reading til the end. I do suggest Ms. Vanderliden reads her book with a critical eye from cover to cover so she can craft her next book and use this review as a learning tool.

I read this book as part of Kindle Unlimited.

Rating Report
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Characters
Writing
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