e-ALC, 08:54:25
Narrated by: Elizabeth Lamont & Iggy Toma
Release Date: August 12, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape (Berkley)
Read from: August 7-9, 2025
Companion to Love and Other Conspiracies
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a free e-ALC from the publisher’s app and the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Death of a Parent, Injury/Injury Detail, Blood, Violence, Sexual Content, Cursing, Toxic Relationship, Car Accident, Toxic Friendship
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Contemporary, Action, Adult, Dual POV, Sparkly Covers, Series CompanionA chance at love might not be out of this world in the next romantic comedy from USA Today bestselling author Mallory Marlowe.
Los Angeles social media influencer El Martin seems to live the perfect aesthetic life. But what El wants more than anything is to find something real to make her heart race in a way it hasn’t in years. She doesn’t expect that feeling to come from capturing footage of an unidentified flying . . . thing, much less from the charming Man in Black who keeps following her around.
Agent Carter Brody is trying his best to keep the Private Intelligence Sector afloat by dragging their hopelessly out-of-date office into this century, even though what he really wants to do is follow in his father’s footsteps identifying and hiding extraterrestrial sightings. He gets his chance after being assigned to El’s case and is stopped in his tracks not only by her ingenuity and confidence, but also by the unnerving coincidence of how her sighting looks eerily like what he saw right before a family tragedy.
The deeper El and Carter fall into the mystery, the harder it is for them to ignore their growing chemistry, as their own alien feelings become dangerously terrestrial.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to rate this. I was expecting another weird and whimsical with a touch of real like the last one. But this one was just so serious and it put me off a bit. Idk how to really explain it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. It wasn’t bad, just eh I guess.
This was good. But I did have some issues lol The main thing was the expectations. So the first one had them going to look for things and there was a spectic, but they still had someone who believed and that made it fun. This one had no such thing. There was one instance of aliens at the very beginning and that was it. And they stretched that one instance all the way from the beginning to the end. I was so annoyed lol I wanted it to be at least a little bit about the aliens. And he was the “Men in Black,” so I didn’t understand how in the world we got to him shhhing her about a file and then that was the only thing that happened. It was a major let down.
The romance itself was cute. I thought the way they helped each other was so sweet. That’s one of my favorite things to see in a book. I love when they support each other. And it could be the smallest thing. I just love for them to feel seen. This romance also was cute because of the way he was helping her find herself. Being an influencer is a full time job now, and I was so sad in the beginning to see that she wasn’t doing anything because she wanted to, but because she was just trying to get paid. I don’t wish that on anyone. If you’re going to promote something, do so because you believe in it. But he gave her the space and time to be herself and see that just what she wanted was ok. And normally having to find a man or partner to do that would make me mad. But this was also a lifestyle influencer who admitted she lived for the validation of others.
The action in this one was fun af tho. I liked it more than I care to admit lolol It was so basic and it was so weird. And yes I knew who it was. I didn’t want it to be them, but when it was I wasn’t surprised. But I didn’t like how she “saved the day.” Like really if you’re in a situation like that and you start giving me discount codes? I’m going to shoot anyways lol It was cringey, but it was still ok for me.
This was fun, but I still wanted to see some more aliens. I thought this series was about the sci fi weird stuff and the people that believed. But this one just didn’t fill that void for me. I think it was fun, but I wanted a tiny bit more.
Overall, I give this
