I thought this was simply a 7th book to a series that I needed to read in order to complete it. Because I'm a completionist. But I think this had a dual purpose perhaps - instead of just being a story, there was a lot of name-dropping...of people I have never heard of. Probably authors, possibly fans - who knows. Apparently one needs in depth knowledge of the fandom and the other writers in the genre to really know what some characters are talking about. It's also kind of jarring for the author to write herself into the story. Not hating it, just very unexpected.
As for the story itself, the two main characters Brigitte and Phyr are very similar to other couples in the series. He's an alien warrior who is intrigued by the idea of taking unwilling women to the marriage market for the thrill of acquisitions and sales. She's a plus size lady who balks at being abducted, but allows her hormones to pretty much do her in every time. It's because of her hormones that Phyre finds it so incredibly easy to humiliate and irritate her at every turn. Which becomes frustrating for the reader because, good God, couldn't she get the best of him just once? His brand of arrogance is so not charming. Especially when he forces her to barter oral sex for clothes. He's a misogynistic ass who never matures and doesn't learn very much throughout the story. He's never even remotely nice to her, so why does she fall in love with him? Because he's purple and sexy?
What I found extremely disturbing in this story though is the acceptance of human trafficking. It's one thing when the alien race trafficks earthlings because they're alien, with crazy, different actions and beliefs that set them apart from humans. In most cases they learn their lesson about it. Even as the aliens learn about it, the humans in the story are always adamant that it is NOT okay to sell other humans. But in this case, there are two human women who encourage it, one of them being the author herself in character. She actually arranges for 12 women to volunteer for what they think is a pretend-abduction, only for them to find out they're actually being kidnapped to be sold on a marriage market, against their will. The heroine also supports human trafficking when she suggests that they go back to Earth for more, since everyone needs a purple hunk. Well, what we don't get to see is the experience of the other 11 women who were sold in marriage to alien men, so how do we know things turned out well for them? I get it, it's just a light-hearted, fun story and I need to lighten up, but this is just personal for me. I just really don't find this topic very sexy.