Book Recommendation
All I Wanted Was Sushi But I Got Abducted By Aliens Instead
The Storygraph link for this book contains information such as page count across various editions, publication date, and community-created content warnings.
All I Wanted Was Sushi But I Got Abducted By Aliens Instead is about… exactly what the title says! It's also the first book in the Bubble Babes series of erotic alien rom-com novellas.
Palerno provides content warnings within the book itself but not on her website, so I'm listing them here: death, hostages, human trafficking, kidnapping, needles, murder, grief, blood, gore, pregnancy, sexual content, and drugging. In spite of all of this, the book manages to remain incredibly lighthearted. Yes, the first scene features Opal, our cis female protagonist, being drugged with horny juice
after being freshly abducted by aliens and sent off to be an erotic dancer against her will. Nonetheless, I think one of several things that Palerno does well is keeping the tone fun and silly while still treating these dark topics with a measure of the gravitas that they deserve. Opal develops a fear of needles and refuses to be injected ever again after this incident, and once she is rescued from being a dancer by her cis male love interest, Ke'ain, her wishes are respected.
The plot of this not quite 200-page book is a rollercoaster from start to finish. We begin with a traffic jam on an alien planet, and end with a definite HEA featuring the abrupt ending of the galaxy-wide trafficking of human women by the alien Deenz. Some things I loved were that Opal is a plus-size babe, and her curviness and softness are seen as a definite plus by her lover. The book is very body positive, and has a scene where Opal decides not to shave (in the words of her new alien friends) her crotch mane,
to the approval of those around her. Likewise, she remains feisty, spunky, and full of heart without any disparaging remarks about her weight.
This book is also chock-full of spicy scenes. Like, a lot of spicy scenes. So many. I lost count of the number of orgasms Opal experienced at the hands, penis, tongue, and clitoral stimulation sucker (yes, really) of her aquatic alien lover, Ke'ain. Ke'ain also happens to be the prince of this planet, so Opal is falling in love with not just a person but the whole race of aliens she will help rule once the Deenz are taken care of.
The Fi'len (Ke'ain's species) experience a mating bond
where they find what are essentially soulmates, but—very interestingly—this is completely one-sided in an interspecies relationship; humans of course don't experience soulmate bonds, which can cause problems… problems that are explored further in the second book of the duology, All I Wanted Was To Become A Scientist But Now I've Got An Alien Boyfriend, which is about Jessy, a veteran human dancer who has been recently rescued and is now trying to piece the semblance of a normal-ish life back together.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was exactly the type of lighthearted, fun romp through space that I needed as the stress of my uni semester started to really ramp up, and I'm eager to pick up the sequel and learn about Jessy's messy relationship with Gra'eth, another Fi'len man of the planet's royal court.
You can acquire a digital copy of this book through Amazon Kindle. Signed paperback copies are available via the author's Etsy shop.
Have you read All I Wanted Was Sushi But I Got Abducted By Aliens Instead? Do you want to? If you have any questions or thoughts about the book, feel free to leave a comment in the box down below!