Alienated by Melissa Landers - Book Review

Alienated by Melissa Landers Series: Alienated #1 Published by: Disney Hyperion on February 4th, 2012 Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Genre: Science Fiction Source: Purchased Rating: 3/5 Buy the Book   or    Add it to Goodreads!
FROM GOODREADS:  Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. 
Handpicked to host the first-ever L'eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she'll have inside information about the mysterious L'eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara's blog following is about to skyrocket.
Still, Cara isn't sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L'eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn't seem more alien. She's certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.
But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-Leihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.
Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn't just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life- not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.
MY THOUGHTS:
Alienated by Melissa Landers was...an interesting book. I think that's a valid way to describe my feelings towards it. I had my ups and downs with Alienated, honestly. But don't let that write you off just yet! Alienated is told from two POVs, Cara and Aelyx. I really enjoyed Cara's snarkiness. If there is anything I love about a female protagonist more than anything, it is totes the snark shark. I don't even know what that means, but it sounded good in my head. Aelyx was kind of a dry voice at first, but I know that was mostly because his alien-ness contributes to his non-feeling so I got that. No big deal. I grew to love him throughout every chapter of his, even while he was doing some rather messed-up things to doom all of us humans. 
I really liked this book, BUT. There's always a but, right? There were a few things that just irked me about the story and the characters.
Let me warn you in advance. This next paragraph may or may not be EXTREMELY full of ranting. Once I started to rant, my finger's just wouldn't stop. There may be ***Mild Spoilers*** below so proceed with caution. 
First of all, I strongly disliked Cara's ex. OH MY GODS. I wanted to smack him across the face so hard. I have no idea what Cara ever saw in him, because he was totally a complete jack-ass. Apparently he wasn't always like that, but the fact of the matter was that he changed and she stayed with him for quite awhile after those changes AND LET HIM TREAT HER LIKE CRAP. I know a lot of females in YA books do this, but for some reason, it really just irked the crap out of me this time. Thankfully she ends it pretty quickly into the book. Now, after that, I rather enjoyed this book. If you would have asked me what I thought about this book until the last 50 pages or so, I more than likely would have told you that it was amazing and given it a 4 or 4.5 rating. The main reason(s) I'm giving it a 3 (which is still a good rating!), it would be because of how quickly Cara was to forgive Aelyx and one other character in this book. Up until the last few chapters, I was rooting for Cara. I felt that I had really connected with her, because I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone extremely close to you. And that betrayal was #1 on the Girl Code List. I just don't know how she was able to forgive that easily. I never would have been able to do that. Also with Aelyx, I felt that she forgave him too quickly as well. I mean, he did some messed up shitoki mushrooms to her and to our whole planet, ultimately doomed everything to fiery gates of hell, and all she does is cry for a few days and refuse to see him? WTH?! I understand that maybe the author was trying to convey that you should forgive people, but some things (like these) should take a little bit longer to forgive and forget about. 
END RANT. (I think)
*Ahem* Sorry, guys. I had sat on my feelings about those things a little longer than I should have. They stewed much too long, because I am seriously curling my lip with frustration while I write this. Other than those things I mentioned in my ranty rant, I really liked Alienated. It has some super steamy scenes inside the pages that had me fanning myself. Dear Lord, where can I get a L'eihr (that likes humans) for myself? If anything, those few scenes were definitely worth buying the book for, but Alienated had a lot more to offer than just those. Cara is a blogger, and interspersed throughout Alienated are little blog posts that Cara has written. I really enjoyed reading those! I wish there would have been a little more of that, though. 
I felt like Melissa Landers really captured how people would react if something like this ever did happen. People would be crazy. It was terrifying watching how people treated Cara, Aelyx, and anyone who was a L'eihr Lover in general. If you are a fan of Jennifer Armentrout's snarky writing style, I think you would enjoy Alienated. Overall, if just a few things would have been a little different, I think I would have enjoyed Alienated more, but I'm still looking forward to getting my hands on book two just to see what happens next. I'm really intrigued about Cara going to L'eihr, and look forward to seeing what she thinks of it. I give three hearts to Alienated, because while it was a pretty good read, I'm still just too irked about those things to give it anymore love than that. 
Also if you missed it and were interested, I recreated the cover of Alienated (with my dogs) for my weekly feature, Cover Puppies a few weeks ago!

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