Rating: 4/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 I came across this book last month but didn't feel a need to read it right away. While I love the sci-fi genre, I don't normally read books about "aliens." I think my only other experience with them was in the Lorien Legacies series but I could be wrong. Anyway, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to. 
 Alienated takes place 2 years after the "aliens" on planet L'eihr made contact. In an attempt to make an alliance, Earth and L'eihr agreed to send a few of their citizens to the other planet. Cara's family will have one of these aliens, Aelyx, and Cara's brother will go to L'eihr. When Aelyx first comes to Earth with 2 other friends from his planet, he detests humans. He wants nothing to do with them and thinks of them as inferior. But Cara isn't what he expected from humans, and he feels oddly drawn to her despite her humanity. 
 A large portion of this book consisted of romance between Aelyx and Cara. I thought this bit was really sweet, actually. Cara kept trying to make Aelyx feel at home, and Aelyx kept trying to make Cara happy but at the same time was trying to understand humans. They have a cute competitive relationship and I loved that. Even though the plot of the book was really slow, the romance between them kept me happy throughout the book. 
 A lot of people were bored while reading this, and I can understand that. If you're not into the romance aspect of this book, there isn't really much else to offer. It takes a really long time to delve into the actual story as opposed to the romance. While the story isn't the strongest, I found the writing and romance enough to keep me reading. 
 Overall, I found this book quite enjoyable. I'd recommend it to sci-fi fans that don't mind a lot of romance in their books. If you're not into romance novels, I don't think you'd enjoy this book very much. But for those who enjoy both genres like I do, definitely give it a try.