I went into this book with some real trepidation because I don't like spiders in real life, but the explanations of the culture and the portrayal of the main male character as an alien, and thinking of him as an alien did help me overall.

Right at the start there was some confusion when thrown into what was going on with Ketahn, the offerings and the differences between males and females Etc. But I liked having a long chunk at the start of the book from his point of view only, it gives us a chance to see what is going on with him, some of his personality and character, and how he finds Ivy.

Their early interactions were amusing and felt moderately realistic, how she's afraid of him and how they learn to start communicating.

I know there was discussion of Ivy's past on Earth, and how she was thrown out by her parents for sleeping with some guy who brutalized and used her... this led to her having certain insecurities and also dreams for her future, which I appreciated.

The Queen is definitely a huge conflict throughout the book, and her story is not resolved. I had not realized this was a trilogy following only one couple, I assumed that the other books would be following Ketahn's friends and them finding love (possibly with humans).

I was a little surprised/ also rolling my eyes to have the main characters both having lusty attraction early on? Their 'explorations' were interesting, but I would think that these feelings would have made more sense to form after friendship and connections had been established. I will say overall this is a Slow Burn, as sexual content does not happen until about the 80% point. I don't know why I hadn't seen the suspension elements coming, but I was surprised. It made a lot of sense for his culture, and I think was handled well.

There was a cliffhanger ending, and I am interested to see where this series goes, because I have some guesses about what might happen but I'm not sure how any of my guesses would work with having Ivy around. I do want to continue this series though.

Many reviewers point out that there is a lot of world building, setting, culture built in and I found it to be plenty to enjoy and sink my teeth into. And though sometimes it lowered the tension or slowed the pacing down, I enjoyed it whereas many others found it to be boring because of the wordiness. I like that there was not a magical fix to the language barrier, and yet also was not a huge slog to work through. Some reviewers felt that the fix was too fast though. I enjoyed the inclusion of how he used his mandibles or whatever they were to mimic facial expressions, I thought that was a cute element. One reviewer points out that Ivy is not really a part of the book because she doesn't meet any other characters and only interacts with Ketahn and they fall in love in a bubble in the jungle. And also points out that Ivy was relatively worthless as a partner who could not fend for herself or contribute-- I feel weirdly both yes and no about this?