Title: Stay With Me (New World)
Author: Lily X
Published: June 21, 2022
Publisher: Carina Adores
Readership: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Rating: ★★★★
I received a copy of Stay With Me from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
In this first of a sexy new sci-fi romance series, a galactic farmer discovers the robot she ordered is actually a flesh-and-blood woman.
Cedra: Running a farm on your own is exhausting and lonely. The Servana 200 service bot I ordered was expensive, but I need the help—and if it can also hold a conversation, it will be worth the price.
When the bot arrives, though, her hair is curlier than I selected, her skin is surprisingly soft, and she’s curvier and more beautiful than I imagined. But do bots tremble at the lightest touch? Do they smell like a heady mix of flowers and hot, sweet blood, teasing my fangs to life?
Technology is truly a marvel. Or is it?
Twyla: Running from a forced engagement is terrifying. But I’m backed into a corner, and my only escape is to crawl into a packing box for a bot modeled after me.
It’s certainly a panic move, but it got me out of one bad situation… And landed me right in the middle of another.
At first, Cedra isn’t the most welcoming sort, not when she presses a knife to my flesh and threatens to kick me out of her home. I come clean fast, pleading with her to let me stay and be her housekeeper. She’s hesitant, but I can tell she’s warming up to the idea…
Something’s flaring between us—fierce and urgent and insistent. And if these primal desires are mutual, maybe she’ll be the one begging me to stay.
Stay With Me was a book I requested on a whim, based on this premise: sapphic sci-fi romance. I honestly wasn’t too sure what to expect, given that Lily X is a new to me author, but I was so invested in this story from the get-go and really enjoyed the story.
Cedra lives on a closed farming-colony planet and when she decides she need some assistance around her home, she orders a service bot to assist her. When the box turns up, it reveals a human woman on the run from an arranged marriage who pleads with Cedra to let her stay.
The concept of this world/universe is very cool. The humans who live on the colony planet are all hybrids (for lack of a better word) who’s genetic structure has been manipulated to best suit the environment of the planet they inhabit – some have vampiric qualities, others have beast qualities, etc – and this informs some of their behaviour at a biological level. It adds a bit of a paranormal/fated mates element to the story that I was expecting.
Overall, I think this was an interesting set-up for the premise of the series and I would be interested in exploring more of the books set in this universe.
Noveltea Corner 