The Alien’s Vacation Fling: Mountain Lion is labeled the second book in the ‘Tourist Destination: Earth’ series. However, there is a book called The Alien’s Vacation Fling: Bear that is actually the first book because it involves Kyler and Ted who run the mountain retreat and its cabins, and they show up in every book. This particular story involves a mountain lion omega shifter named Ferris, and alien Alpha Vonel. It’s told in first person from both Ferris and Vonel’s pov.



This story is a bit more detailed in alien life than the previous two books. We get information on Vonel’s life on his planet, and how he ends up winning a trip to Earth from a swimming competition. Ferris is laid off from work and decides to start a new life away from the city because his mountain lion doesn’t like the confines of the city. The editing seemed a little better in this story than in the previous books. However, the authors used time jumps when the characters remembered events. The character would be thinking in the present, but they’d shift back to a past memory and then that memory was told as if it was in present time. Then the character would shift back to the real present time. I found the ways the memories were talked about confusing because they were both talked about as present time. I did like the interaction of Vonel with the cyborg commissioner.

The characters started out with distinct voices, but after a while Vonel lost his stilted speech, which one could imagine was due to the translator working better. I think that might be something the authors could explain in another story at some point, because as it was, it just made it sound like Vonel was no longer in character. There were instances when Ferris’ speech grew stilted, he sounded more like Vonel instead. It might be useful for the authors to work on character and voice consistency, because I’ve found character voice to be an issue in all of the books by these authors. There is some interesting alien sex, which is one of the fun things about this series. Alien sex and birthing sequences, which is easier to believe in than butt births.

Ferris and Vonel bonded over their love of swimming. I can understand Vonel’s love of swimming, it was well explained in the book. But I can’t understand Ferris’. I don’t think I’ve heard that mountain lions love water or are super strong swimmers for extended periods of time. I’m sure they can swim if they had too, but I can’t imagine them loving it, not like tigers. So, it was difficult for me to believe that Ferris was a water loving mountain lion. If the authors had made Ferris a tiger instead, I could have totally believed it because tigers love the water. I understand they probably wanted a creature that would blend in with the mountains. However, I believe the shifter in the next book is a dragon? Therefore, a tiger would’ve worked out fine if the authors are stretching the shifters to a dragon.

Overall, this book fits in well with the other books in this series and is an easy, quick read. There’s more background about the characters than in the first two books. Characters’ speech needs to be more consistent, and the swimming mountain lion didn’t work for me. I give The Alien’s Vacation Fling: Mountain Lion, 3 Stars. There’s nothing terribly wrong with the book, it just could’ve been a lot better.



I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )