Fated Mates Fatigue in Alien Romance Books
- Courtney Leigh
- Feb 8
- 14 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
There was a time, back when I was a wee beginner as a romance reader, that the fated mates trope was met with a simple shrug and a read. Ahh, fated mates. Cute. Let’s read it.
And then, after the hundredth book centered around the fated mates trope, I started to wonder… do authors know how to write anything else?
If you know nothing about me, I’m an indie romance author and an avid reader. And I’m here to talk about how SICK I am of the fated mates trope. Not the trope itself. By itself, it’s fine. However, one of my favorite romance genres is alien romance because I’m a huge scifi nerd. My favorite video game series is Mass Effect and I will not hesitate to admit that’s probably where my obsession with alien romance came from. I have played those games more times than I can count and I have my husbands tattooed on my arm.
ANYWAYS, I love alien romance and I started with a series that you’ve likely all heard of if you’re a reader of romance in any capacity, and that’s Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. The series is simple. The stories are easy and quick reads. The world is actually quite intricate for how easy the books are to get through. Ruby has written tons of spin offs and sequel series and to be honest, her aliens and her world are pretty well rounded as a whole. And while she does focus on a loose “fated mates” theme, many of her relationships are organic as well.
However, that is not the case with 99% of alien romance books and therein lies my beef with this genre.
So, before I get really into it, if you have any recommendations for alien romance books that DO NOT have anything to do with fated mates, please, for the love of the gods, put them in the comments. Please. I’m actually desperate.
I have read many, many alien romance books and I am fairly comfortable now saying that I am knowledgeable about the genre. A VERY large percentage of alien romance books revolves around one or more of these things. Fated Mates. Mail order brides. Breeding or matchmaking programs. Abduction for breeding or matchmaking purposes, or all of the above.
While I will still pick up a book with these tropes, at this point, I feel like I’m only doing it to appease that little part of me that just needs a quick alien fix now and then, but I read these books with a raised brow because why does it seem impossible to write anything else within this potentially broad genre?
I think this whole “copy what’s popular” for a quick buck is a VERY big trend in books these days and fated mates and mail order brides is HUGELY popular and therefor… extremely oversaturated.
If you don’t know what these tropes are, here’s a quick rundown.
Fated mates is a trope that involves two or more people who are somehow fated to be together. In terms of alien romance, typically the male is an alien of some sort who has been actively seeking his one true mate and most of the time, that happens to be a human woman.
How an alien’s one true mate is a completely different species in a universe that is so GIANT our puny human brains can’t even comprehend is honestly beyond me. My space-loving logic actually has to somewhat shut down to accept something like that because why would any creature’s biology ONE, give you a single compatible mate in a universe that is quite literally endless. Those odds are not good… in any way. TWO, how and why would a body recognize a species that bears no relation to your own as a compatible mate if the two species have never come into contact previously? Scientifically, it doesn’t make much sense.
WHICH is why I wrote my alien books with an explanation in mind to justify why humans are randomly compatible with multiple alien species throughout the galaxy.
This is the shameless-self-promotion part of this blog post❤️ Because guess what?! I wrote an alien romance series!
I am and have been SO desperate for alien romance books that are not about fated mates that I actually started my own alien romance series. I did this for a couple reasons, one being that I wanted there to be a reason humans were compatible with aliens. And maybe you don’t need the scifi mumbo jumbo. Maybe that’s not why you read alien romance, but as I’ve said before, having explanations for the way things are in books is part of the reason I enjoy scifi over fantasy… so I need it. Needless to say, alien romance is one of my favorite genres not only because of the romance, but because of the scifi aspect.
So, hear me out. Space is HUGE. Like, too big for humans to grasp and that’s the truth. In a hypothetical situation where an alien race was losing their planet of origin or somehow being threatened by extinction, they would send their DNA into space with an AI pilot that would travel the expanse like Noah’s Ark for potentially millions of years in search of other planets that could potentially support life. Upon finding a planet, this AI would drop the alien DNA into the atmosphere in hopes that it would thrive and eventually evolve. But like any science project, it would need multiple planets in case any of them should fail to support life.
In my book series, there are 4 main races that did in fact evolve into intelligent lifeforms throughout the galaxy but all from one original genome, making them all technically the same species but alien because they evolved depending on their planet and atmosphere.
Therefore, they’re all technically compatible, humanoid, and at somewhat different technological stages. And in my books, humans happen to be one of those four related races.
The other BIG reason I wrote this series is because I was sick of “love” being explained away because it was “fated.” I wanted my couples to fall in love because they bonded not because their bodies forced them to be together.
The Surge Series is available on KU at the moment and they explore organic relationships that are not bound by any fated attraction. Every book revolves around a different couple so they don’t have to be read together, but because they do overlap, I always say it is better to read them all. Every relationship has a different dynamic and NONE of them are fated to be together but instead fall in love through their shared experiences. Book 4 will hopefully be coming out later this year and every page read helps me get one step closer to being a full-time author and creator, which is ultimately my dream.
Let’s get back to it.
So, now you all have a rough idea of what the “fated mates” trope entails. To sum it up, couples are meant to be together either by some magical, pre-destined attraction or because of something biological. In the end, they don’t have a choice. I mean, sure, they can choose not to be together, but this often causes harm, whether emotional or physical. And I think that’s why I don’t like it that much. I feel as if a fated mates trope takes away from the building of the relationship part of romance that honestly is the biggest reason I read romance in the first place. I want to see the characters discover things about each other and question things and have doubts and come to terms with growing feelings and yes, sometimes a well-written fated mates story can involve all of this, but MOST of the time… they don’t. I do feel that a lot of authors use the fated mates trope to bypass the bonding phase and get straight to the “we’re together” part. Even IF a couple is actively discovering things about each other in a fated mates situation, we still know they’re destined to be together so it takes the tension away.
And maybe some people don’t want the tension and that’s the draw. It’s safe. There’s no question that things will turn out well. But I suppose I’ve just read too many of the same book to be impressed by it.
And all this is not to say I absolutely hate the fated mates trope. I do see the appeal. Often, finding a partner is tedious. We’re on dating aps, and going to bars and events in search of that person we can spend our life with and all the while we have to think of impressing that person and we obsess over “do they or don’t they.” It’s exhausting and after enough let-downs, yes. People often fantasize about that someone who is fated to be with them. I mean, you don’t have to worry about impressing someone you’re fated to be with. You don’t have to worry about a “type” because a fated person’s type is…well…their fated mate. It’s secure. Comfortable. The dream.
So I fully understand the appeal and I myself have read many many fated mates books. I mean, obviously BECAUSE MOST ALIEN ROMANCE books are fated mates! It is HARD to find an alien romance book with a relationship that doesn’t revolve around fate or breeding or bride-ing.
Which brings me to the other trope that I am fully fatigued by and that is mail-order brides. If you read alien romance, I’m sure you know what this means and if you don’t read alien romance I’m sure you still have a concept of what it is. In terms of alien romance, 9 times out of 10, some alien species needs females because their female population has been depleted because of X Y Z. Now, in a pact with Earth, typically women sign up to be a bride to a strong, sexy alien husband. Sometimes it’s the dream to be paired with an alien and sometimes it’s more of a necessity, but either way, this alien race needs females.
This whole situation is similar to fated mates in that the couple HAS to be together because of some kind of contract rather than for biological reasons and are either randomly paired or paired because they were deemed compatible by some kind of organization that handles the couplings. Now, again, I don’t have any problems with this trope existing. None. HOWEVER, why am I incapable of finding books that are NOT about fated mates or mail order brides? Are those the only tropes that alien romance writers know how to write? Is it just so popular that writers choose not to venture outside of that incredibly safe bubble? I don’t read alien romance because of its tropes. I read it for the aliens and spaceships... and the romance.
So, it goes without saying that I have been actively searching for books that do not involve these tropes. I have been flipping through everything on kindle, reading blurb after blurb and dropping any book that says anything about fated mates of any kind… which means I have not had much success in finding a new alien romance book. And sometimes I even get catfished! Where the blurb says nothing about fated mates and then at some point in the story he says “my tattoos glowed and I knew she was my insert alien name for a fated mate”
Wonderful. Immediate DNF. Not for hate of the trope as a whole. Just… fatigue.
And on the off chance that any alien romance readers have stumbled across this very specific video and are also possibly suffering from fated mates or mail order bride fatigue, here are a few alien romance books that have nothing to do with either of those overdone tropes.
Moon Struck by Heather Guerre (Forbidden Mates Book 2)
She's everything he’s ever wanted. And he can never have her.
Errol Sin-Haros is a Scaeven Enforcer. He's dedicated his life to protecting innocent creatures from the brutal nature of his own race. Raised to detest every cruel and conquering instinct within himself, he keeps himself tightly leashed. Until her. Undercover at one of the human trafficking auctions, Errol sees Hadiza on the auction block. When he risks his cover to free her, he finds that his self-control is not as ironclad as he once thought. Hadiza is everything he never believed he could have, and the longer he stays with her, the closer he comes to breaking his own principles, and claiming her forever.
After leaving the military, former battlefield medic and military surgeon Hadiza Moreau just wants a quiet, peaceful life where she can leave the war behind. Instead, she finds herself captive aboard an alien vessel, along with twenty other women who are going to be auctioned off as mates for the male-only alien species. The aliens are bigger, stronger, and more technologically advanced than their human captives have any hope of fighting against. Just when Hadiza's resigned herself to a life of enslavement, hope appears in the form of one of the very creatures who are holding her captive.
Stranded and on the run from powerful enemies, Hadiza and Errol can't fight the impossible attraction growing between them--even if giving into it could destroy them both.
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I chose book 2 because this couple waits the longest to consummate a growing emotional bond that builds through their efforts to survive, but honestly this whole series was amazing. Errol is a race of aliens that has magic spit. Yes, you heard that right. Their spit and other bodily fluids is basically an aphrodisiac on steroids, which some use as a way to collect women (particularly humans because human women are more responsive) and force them in to non-consensual situations. The race has actually outlawed the act of using their fluids to take advantage of others and our man Errol is more or less part of a police force tasked with preventing others from doing it. So, he ends up liberating our girl Hadiza from a slave ship, but they have to land on a planet for a while to do ship repairs and during that time, the two end up bonding with each other. But Errol is trying DESPERATELY to avoid physical contact because he knows what it could do to Hadiza. Like, I’m pretty sure that a woman high on their spit goes into a sexual frenzy that lasts days and it can actually cause them to die of hunger or dehydration soooo.
I enjoyed that they were not fated. That they bonded through shared experiences. That Errol spent a majority of the book trying to control himself because he was so attracted to Hadiza. Errol was of course HOT and Hadiza I believe was like a really renowned doctor or something and she was very feisty.
I Caught Him so He’s Mine by Kaylee Pike
Sparks are flying between us, but not just the kind that come from sexual chemistry.
Nova
Ehnai claims he’s innocent, but most of my bounties do. He’s handsome and charming, but that’s easy enough to ignore. I’m called ‘the machine’ for a reason, and it’s not because of my cyborg arm. I remain cool and analytical in all aspects of my life. A job is a job, and delivering this man to The Duke is my job.
So why does this dirty-talking pirate throw me so far out of my comfort zone?
Ehnai
Nova has to be the sexiest bounty hunter in the universe. Perhaps that’s my excuse for getting caught so easily. I was drunk and horny, and she was there, threatening me with handcuffs. I love handcuffs.
Except she only wants to use the handcuffs for non-sexy stuff, which is no fun. And to make matters worse, when she collects her bounty, it may destroy everything I know and love. I need to escape, but every time I fight for my freedom, we end up hot and sweaty and naked.
Now our hate sex has broken Nova’s ship. We may be screwed, in more ways than one.
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book had me smiling from ear to ear for most of it. The characters were so hilarious and so much fun. This is another series of standalones all featuring different characters and relationships and I started with book 2 because it was the first one I came across. Enhai is a pirate and his species is very sexually driven. Male, female. It doesn’t matter. he’s attracted to all of it. They are just constantly corny. He’s red. He has a tail. He’s gorgeous. And the book opens with him getting drunk in a bar where he is confronted by Nova, a bounty hunter, who is after him for kidnapping. He claims it’s a misunderstanding and she doesn’t care because he’s a job. She of course catches him and he is just a total flirt who takes nothing seriously. Very Han Solo-esk. This book was action packed, funny, spicy, and just a fun read. I will say that I didn’t really care for the other books in the series, but this one was absolutely great and again, had nothing to do with fate, mail order brides, or any of that. Just good old fashioned light enemies turning into lovers.
The Carnal Games by Naudii Nebula
Compelled to compete in a twisted game, two deadly enemies will meet their fated revenge.
They will either kill each other or, worse...Fall in love. But only one can leave the arena alive. In The Carnal Games, the rules are simple: fight, conquer, win. Above all else, entertain.
Warning: The Carnal Games contain dark themes, full-throttle sci-fi action, a hostile Lolita Island-style planet, political intrigue, and a slow-burn romance with a promised HEA.Get your copy and join The Carnal Games today.
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a TRUE enemies to lovers (and if you know me, that’s another trope I’m constantly looking for, most of the time unsuccessfully because TRUE enemies to lovers is quite hard to come by. It’s very different from dislike to love or rivals to lovers. If you know you know) Durek and Karnin have hated each other for a long time. They’re on opposite sides of a war If I remember correctly and Karnin has been out for blood for years. They put each other through severe trauma in the past and they HATE each other. Unfortunately, they are both captured and are forced into something similar to the hunger games where they are set to kill each other for viewers, but not only that, they are also forced to do other things. It’s pretty intense. Not for the sensitive readers for sure. But as you may have guessed, being forced into a situation like that actually forces these two to get to know each other at a different level and they begin to care. It was a great read. Durek is as alien as aliens get. Karnin is NOT a damsel in distress. So, if you want something DIFFERENT, this is it.
Book 4 Edge of Eon by Anna Hackette
Framed for a crime she didn’t commit, a wrongly-imprisoned space captain’s only chance at freedom is to abduct a fearsome alien war commander.
Sub-Captain Eve Traynor knows a suicide mission when she sees one. With deadly insectoid aliens threatening to invade Earth, the planet’s only chance of survival is to get the attention of the fierce Eon Warriors. But the Eon want nothing to do with Earth, and Eve wants nothing to do with abducting War Commander Davion Thann-Eon off his warship. But when Earth’s Space Corps threaten her sisters, Eve will do anything to keep them safe, even if it means she might not make it back.
War Commander Davion Thann-Eon is taking his first vacation in years. Dedicated to keeping the Eon Empire safe, he’s been born and bred to protect. But when he’s attacked and snatched off his very own warship, he is shocked to find himself face-to-face with a bold, tough little Terran warrior. One who both infuriates and intrigues him.
When their shuttle is attacked by the ravenous insectoid Kantos, Eve and Davion crash land on the terrifying hunter planet known as Hunter7. A planet designed to test a warrior to his limits. Now, the pair must work together to survive, caught between the planet and its dangers, the Kantos hunting them down, and their own incendiary attraction.
My Rating⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read this book ages ago and I just remember that it was a very entertaining read. Anna enjoys adventurous, high action stories, badass women, and lots of spice. Edge of Eon is book 1 in the Eon Warriors series and it features a woman who is sent to abduct a very high ranking alien warlord or captain or something. She somehow succeeds but they end up crash landing on a planet that is used by his people as a training ground. In other words, it’s a hard environment to survive so, of course, they bond through survival and common grounds. At first its lusty, but it does turn into something more later. Again, this was very fast paced, action packed, and it was very fun.
Tell me whether you have read Alien romance before or if you’ve never touched the genre. And if you are as much a fan of the genre as I am, do you have the same gripes or am I just crazy? I’m curious.
#Alienromancebooks #fatedmates #courtneyleigh #indieromanceauthor #enemiestolovers #scifiromance #bookrecommendations
Comments