listen, I love alien romance (alien smut, let's not kid ourselves) as much as the next gal, really, but I kinda ran my course with it for a while I think and I'm in a MASSIVE sci-fi mood at the moment which happens rarely enough that I want to capitalize on it as much as possible. but after reading everything I could find in that specific blend of tropes that I like, i'm stuck not finding anything new and reddit knows everything about everything – duh – so here I am requesting your glorious help! thank you in advance for the recs!
to make it simple, i'd love a book/series that includes:
- a ragtag crew (space pirates, bounty hunters, deserters, anything works really)
- found family, big time
- at least mildly heavy on the romance front
- enemies to lovers OR rivals to lovers
- a fair amount of smut/spice or – at the very least – plenty flirting / sexual tension
- an actual plot alongside the romance/spice, shocker!
- badass FMC (or at least not completely useless, stupid and damsel in distress-y)
- …. basically Six of Crows meets The Illuminae Files but with more spice…
that's about it.. extra points if it's a series following the SAME couple (most of the ones I have read are series of standalones following different main characters and couples each book which I enjoy but i'm itching for a couple I can invest myself in for a couple of books straight), more extra points if it involves any of the good good tropes like a sparring scene, forced proximity, "who did this to you" and all the clichés, i'm an easy gal what can I say. love interests and characters can all be humans or all aliens, or a mix, I don't really care. and as a side note but pretty optional, I enjoy when the crew spend a fair amount of time interacting with each other on their ship / in their base on top of all the adventuring and all that.
just in case, here's some of the books like that i've already read or am aware of and that fit those tropes (i have obviously read other sci-fi books but since they don't fit in here i won't mention all of them):
- The Starlight's Shadow series by Jessie Mihalik (also read Polaris by the same author)
- Calamity by Constance Fey (really enjoyed this!)
- Star Bringer by Tracy Wolf (unread for now, haven't heard the greatest things but it's in TBR)
- Galactic Bonds series by Jennifer Estep (doesn't have the 'ragtag' crew element as far as I can tell, but sounds fun)
- The Distasters by M.K England (was very hyped for this one until I heard the romance was subpar and the love triangle never really resolved by the end)
- The Aurora Cycles series & The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (big favorites, especially Illuminae Files, tho Aurora Cycles' romance was more outwardly present)
by arymrearward
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You might enjoy The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers
Other than not being sci-fi – it’s urban fantasy – and not being smutty, this is the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire to a tee.