Invaded by Melissa Landers

Title: Invaded (Alienated #2)
Author: Melissa Landers
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Buy this book: Amazon / Book Depository 

The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them. Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

Sequel nerves.
THE PAIN IS REAL!!!

I doubt I'm the only person who gets really nervous before they start the sequel to a book they really enjoyed. Alienated was a read that had really surprised me, I ended up absolutely loving it and the romance in it totally won me over. I've been eagerly anticipating Invaded since I finished Alienated back in 2013, it had a lot to live up to and my expectations were ridiculously high. This book could only let me down, right? I am so happy to be able to tell you that this isn't one of those sequels that disappoints, it's one that surpassed my expectations and I ended up enjoying even more than the first book.

Invaded sees Cara and Aelyx separated, with Cara going to live on L'eihr, whilst Aelyx stays behind on Earth to try and salvage the alliance between humans and L'eihrs. I thought that I was going to be frustrated by the storyline, couples being separated during the second book in a series seems to be something that happens a lot. It actually turned out to be the smartest thing that Landers could have done, because it meant we finally got to have some secondary characters! I really did enjoy book one, but it was all about Cara and Aelyx. Their relationship felt like it dominated everything, you never really got to know any secondary characters and that had really bugged me whilst reading book one. Invaded allows us to meet a whole host of new characters, and also get to know old characters a little more. I liked the humour that some of them brought, the drama that others brought and the curve balls to the storyline that others brought.


Cara had got to me a little during my reread of Alienated, there was just something about her that was starting to rub me the wrong way. I came to love and appreciate her character so much more in this book because she goes through so much character development. She's on L'eihr and she's isolated and feeling alone, but she shows how strong she is as a person and how determined she is. I like that she questions her decisions at times, it makes her seem all the more human. I also remembered why I found her character so funny during my first read of Alienated, this girl has one wicked sense of humour!

Aelyx, Aelyx, Aelyx! Of course the hot alien won me over in book one, how could he not. But I liked that we get to know him and Cara so much more when they're separated and their every waking thought isn't about each other. I liked seeing him form relationships with other characters in this book, ones I won't mention for spoilery reasons. I was amused by his total uselessness when it came to understanding the way human girls think. Every time Cara would get annoyed over something and he'd have no idea what was going on, I could not stop laughing. I thought the two being apart would get to me, but it allowed their individual personalities to really shine.

I'd been excited to get to planet L'eihr since I started book one, so it was great to be able to discover it along with Cara. It also opened up so many new plot points and this series started to go in directions I could never have predicted. I'm still completely won over by Aelyx and Cara, but now I finally have more characters that I'm invested. This had everything I enjoyed about book once, mostly the romance and the humour, but also had everything I thought was lacking from the first one - secondary characters that aren't just in the background and plot twists I never saw coming.

4/5 Butterflies

I'm so happy to say that I absolutely loved this book and ended up enjoying it more than the first book. I know I'm only giving it a 4/5, but I'm becoming really fussy when it comes to that elusive 5/5 rating. I really did enjoy this and can't recommend this series enough. It has humour, romance and a storyline that keeps you guessing and unable to put the book down.



I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review.