Book picks similar to
Strange Love by Ann Aguirre


romance
sci-fi
aliens
science-fiction

Contagion


Amanda Milo - 2019
    One human woman. Both are abducted and held captive in a very unsterile environment. What more could go wrong? ~ Simmi: I’ve broken free and I’ve also freed the human who was held captive with me. But I don’t know where we are, and I don’t know where my home is. The local wildlife may be smaller than I am, and maybe they don't have fangs near as large as mine, but I’m still terrified. My issues with germs--and my uncompromising avoidance of all the things that I’m afraid of coming into contact with--is going to get me killed in this wilderness. Thankfully, Aurora lets me follow her. Thankfully, she seems to know the way out of this endless and inhospitable woodland and desert biome. But by the end of our journey, she’ll suspect she’s harboring a contagion. I have no way to know it, but she’s afraid to tell me. Afraid of how I’ll react once I find out what she’s carrying. ***Note: This 40K, Standalone story is intended for readers 18+ due to romantic elements and adult themes. There is no cheating. There is one really germphobic alien. Thankfully, there's also a really understanding woman who is starting to fall for him. Spoiler: They're totally gonna have a Happily Ever After... just as soon as they can get off this planet that’s trying to kill them.

The Corsair's Captive


Ruby Dixon - 2017
     When I see the delicate human female collared and enslaved by the smuggler I’m about to swindle, I do what any male would do. I take her from him. It’s what I do best, after all. Now Fran’s mine, and I’m never giving her up. On board my spaceship, she’ll be safe. She’ll wear my clothes, eat my food, and sleep in my bed. I’ll keep her safe from a galaxy that wishes her harm. But my sweet Fran wants nothing more than to return to Earth. How can I take her home when she holds my heart in her dainty, five-fingered hands? This story stands completely alone and is only marginally connected to the Ice Planet Barbarians series and Prison Planet Barbarian. You do not need to read those books in order to follow this one.

Abducted


Evangeline Anderson - 2016
    It is a plus-sized novel--140,000 words long My name is Zoe McKinley. I have a boring life, an awful job, and a boss that throws staplers at my head. What could be worse? How about being abducted by Aliens? Being dragged through a mirror, naked and screaming, onto an extraterrestrial ship was bad. Finding out I had been sold to a huge alien male who looks like the Devil was worse. But learning he wanted to trade me to an intergalactic petting zoo was the worst of all! Now I'm whizzing through the galaxy with a robot butler, a trio of nib-nibs (they're like tiny green monkeys) and one huge, muscular, and very grumpy alien. The clothing they gave me shows all my lady-bits, the food-sim makes banana cream pie that tastes like sauerkraut, and Sarden, my captor, is too hot to stay mad at, even if he is a jerk. In fact, I think I might be falling for him. What's a girl to do? It's all in a day's work when you've been... Abducted. The Alien Mate Index--Learn more From the pen of Evangeline Anderson, the writer who brought you Brides of the Kindred, comes a new race of Alien warriors… twelve races, to be exact. Everyone thinks that life just evolved on Earth — Wrong. Our planet, and twelve others, all capable of supporting Terran life, was seeded by the Ancient Ones. Then Earth was locked away, kept safe in the cocoon of our ozone layer. But now there’s a gaping hole in our security blanket and guess who’s coming to dinner? That’s right—the Alien warriors of the Twelve Peoples - also descended from the Ancient Ones, are looking for mates and Earth girls are their first choice. The Vorn are feared throughout the galaxy. Savage, horned warriors, these males can be surprisingly gentle to the females they choose to bond with.Denarins come in pairs—two muscular males who share a psychic bond... and feel the need to share one woman as well. The Majorans worship their females as goddesses, the very color of their skin changing with their bonded mate’s mood.Braxians are savage with black-on-white eyes that can see every spectrum of light. They will defend their females to the last drop of blood in their huge, blue bodies. And there are more… so many more Alien warriors to pick from.Which type of male would you choose? Too bad you won’t have a choice, because thanks to the Alien Mate Index, an agency that abducts Earth brides for alien males, you could be snatched at any time and turned into a massive warrior’s mate or concubine.So the real question is - who will choose you?

I Married a Lizardman


Regine Abel - 2021
    A pretty face, top-notch skills, and hard work mean nothing if your dowry doesn’t include fertile lands. With her twenty-fifth birthday approaching, and no suitors even remotely sniffing in her general direction, Susan will be forced to leave the family lands to work as an indentured servant in the capital city. Her only way out is to settle for an arranged marriage through the PMA – the Prime Mating Agency. She just never expected to be paired to a grumpy, massive lizardman, and above all not to grow so fond of his scales and quirky ways.With everything going on, the last thing Olix needs is a mate, especially a squishy, scaleless, off-worlder with strange ways, and an obsession with farming. He is a Hunter, not a dirt digger. The Seer must have been mistaken when she insisted that, for the sake of the people, he take a mate from the stars. How can such a tiny thing be their salvation? And yet, his Susan’s softness is disturbingly addictive while hiding a surprising resilience.With his ancestral lands on the line and the future of the clans threatened, could this wisp of a woman turn their fate around?

Dark Planet Warriors: The Complete Serial


Anna Carven - 2016
    Kordolians, by the looks of things. What the hell do they want with this floating rust bucket? What are they even doing here? In the grand scheme of things, Earth is a total backwater, and the Solar System is the galactic equivalent of Hicksville. That's why aliens rarely bother to come to this corner of the universe. And Kordolians are usually too busy conquering the important parts of the nine galaxies to bother with us. But it looks as if their battle cruiser is broken. Probably shot up in a firefight. They're going to use every means necessary to fix it, even if it means putting Fortuna Tau on lockdown. I just hope they don't decide to enslave us and ship us off to some remote alien planet. Come to think of it, I've never seen a Kordolian up close before. They're huge, with strange silver skin and pointed ears. They have freaky nano-armor. And they're packing a serious arsenal. Our human technology has no chance against their weapons. When I encounter their General, I find him insufferable. Arrogant. Domineering. He won't tell me anything. I guess that's what happens when your race is kicking ass across the nine galaxies. You get pigheaded. So why do I keep running into him? Why is he looking at me funny? And what's with this weird feeling I get when he's around? I really hope these guys fix their ship and go away soon, because I get the feeling they could be major trouble. Tarak Sucked into a wormhole during a fierce skirmish with an enemy ship. Spat out near a human mining station in a remote corner of the nine galaxies. Stuck with weak humans who operate with inferior metals and technology. This mission couldn't get any worse. We need to fix our craft before the wormhole collapses. We need to hunt the cursed Xargek monsters that have infiltrated this human rust-bucket. And these infernal headaches of mine are getting worse. I don't really care about these humans. Their existence makes no sense to me. All I care about is killing Xargek and getting back to my home planet, Kythia. This situation is tiresome. The light of the star humans call the Sun burns my eyes. I crave Kythia's darkness. So why has this crazy human female captured my attention? She's messy, awkward and she babbles nonsense half the time. These humans are crazy. I don't understand them at all. Especially this female. Why do I keep coming back to her? I need to leave this place before I go insane Warning: This book contains swearing, violence and steamy sex scenes. It's recommended for readers aged 18 and over.

Ensnared


Tiffany Roberts - 2021
    Fate has a different plan for him. When the queen he despises declares her intention to claim him, he retreats into the jungle.What he finds there changes his world.Small, delicate, and pale skinned, Ivy Foster is nothing like the females Ketahn has known. She’s not of his kind at all. Yet the moment he sees her, he knows the truth in his soul—she is his heartsthread.And now that he has her, he won’t let anything take her away. Not the jungle, not the gods, not the queen.Whether Ivy agrees or not, their webs are entangled. No one will ever sever those threads.----Book 1 of 3 in The Spider's Mate Trilogy.

Gabriel's Ghost


Linnea Sinclair - 2002
    . . . After a decade of piloting interstellar patrol ships, former captain Chasidah Bergren, onetime pride of the Sixth Fleet, finds herself court-martialed for a crime she didn' t commit-and shipped off to a remote prison planet from which no one ever escapes. But when she kills a brutal guard in an act of self-defense, someone even more dangerous emerges from the shadows.Gabriel Sullivan--alpha mercenary, smuggler, and rogue--is supposed to be dead. Yet now this seductive ghost from Chaz's past is offering her a ticket to freedom--for a price. Someone in the Empire is secretly breeding jukors: vicious and uncontrollable killing machines that have long been outlawed. Gabriel needs Chaz to help him stop the practice before it decimates Imperial space. The mission means putting their lives on the line--but the tensions that heat up between them may be the riskiest part of all.

Hunt the Stars


Jessie Mihalik - 2022
    When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she’s put her heart on the line.

Mercenary Instinct


Ruby Lionsdrake - 2014
    But Ankari Markovich needs a few archaeological samples for her latest business venture, a venture that might prove lucrative enough to move her family off the impoverished planet where she grew up. Unfortunately, she has no sooner collected her samples than she’s captured by a band of brawny mercenaries. The captain might be handsome, but he’s intent on turning her over to some finance lord who has, for reasons unknown, put a bounty on her head, a ridiculously large one at that. If she can’t figure out a way to escape before she’s delivered to the lord’s home world, she could be forced into a life of indentured servitude—or worse.Captain Viktor Mandrake doesn’t usually take on piddling bounty hunting gigs, but when his intelligence officer informs him of a criminal on a nearby planet, he decides it wouldn’t hurt to take a shuttle down to collect the woman. But Ankari Markovich is trouble from the start, nearly eluding his elite forces, then fighting and tricking his people left and right. He finds himself admiring her spirit, but according to her warrant, she’s a criminal. The safest thing is to keep her in the brig and ignore her until she can be handed off to the man who wants her.But the situation grows more complicated when other bounty hunters show up, wanting to claim Ankari for themselves. Thanks to this woman, Viktor’s ship is in danger, his crew members are going missing, and he’s fighting enemies he never asked for in a jungle in the middle of a hurricane. He’s either going to strangle Ankari… or fall in love. Either scenario could get him killed.Mercenary Instinct is a full-length, stand-alone novel of 90,000 words. It is part of the “Mandrake Company” series of science fiction romance stories and is recommended for readers who enjoy space-based adventure (such as Firefly) and steamy love stories (in the style of Linnea Sinclair).

Ruth's Bonded


V.C. Lancaster - 2015
    At first. But when she's forced to get along with her furry, tailed cellmate (and her clothes get stolen) things slowly start to change between them. After they escape onto an unknown alien planet, they're finally free to explore their feelings and each other, but can they survive with only each other to rely on and no way of communicating? Gron is from a matriarchal society where the males obey their Queens, so when a beautiful but strange female is dropped into his cell, he doesn't know what to think. Is she a victim like him, or is she being used by his captors to control him? Either way, he knows he must control his instincts or he will end up inescapably Bonded to her. The delicate Queen needs his help to survive, and it is his duty to serve her, but can he do it without losing his heart?

Alien Lord's Captive


Mina Carter - 2015
    An alien invasion means earth is in danger and the women of Sentinel Five are the only line of defence…But it’s hard to remember what she’s fighting against when her sexy alien lover has a thing about making sure her every need is met… and has some very inventive ways of doing so. Until she gives him a bad case of mating marks and all bets are off.Exploration yields an unexpected bounty… and a chance at love.Tarrick's duty to the Latharian Empire means little time for himself. Thanks to a genetic plague, the lathar have no females of their own, so a base full of human women is a bounty he can't ignore. Nor can he ignore the little human who defies him at every step.Then a dangerous rival challenges the K'Vass claim on Terran space and all its women. Tarrick can't afford to let any of the earth women be captured, especially not his little human, Cat.When she is taken from him, he'll do anything to rescue her. Up to and including starting an intergalactic war...

Saving Askara


J.M. Link - 2018
    Such is the life of an emergency medicine specialist in the age of "post-discovery". Sure, she had always dreamed of interacting with intelligent extraterrestrial life- the real thing, not those microbes on distant moons. Who wouldn't? She was still happy with her career, however mundane and demanding it might be. That's what it took to run a ship the size of a small city smoothly. Monotony. But all that changes one morning, and suddenly she's not so sure she didn't stick her foot in it... Be careful what you wish for. *** Escape had been their only drive, and even death was preferable to the alternative. But they never thought their flight for freedom would put them in an uncharted system. Forced to interact with an isolated world and its inferior, albeit curious people. When it affords them an unforseen and unprecedented opportunity to take back their world from those who seek to destroy them, however, Aderus begins to wonder if it wasn't fate. Earth's proposal is shocking and uncomfortable for a fierce, independent race that relishes in their solitude. But the more he learns of humans, the more he comes to admire and respect them. One, in particular. *Saving Askara is a Part I of II* Book II coming Summer 2018 WARNING: Not intended for readers under 18. Contains explicit sexual content.

Toxic Desire


Robin Lovett - 2018
    She should want to kill him. But everything on Fyrian is an aphrodisiac. So she just wants to have him. Now.Revenge. That’s all commander Oten has wanted against humans for more than a century, ever since they tried to destroy his kind. He never thought he’d end up in bed with one. But the desire the sex planet stokes for this human female is eating him alive. Keeping his hands, his mouth, and his vampiric fangs to himself proves impossible—especially when she’s begging him to touch her.Nemona has no idea what endless sex with a Ssedez will do to her. But Oten knows all too well. They need to get off this planet. Before their coupling stirs an alien mating bond that neither of their hearts can withstand.

Dark Horse


Michelle Diener - 2015
    Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.Winner of a SFR Galaxy Award 2016 and the Prism Award 2016 for Best Futuristic.

Wild Blood


Naomi Lucas - 2017
    Part of an elite group that dealt with the horrors of the universe. At least that was what everyone at the spaceport was whispering as he walked by. A Cyborg, a hunter, a beast with eyes as dark as the pits of Hell and the stride of a predator. Katalina was a nobody who was intimate with death. It clung to her like a shroud, It followed her like the plague, and infected her like a parasite. When she overheard that the Monster Hunter needed an assistant, she took the job. And when the Cyborg’s eyes caught hers, she knew getting closer to death might just bring her back to life. The Cyborg didn’t scare her. So she followed him and left fate up to chance. Warning: mature readers only, explicit sex scenes. Book one of Cyborg Shifters, same universe as Stranded in the Stars, every book is a standalone that only subtly builds off of the others.