BENLON (Lunar Uprising 5) by Cyndi Friberg

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 18, 2023

Can a brilliant physician and a brave outcast find happiness while battling potential genocide?

Olarra sacrifices everything to warn Benlon about a Pylorian plot that threatens his entire species. Their attraction smolders and flares while they battle the destructive nanobots wreaking havoc inside each lunar raider. They try to stay focused on the crisis, but bonding fever is impossible to ignore. The Pylorians sabotage their progress at every turn, and time is running out!

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REVIEW:  BENLON is the fifth instalment in Cyndi Friberg’s adult LUNAR UPRISING sci-fi romance series. This is medic-class Commander Benlon, and microbiologist Olarra’s story line. BENLON can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and cohesion.

SOME BACKGROUND: Eight years earlier, six Pylorian spaceships arrived on Earth asking for asylum claiming they were fleeing their immortal enemy, the wolf-like Morax, but in the ensuing years, the Pylorian began to take control, using their considerable powers to force the governments of Earth to do their bidding. In an effort to protect Earth, the Pylorian’s claim to have cultivated aka created the lunar raiders, a hybrid of three alien species (Morax, Pylorian, Dox Tory) one of which reacts instantly when their destined mate is near.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Benlon and Olarra) BENLON follows in the wake of the genocide of several species propagated by the aggressive Pylorians. Having created several hybrids of alien species, the Pylorians have implemented an ‘expiration syndrome’ meant to be lethal, nanobots when activated, quickly destroy and take down their intended target, their hybrid host. As a hybrid herself, Olarra is all too aware of the discrimination many have faced at the hands of their ‘creators’, hands that are now systematically killing those who have escaped to friendlier planets. Knowing any help will come at a cost, Olarra finds herself the victim of an attempted assassination, and the only help will come from the man who governs several Pylorian cities, a man close to our heroine’s heart.

Meanwhile, Benlon, the medic-class Commander knows that Olarra is his mate but Olarra is a hybrid, and does not have the same capacity to know when her fated mate is near. As Benlon struggles to convince Olarra of their future together, the timing is all wrong as thousands are dying because of their genetics and modified DNA. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Olarra and Benlon, and the potential fall-out as our heroine is targeted for who she is, and what she knows.

The relationship between Olarra and Benlon is one of fated mates but Olarra is part Pylorian, and Pylorian’s do not take permanent mates. Olarra battles between head and heart, unable to trust the man with whom she will fall in love, having faced a lifetime of discrimination from the people in charge. As Olarra and Benlon’s relationship quickly builds into something more, an assassination attempt threatens to end their love before it has had a chance to grow. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful secondary and supporting characters including Zorak and Cara; Leko and Julia: Dracus and Addison, Prime Commander Vosic, and Olarra’s father Governor Kreth.

BENLON is a story of discrimination and racism; genocide and murder, love and acceptance, loss and grief. The fast paced premise is captivating and engaging but all too familiar in reality; the characters are power, struggling, and charismatic; the romance is seductive but fated. BENLON ends on a happily ever after-for now.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Zorak
Rogar
Leko
Dracus

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy