Book Recommendation

Stroopwafels & Starlight

by D. J. Russo

The Storygraph link for this book contains information such as the page count and publication date, as well as community-created content warnings.

Stroopwafels & Starlight is the second piece of D. J. Russo's City Aliens series—whose two installments can be read as standalones—and it was a delightful, lighthearted cycling ride from start to finish. Set in the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the entire book is a love letter to the city (where the author current lives!) and Dutch culture as well as chock-full of sexy good times.

Our FMC is Sanne, a young Dutch woman who is studying interior design and has no social life to speak of. She works at a café run by a Polish immigrant named Marta, who is a bit of a nagging mother figure to Sanne. Our MMC is Five, an alien consort (read: sex slave) who has recently escaped from captivity and fled across the galaxy. He comes to Earth purely by chance, crashing his spaceship in the process, and now needs to find another ship in order to continue running from his pursuers. In Stroopwafels & Starlight, the POV switches between Sanne and Five, both of which are told in the first person.

Five is tall, muscular, and purple. He has wings and a tail, and in Sanne's POV sections her internal narration likens him to a gargoyle. Sanne is a beautiful, white human woman, although she doesn't think of herself as beautiful at all and struggles with self-esteem. She feels that she's bad at sex because her previous boyfriend (who took all of their mutual friends in the breakup) couldn't satisfy her and make her orgasm.

I really liked D. J. Russo's sensitivity to readers' potential need for content warnings. The book does come with them, which was very sweet, along with a short, easy to remember glossary of Dutch phrases and words to better equip the reader for this fun romp through Eindhoven. Once Sanne and Five agree to become sexually intimate, there's a nice discussion about boundaries as well, which I thought was good. This isn't a slow burn romance by any stretch of the imagination, and both of the characters are aware that they're rushing into a more physically intimate relationship with each other. They talk about it.

Five's biological need for sexual energy (he uses sexual energy as nourishment rather than food), which sparks Sanne's intimacy with him, doesn't come back to bite the couple later; instead, Russo crafts a (for the most part) gentle and fun narrative about interspecies love when one party is lonely and lost (Sanne) and the other is traumatized and also lost (Five). Ultimately, they find refuge with each other. There is a scene where Five is triggered by Sanne performing a seemingly innocuous social behavior that reminds him of his former owners, but it's touched upon with a very light hand in a way that I don't believe many readers would find upsetting.

Where Russo's talent really shines in this short book is making domesticity and young love bring a setting to life. Five and Sanne are in love, and their growing adoration for each other lets the reader stroll through Eindhoven alongside them and see the city through rosy-tinted glasses. It's Carnaval, there are bicycles and funny costumes, and at the end of the day there are also hot chocolate and stroopwafels. I started reading this book in the middle of a depressive episode, and its low stakes and coziness helped me pull myself out of the mire. It's a quick read, but definitely a good one, and I can't recommend it enough if you're in need of a sweet, sexy read with coffee and a stroopwafel at your elbow.

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