Chosen by Stacy Jones

Series: Chosen

Release Date: December 19, 2017

Format: Kindle

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

What a book! For a novel that I picked up on a complete whim, I’m very impressed and happy with the quality of Chosen! Jones also had a tricky genre to work with as sci-fi/fantasy romance (this book is more fantasy than sci-fi) can prove challenging because the novel is either more sci-fi/fantasy or more romance. Jones successfully – at least I think so – straddles the line by having the romance (and formation of a mating bond with the heroine) being the plot’s focus. However, the plot (i.e. to keep the heroine safe and make it back to their tribe) reveals a carefully built new world that is beautiful and home to a complicated society. Jones goes out of her way to create a language for this planet which I found so creative. While the heroine can (luckily) infer some of the heroes’ intentions, most of the attempts at communication get lost in translation. It requires all parties to make an effort to understand each other. There’s no convenient translator device in Chosen!

The first few chapters of Chosen give a backstory to Lily, the heroine. We know she owns a farm in the US and is all alone (I kind of got Dorothy vibes). All of a sudden, she’s abducted by these fish-looking aliens who wanted her livestock, but they unknowingly took her too. It is forbidden for aliens to interact with humans. As a result, humans are rare… and quite valuable. Therefore, the aliens drop her on a young planet to stash her until they can retrieve her.

It’s not until a few chapters into Chosen that Lily meets the heroes. With the stress and anxiety of her being on a new planet, Lily sees these men (Frrar, Tor and Arruk) as excellent resources for survival and companionship. She doesn’t realize until later that their actions and aid translates into them having essentially proposed.

Most of these kinds of books tend to hone in on the romance, allowing it to dominate the plot – which, to be honest, isn’t a bad thing if the romance is really well written. But Jones expertly wove the travels of this group with their developing relationships. The journey allows the group to learn how to communicate and about each other’s cultures/customs. Lily is new to the world, which enabled Jones to teach both Lily and the reader about this new planet without resorting to big info dumps. In fact, Jones cleverly avoids this common pitfall by having communication be quite difficult between Lily and the heroes.

In some parts of the story, you do have to suspend your disbelief. For example, Lily’s immediate acceptance of her relationship with the heroes and the fact that she has three mates were too smooth to be realistic. It didn’t come off as insta-love but also doesn’t reflect a realistic reaction. However, if you’re used to reading RH, these types of responses are typically required to get the plot moving. It helps that RH relationships are the norm on this new planet. Having RH relationships be the status quo also allows Jones to evade the complex discussions of the influence society has on relationships like these.

What I seriously loved about Chosen was the characters, or more specifically, the heroes. Frrar, Tor and Arruk are just so dang cute and funny! I admit that Jones’s heroes are reminiscent of clichéd personalities (Frrar the “alpha” male, Tor the comic relief and Arruk the strong and silent one), but Jones adds enough of a twist to all her characters that these clichés are not obvious in the least! For example, while all relationships in the heroes’ tribe are RH, the women are taller, meaner and stronger than the men (it is a matriarchal society). The men are therefore expected to be (and are) submissive. Frrar is an “alpha” male in that he’s independent (doesn’t really ask for permission) and overprotective of his loved ones (to the extent that he’ll act without permission), which are two really undesirable traits in a male for their tribe. Tor is too short – at 6 ft – and Arrurk is too big. All the men learn absolute acceptance and unconditional love from Lily.

The majority of Chosen is spent developing the world for coming books and building a foundation for the relationship of the harem. Even though the plot’s tension is the imminent yearly big flood (think Noah’s Ark) – which had a really cool, scientific reason – both the world-development and trials of survival contributed to a stronger relationship/bond between the group.

Chosen was way better than I was expecting and made me quickly purchase the next book, Tribe Outsider!

Buy Chosen