I will admit to being swayed by social media on rare occasions. That’s how I wound up reading the first book in Kimberly Lemming’s Cosmic Chaos series, I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com. Everybody’s talking about it, and I’m glad I joined the conversation.

I won’t lie: it’s weird. But once I glanced through the looking glass at the world the author has built and accepted the Lemming reality, I was hooked. Strangely, I’m really struggling to give the book a substantive review beyond ‘read-this-book-because-it’s-quirky-and-fun-and-sexy.’ It’s more of a gut feeling, ya know?

Read it because it’s quirky. Dorothy Valentine is a wildlife biologist in the final stage of getting her PhD, studying meerkats out on the tundra and totally oblivious to the lion that attacks from behind. But, just as it’s closing its massive jaw, they’re zapped up by aliens. You read that correctly: at the moment of her death, Dorothy Valentine is abducted by aliens. Only, that asshole lion is sucked up, too. And being that they’re the only two beings on earth to survive the abduction, they sort of bond. And thanks to a saliva swap, they’re speaking each other’s language. Yes, Toto, the lion who once tried to eat Dorothy, is now her bestie. (And no, they’re not in Kansas any more.) See? Quirky.

Read it because it’s fun. Neither Dorothy nor Toto are shrinking violets. No, ma’am, they’re quite the opposite. Plucky and well-tempered, calm in the face of catastrophic change, resilient and resourceful. Lemming’s fast-paced dialogue is second only to her fast-paced story with fun activities occurring around the next corner, every time. Toto is a surprisingly good problem solver, and happy to follow Dorothy’s lead. They roll with it when Sol enters the picture, with his tall, blue, sexy AF good looks, horns and tail. They roll with it when the tiny owl-like alien captors reveal themselves. They even roll with it when Lok, an even taller, buffer, sexier AF alien with horns and a tail (and whisperings of being a war criminal) enters the picture and – *ahem* – both of them. Because when you’re swept up in an alien abduction that quickly reveals itself to be universe-wide, you can have a nervous breakdown and lay down and die, or you can grab your shit and get it done.

Read it because it’s sexy. This is the first Kimberly Lemming book I’ve read, and I’ve since gone back and read more. She’s super sex positive, and her characters aren’t shy with what they want and don’t want. Remember when, in Blazing Saddles, Clevon Little asks, “Whatchu like to do?” And Gene Wilder responds, “Oh, I don’t know … play chess, screw.” And Little exhales and suggests cheekily, “Well, let’s play chess.” Well, chess is not what Dorothy, Sol, and Lok settle on. I love the carbon-based intergalactic approach to alien beings being able to have sex. It’s that adage that everything lines up when you’re laying down, I guess. There’s always somewhere to put that pokey thing, right?

So on the surface, this campy, quirky book set on another alien world is about an abducted throuple of different species falling for each other. But when you delve deeper and your mind gets on board with the suspension of belief from an earth-centric story, this is a fun, sexy story with richly developed characters and smart world building.

I can’t wait to read the next book whenever it comes out, and I can’t wait to continue working my way through her backlist. Who knew sci-fi romance was my jam?