From The Romance Studio - many thanks…
Captured
Julia Rachel Barrett
Fantasy erotic romance
Available from Siren Publishing
ISBN: 1-60601-722-5
January 2010
Captured and caged in a cargo hold on a spaceship, Mari accidentally awakens to learn she and a few hundred other Earth females are headed to an extraterrestrial meat market to be sold as cattle. When her captors try to return her to stasis, she strongly resists. The male in charge, Ekkatt, begrudgingly allows her to remain awake even though she injured several of his men when she was first caught. Despite her understandable anger, Mari quickly realizes her survival depends upon connecting with Ekkatt. She must make him see her as a sentient being or she will end up dinner.
Ekkatt has never spoken to a human before. For him, all humans are beasts. They are valued for one thing only, the money they bring at auction. The Attun are vegetarians, but other species prize human flesh and Ekkatt makes good money trapping for them. Then the female with red hair awakens, speaks to him and forces him to admit she has a name. Ekkatt’s discovery of Mari’s sentience throws his entire life and its purpose into question. How can he participate in the sale of thinking, intelligent beings for food?
Julia Rachel Barrett has written an engaging novella in which she fully develops a world similar to, yet quite different from our own. Though the Attun appear technically advanced, their lives are reminiscent of Colonial life on Earth. The book also poses several interesting questions about colonizing different species together and allows its readers to reach their own conclusions.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mari and Ekkatt’s journey, and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys “other world” stories filled with three-dimensional characters living and working in a world that has a long, uneasy history with Earth. We weren’t the first intelligent beings to be created in this universe, and we probably aren’t last; the question is can we learn to live and play well with others?
Overall rating: 
Sensuality rating: Very sensual
Reviewer: Kathryn
July 21, 2010
