Review: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Title: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Series: Alienated #1
Genre: YA/Sci-Fi/Romance
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: February 4th, 2014
Edition: Kindle Edition, 352 pages
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon US | Kobo | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository | iBooks | BAM

Synopsis:

     "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."

Okay, let's first talk about this cover. I love it, I think it's beautiful.

Now, on to the book itself; I'm gonna be honest, at first I was  a little skeptical of it. I was worried it wasn't going to be as good as I wanted it to be. ( I was wrong of course, it was better). The summary sounded a little like other books I've read and a TV show that didn't last long. (Starcrossed, on The CW).

Aelyx is an interesting character. I enjoyed reading his character development in this book. He starts off as very closed off, and a little cold toward his host family. But, he quickly starts to open up to Cara after the entire town turns their back on her and her family. I really enjoyed reading what was going on in his mind, and even though he's an alien the way he thought was pretty close to how actual guys think, over how "book guys" think. (Sometimes authors write guys too much like bros, or too much like imaginary boys, or rather the way most girls want guys to behave.) The moments when he got awkward were cute and funny. His conflicting feelings made him have depth and complexity to his character.

Cara was also interesting, eventually. At first she was actually kind of annoying and a little self-righteous. She's smart, and seemed to get what she wanted because of how good she was at everything. It was kind of annoying and she, the human character, didn't seem like a real person at first. Her problems at the start of the book were trivial, and she came off a little one-sided to me. Her best friend, Tori, was more interesting to me that she was. It wasn't until she lost everyone that called themselves her friend that she started to have more complexity to her character. Even then her reasons for doing what she did weren't very clear to me. I wasn't sure if it was because she actually did trust the L'eihr, or if it was just a sense of duty, and then if it was because she had feelings for Aelyx. She didn't really become an interesting character for me until pretty much the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Sci-fi Fantasy stories.