Willa’s Beast by Ruby Dixon (Icehome 3)
This book might drive me to take a break in this series. It’s hard to pinpoint one single reason. Perhaps I’m tired from listening to this back to back with Veronica’s Dragon. Could be the effort the audiobook narrators seem to put into each line is just exhausting (make it feel natural!). But probably it’s the fact that this book makes it clear that the author doesn’t know basic sex ed in order to serve a plot point. Plot holes, plot holes, everywhere.
Gren is conditioned to fight in gladiator battles as a slave, so when he arrives on Not-Hoth, he fights for freedom. His fight gets him bound and kept separate from the others. Well, that doesn’t sit right with good Southern girl, Willa, who had enough of bad people treating other creatures poorly back on Earth. So she frees him and they run off together, eventually resonating.
Gren is a genetic creation. Think Crispr - War Edition. Due to being created, not born, Gren’s genetic cocktail did not have well-paired ingredients, all parts separating rather than mixing and complimenting. Veronica’s healing powers give Gren’s DNA a little stir and get everything working cohesively, enough to allow him to resonate with Willa. And boy do they resonate. For. A. Month. They bone hourly for. a. month. Firstly, no. Just no.
They eventually realize they cannot fulfill resonance and get pregnant because of Gren’s genetic makeup and they go to Veronica again to help. She suggests that while they fuck, she coaxes sperm/egg fertilization, which she has to do by touching Willa. So we as audience members have to read this whole scene where no one wants to be there. Obligation voyeurism is NOT SEXY.
But did anyone spot the bad sex ed?
SPERM IS VIABLE FOR THREE TO FIVE DAYS AFTER EJACULATION.
Since Gren and Willa had been going at it like bunnies every hour, on the hour - SHE HAD PLENTY OF SPERM TO WORK WITH already inside her vagina and cervix. Veronica didn’t need to sit in on a sexcapade to ensure fertilization. She just needed to sit with Willa.
JESUS CHRIST. UGH. I’m so frustrated by that forced and pointless plot point, that if I didn’t already have the next book from the library, there would be a strong chance I’d put this series down for good.
SEX ED IS IMPORTANT EVEN IF IT’S JUST FOR SMUT AUTHORS. -Ford
PS - the other plot hole was in the language “device”. I mean that both ways. Gren and Willa are given translation chips that allow them to understand all languages and still speak their own BUT THE BLUE ALIENS DON’T HAVE THAT. So all the cozy scenes of male bonding between Gren and the other males are bullshit because they wouldn’t be able to understand his language.
