NetGalley Review: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

Hey all, Sam here.

I hope your day is not too terrible (although with the current state of the US, I understand if it’s not). As long as I can, I plan to continue talking about books and board games and D&D and attempts at creative writing (although I definitely admit my writing productivity has been terrible so far this year).

Today I am very happy to be writing a review for a book that is coming out in just one more week, and it is a book that I am very excited to add to my library. I don’t read a whole lot of sci-fi, although I do enjoy it. Most of my reading tends to be fantasy/paranormal, but I do also like reading sci-fi and have a decent number of them on my bookshelves.

But today’s book is one that I absolutely had to request as soon as I saw it on NetGalley, so thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for letting me read this book early. As always I will point out that getting the digital galley of this book did not affect my rating or review in any way.

All right, let’s get into the review (and also, feel free to gaze at this cover for a few moments because it is pretty darn epic)…

A hilarious and sexy romance about a woman who gets dropped on a strange planet only to fall for not one, but two, aliens, from the author of I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf.

Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she’s attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she’s saved! On the not-so-bright side, it’s because they’re abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has…dinosaurs?

Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can’t resist the attraction that’s developing in their trio….

As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they’ve all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined (she imagined…zero), and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

The author herself has described this book on social media as an unhinged fever dream…and it is…in the absolute best way possible. I was absolutely engrossed by this story the entire time.

Let me roll back for a moment. I read Kimberly Lemming’s Mead Mishaps series in 2023 and 2024, and they were fun and decently steamy fantasy stories. To me they had the vibes of cozy fantasy but with a little more danger and raised stakes at times, but they were still cozy enough for me. So when I heard she had a sci-fi series coming (and I saw the titles), of course I was interested.

These books are absolutely just a fun time. And I can honestly say that for me, this Cosmic Chaos series feels a bit steamier/spicier than the Mead Mishaps. Honestly, reading this book gave me the same WTF? feeling that I get from watching the Dandadan anime. There was so much wild and ridiculous shenanigans happening that it felt like I was on a wild ride or that I was high on smokes or edibles.

I know that might not sound fun for some, but I was highly entertained for this whole read. The characters are well-developed and go through a journey together. Dory was smart and sassy and honestly hilarious. This terrible AI developed planet made for some fascinating encounters, and the whole set-up had so many layers to it that I know I’ll need to read this again to see what I missed the first time (probably due to either laughing or just asking myself “what the hell did I just read?”) It will be worth re-reads too.

In a year that has been stressful and terrifying, a year where I have to pay attention to everything going on in the US, it was also so wonderful to know that there are these incredible times of entertainment where I can sink into a book or a movie or a show just for a few hours, to give me that extra boost to keep going.

I want to be as brave and determined and educated and outspoken as so many of these characters I have loved throughout my life. For now it feels like I am a little more tentative in my commentary online…but perhaps even a cautious voice can add to the cacophony and help build it to an even louder output.

Anyway, I cannot wait to have a finished copy of this book on my shelves, and I am eagerly anticipating the release of book 2 because I’m sure it will also be hilariously fantastic.

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All right, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.