We Are Nepenthe is an ongoing series featuring romances between humans and tentacle-wielding telepathic shape-shifting aliens who need hosts to incubate their eggs. The stories are intriguing and erotic, dappled with fascinating anatomical and cultural differences.
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Book 1: Nepenthe — Novella Collection
🥭🥭🥭🥭.5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️.5
(you can find my rating and spice system here)
POV & Tense: Multi POV (but single POV per story), third limited, past tense
Genre: Alien Romance, MF Romance x 2, MM Romance, Science Fiction
Tropes/Themes: First Contact, Forced Proximity, Tentacles with Oviposition, Deal for Survival, Fated Mates
tw: dubcon (the first story is very dubcon, bordering on SA)
Synopsis:
Two races — humans and aliens — flee the destruction of their respective homes and land on a foreign planet with hopes for the future, only to find the surface inhospitable. The humans are dying and the Nepenthe need hosts for their eggs. They can survive if they work together.
HYPATIA — Dying alone on a caustic planet, unable to communicate with the other outposts, Hypatia thinks she’s hallucinating when a gorgeous man appears. But he’s no man — he has ten tentacles and a clutch of eggs in need of a host. He’s also the Ptolarch, the leader of an alien race.
YESMÍN — The Nepenthe offer the human survivors a deal: if the women host the Nepenthe eggs, the Nepenthe will provide food and sustenance for all the humans until they can find a viable planet. Yesmín, the self-appointed leader of the remaining humans, is wary that Hypatia may have been coerced. She volunteers to receive a clutch of eggs so she may report back to the others so they may make informed decisions.
KIRAL — There’s more to Kiral than meets the eye. He’s a keen observer, an opportunist, and an excellent liar. While he can’t host eggs — only human women can do so — he finds his match in the equally mysterious Mur Desh.
My eggs only come one at a time. We will be here into the night before I implant them all.
My Review:
Hypatia
There’s no getting around the dubcon aspects of the story, but I will say there’s an overtone of love to the coupling between Hypatia and Io Rae. He finds her on the verge of death and instantly feels drawn to her. He claims her to host to his eggs, and titles her Ptolara, giving her the status of his official mate. From a human perspective, things should have happened in a different order — save her, then give her a choice. From an alien perspective (the Nepenthe females are vicious, and the males must subdue them to mate or else risk death) the coupling is very gentle, ensuring her pleasure and her survival. This is the shortest of the three stories, but I really enjoyed it.
Yesmín
Octavia Hyde has done an excellent job pairing up her aliens and her humans. Yesmín isn’t easily influenced and wants to make sure the humans get a fair bargain (and that everything is transparent). She pairs up with the Magistrand, Dae Keth, the second-in-command, who is also a stickler for details. I really enjoyed this pairing. Told from the POV of Dae Keth, there are humorous moments — Dae Keth isn’t sure how to mate a human and must ask Io Rae for advice — and there are deeper, emotional moments hinting that this may be more than a pairing of convenience.
The human didn’t know what to make of their joining. Neither did Dae Keth. It wasn’t as though either of them had ever mated outside their species. Her internal tissues shifted, caressing his sheath. All his limbs were intact, which could not always be said for a successful coupling with one of his own kind.
Kiral
I enjoyed the undertones of mystery set up with the pairing of Kiral and Mur Desh. Kiral has lived his life by the code of telling whatever lie will yield the biggest advantage. But the Nepenthe are telepathic so he cannot lie to the attractive alien who has caught his attention. Kiral must settle for telling the truth, no matter how uncomfortable and vulnerable it makes him feel. While Kiral isn’t capable of hosting alien eggs, there are other ways they are well-matched (and well matched they are indeed). I feel like the ending of this segment is setting up future events, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
They were so close they might have kissed, had the Nepenthe known what that was. The alien had a scent. Like green things. Kiral swallowed.
Nepenthe by Octavia Hyde (We Are Nepenthe Book 1)
Book 2: Host — Novel
🥭🥭🥭🥭.5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
POV & Tense: Single POV, third limited, past tense
Genre: Alien Romance, MF Romance with MMF moments, Science Fiction
Tropes/Themes: Forced Proximity, Tentacles with Oviposition, Deal for Survival, Fated Mates, Breeding for Science (yes, it’s all for science), Mating Fugue
Synopsis:
Ea Nir, Nepenthe medipract, and human geneticist Alyss, and paired together by Yesmín. It’s a coupling of necessity, but also a meeting of minds. They are both inquisitive and determined to document the proceedings, and when Ea Nir is curious about the human mating process, Alyss is happy to demonstrate with her colleague, Farrokh Rajavi. After all, it’s all for science.
A miracle we stumbled onto a compatible species, at all. We should count ourselves lucky. But Ea Nir didn’t want to be lucky. He wanted to be worthy.
My Review:
While the first installment was a novella with three stories, Host is a full-length novel featuring one pairing/throuple. We see Ea Nir and Alyss paired off my Yesmín during Kiral’s story, and I was curious about what would happen between them. This is their story. The sex in this story is of the ‘clinical’ variety, which I found both hilarious and hot (I love stories that can bring the humor and the heat). Alyss is curious about the scientific and cultural differences between the Nepenthe and humans, and this is an opportunity to explore.
The Nepenthe do not wear clothing, so Alyss, much to her lab assistant Farrokh’s dismay, has no qualms about shedding her clothing and going through a matter-of-fact demonstration about the differences between the male and female forms. Even though the story is told through Ea Nir’s POV, I got such a good sense of Alyss and Farrokh. I enjoyed the banter and the emotions that fluttered below the surface (both between Alyss and Ea Nir, and Alyss and Farrokh).
Her bold speech about them being the first to record these encounters had aroused both men to leaking fluids.
Host by Octavia Hyde (We Are Nepenthe Book 2)
Final Thoughts:
We Are Nepenthe is an intriguing in-progress series for science fiction romance and tentacle lovers alike. One of my favorite things is the differences between the characters (they’re all SO different) and their respective pairings (they are all very well-matched). As this is an ongoing series, there is a sense of more to come (each story finishes with the feeling like it’s leading somewhere else). I’ll eagerly await the third installment, Chimera.
Author Stalking (but not in a creepy way):
Octavia Hyde is the author of captivating shapeshifting alien tentacle romance.
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~~If you like spicy books with tentacles, check out my SPICY TENTACLE REC LIST~~
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