Alienated by Melissa Landers

Title: Alienated

Author: Melissa Landers

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository 

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class. Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

I've never really felt a need to go back and change or redo a review, but I've decided to make an exception for Alienated for one simple reason:

I reviewed it for the first time back in late 2013, and I've been rereading it so I can get to the sequel. I finished it and felt an urge to add to my review and improve it, but also to change it a little bit. After finishing the book for the second time, I still really enjoyed it but it didn't wow me as much as it did on the first read.That's probably because I've read so many incredible books since, and found some amazing romances (let's be honest, nothing can compete with the A Court of Thorns and Roses romance atm!).

Cara is a great character, and I thought she was hilarious the first time I read this book. She read like someone I would want to be friends with in real life. She has this really dry, sarcastic sense of humour which I really appreciate and it had me laughing a lot. But I am still irked by what I have come to call her Cara-isms: sucktacular, craptacular, ridic (you know, because ridiculous is obviously just too ridiculously long to use!). Those still get on my nerves and have me rolling my eyes at her. I still enjoyed the blog entries in this book (yes, this has blog entries!) because they just added that little something extra to it and made it feel all so familiar. 

Aelyx, although he doesn't make me swoon as much as he did on the first read, is still a great character. Who knew the idea of an alien race coming to Earth would suddenly seem so appealing. I can only assume that if Twilight managed to make millions of people over the world swoon at the idea of vampires, then this definitely has the potential to make us long for the discovery of an alien race. If this happens then they can sign me up for the exchange program - obviously if it's more Ryan Reynolds in the Nines than E.T!

                  This:                                                                                                        Not This:

Cara and Aelyx's relationship is one the progresses slowly throughout the book, which is the only kind of romance that really works for me. I can't be dealing with any more of these instant 'I love you, you're mine!' romances that I find so often in young adult books. But this has the slow build and the sexual tension, and the characters actually taking time to get to know one another. I approve. I was rooting for these two the entire time, even when they weren't. This is one of those books where I was itching for the two characters to get together, which doesn't happen often with me as I usually want the romance to take a back seat to the rest of the story. 

I really do enjoy Cara and Aelyx as characters, but if I were to talk about any fault with this book then it would be the fact that the secondary characters don't play much of a role in it. Cara's best friend seemed to have so much potential early on, she was funny and likeable, but she quickly disappears from this book. The same goes for Cara's boyfriend, the guy is like that token douche character, someone you can love to hate. But he disappears rather quickly too and doesn't have too big a role. This book really was Cara and Aelyx, something I'm not grumbling about because I really rather fell in love with them both. 

4/5 Butterflies

The first time I reviewed this book it got a 5/5 rating from me. I'm glad I took the time to reread it, I still love the characters and the story, but I've come to realise it feels more like a 4/5 read for me now. I feel that's probably because of how many amazing books I have read since, with romances that have won me over more. I still highly recommend this one though and can't wait to read the sequel to find out what's next for these two. 

*I received a copy of this novel from the author/publisher/publicist via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.