Heat Factor: Ana tells Kit she’s a good girl so you *know* there’s some heat here.

Character Chemistry: The Goddess has decreed it!

Plot: Kit escaped from a lab; Ana has hunted her down and is going to return her. Time for a road trip (to pound town)!

Overall: I liked that this book surprised me.

So everyone’s got their niche subgenres where they see a book in that subgenre and are like, “Oh yes, I will read this book.” Erin likes M/M hockey romances, for example. For me, it’s lesbians in space. I don’t know why.

Anyway, if you’re like me and you also are interested in lesbians in space, this book features fated mates, above-average sexytimes (edging AND praise kink!), mysterious space magic, evil scientists, interesting worldbuilding, and a non-enraging black moment.

The basic premise is that Kit was kidnapped from her homeworld by an evil scientist who brought her to his lab to study her magic. Yes, her people have magic, which they believe is given to them by their deity. She and her familiar—yes, she has a black cat who comes everywhere with her—managed to escape and are laying low and trying to figure out what the heck to do.

Ana’s idiot younger brother has some gambling debts and is being held hostage by the evil scientist. Ana is a military veteran who also happens to be a Beast hybrid; this means that not only does she have skills, she also can track people based on their scent.

And Kit smells delicious.

The impasse between these two is that Kit definitely does not want to go back to that lab, and that Ana can’t just leave her brother in the lurch. Initially, their conflict is about Kit trying to escape and Ana blocking those attempts. But eventually, Ana’s guilt about doing this job that is definitely *not* serving the greater good (not to mention their mutual attraction) means that their relationship shifts into “how are we going to get out of this mess?”

This is where things get interesting. (Stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers!)

So, based on the set up, I was expecting the climax of the book to be Kit and Ana storming the lab together. You know, the pressure slowly builds as they work together to fix this impossible situation and then big shootout scene!

That’s not what happens.

They land on the planet, and both Kit and Ana go into a trance (thanks, Goddess)! And Kit activates her powers, which have been dormant but woke up now that she’s had sex with her fated mate. And Kit burns down the entire lab because she happens to have fire magic. The whole thing takes a few paragraphs.

What makes this so interesting is that this scene, which in an action story arc would be the climax, is used to precipitate an emotional crisis for the characters. The climactic conflict is about how they deal with the fallout of seeing each other differently based on the things they did during the breakout. To wit: Kit scares the shit out of Ana, and Ana can’t be sure that Kit won’t just light things on fire with her mind if she gets angry in the future. These powers are new—does Kit really have control over them? Everything is not automatically hunky-dory just because the evil scientist has been eliminated. Instead, our lovebirds go their separate ways because of fear and hurt and anger and mistrust. This choice shifts the arc of the story away from the expected action to one that relies on emotional beats—and puts us back into the familiar romance territory of break up, regret it, and grovel. I liked that the author played with my genre expectations.

I should mention that there was one thing about this book that I didn’t love, and that was some of the race characterization.

Ana, as I mentioned before, is a “Beast hybrid.” She is really good at smelling things, has horns, and is enormous. She is sexually dominant. Ana is also a Black woman. While Ana is an awesome, well-rounded, nuanced character, I couldn’t help but think about the history of portraying Black women as animalistic and (sexually) aggressive. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but I wanted to flag that this made me feel weird.

On the other hand, Lily X writes interracial romance. And I might also be flagging this book if Kit—the curvy woman who lives in a tribal society and practices nature magic—were the Black woman in the relationship.

I don’t have a good answer here.

Let’s wrap this bad boy up. Here’s my TL;DR: I enjoyed this book. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to all romance readers, but if you’re into sexy f/f romance then I say, why not give this one a shot? You, too, might become obsessed with lesbians in space.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

Running away from a scientist who wants to harness the powers of her tribe to create superbeings, Kit gets caught by Ana, who would rather do anything than kidnap pretty women. A retired Commander in the peacekeeping corps, the beast hybrid only accepted the job in the hopes of saving her brother’s life. Pretty soon, on the ship flying them to Sentinel 5, Kit comes to the realization that Ana is meant to be hers.

Even more than Stay With Me, this second book in the New World series is erotica with a sci-fi plot, with the accent clearly on erotica. What could have been a thrilling action scene is over in the blink of an eye, for example. Clearly, the author cares more about the relationship between the MCs than about the plot. And let’s be honest, said relationship – enemies to lovers who become lovers real quick – is hot, despite a definite element of omegaverse, which isn’t really my thing.

New World: Made for Me is fun to read but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the previous book, which set the universe and had a more intriguing premise. Lily X insists a lot on the size difference and with Ana calling Kit kitten and always thinking of her or talking to her as small or little, I got an uncomfortable feeling of a very young girl. Which Kit isn’t. She’s 28 and a schoolteacher. And an extremely powerful being. I was also surprised that the author named Kit’s tribe Maga, which I guess was chosen in relation to magic but still feels strange, as does the use of the word chakra. I think I understand what Lily X meant but one of the best things with sci-fi is the possibility to create new words and I wish she’d taken the opportunity instead of using one that means so much to an existing culture.

This story can be read as a standalone but knowing the world it’s set in will help. And there’s a cameo from the couple from Stay With Me that will add to the enjoyment. The third book, Own Me, will be released on October 18th.

Really good book. Kept me engaged from beginning all the way to the end. The main characters were very well fleshed out and the romance was very sweet as well. I liked that this was part paranormal and romance all rolled into one story. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family,and this will not be the only book that I read from this author.

Yet another lovely sapphic romance with a sci-fi backdrop by Lily X. This could be read as a standalone, but I think reading book one first would only benefit the reader by having background on the world these stories take place; plus the cameo of our book one couple makes this book all the sweeter.

This book follows the relationship of Ana (who we met in book one) and Kit. Kit is on the run, having escaped a mad scientist trying to harvest her powers. Ana, due to unfortunate circumstances, is tasked with hunting down Kit and returning her to said scientist. Ana tracks down Kit, plops her onto the ship, and sets off on the two week trip to their destination. Over the course of the journey, Kit realizes some truths about Ana, Ana is undeniably attracted to Kit, and the two come to navigate their feelings for each other. And there's a cat.

Overall, this was a quick, fun read. There's some paranormal elements mixed into the sci-fi that I thought were quite neat. Ana gives big Domme energy and Kit is her accompanying brat. The forced proximity was great, I'm not big on fated mates but I thought it was done well, and I didn't know I would end up crying when I read "I see you".

I would recommend this for anyone itching for a light spicy, yet charming, sci-fi romance read. :)

This was a fantastic read - I was so drawn in by the characters’ sizzling chemistry that I finished the book in one day. The author has a rare talent in being able to create such a sexy dynamic between the main characters. However, not having read the previous book in the series, there were certain elements (for example, what Beasts are) that I didn’t get and that could have been explored further. The universe building suffered a little because of that. Either way though, I still enjoyed the book very much and will definitely read the rest of the series.

"New World: Made for Me" tells the story of Kit, a woman on the run, and Ana, the bounty hunter sent to track her down. Over the course of the book the two meet, fight, and fall for each other - but Ana's still being pursued by a scientist with dark motives, and now Ana needs to figure out how to get them both out of this situation alive.

I love a good sapphic romance, and this ticks even more boxes for me - good chemistry, well-written smut, and on top of everything else the story is set in space! Although we don't learn much about the extraterrestrial world that surrounds Kit and Ana's romance, it still provides a good backdrop for the plot, and it's clear Lily X has put a fair amount of thought into her worldbuilding. The story was told through first-person POVs that alternate every chapter - one chapter will be narrated by Kit, the next by Ana, and then Kit again, and so on. Normally this type of storytelling throws me off, but Lily X uses character voice and context to easily distinguish which character is telling the story, and I was only confused about the narrator a couple of times. This was a quick, easy romance read. The conflicts are realistic in relation to the fantastical world Lily X presents, and they're tied up neatly by the end of the book in a way that was satisfying. The protagonists get their HEA - it's super sweet!

There were a couple things in "Made for Me" that didn't really click with me. After they first have sex, Ana starts to refer to Kit with the pet name "kitten". It was cute for a while, but then it started to get repetitive in a way that felt weird. Kit's also really bratty during sex, and while both characters are into it, it just felt weird to me. I'm sure it's someone else's thing - just not mine. There's also a lot of discussion of mating and finding the perfect Mate, which was a bit too Omegaverse for me. Other than those pretty nit-picky things, I still loved their romance. It didn't feel insta-love-y and watching the two characters fall for each other was sweet, especially with the alternating POV format.

Something else that felt weird was Kit's background. Kit practices a cultural, matriarchal religion that is linked to her magical abilities. I loved this idea! But as I kept reading, I was surprised that instead of making up specific in-world terms to describe aspects of Kit's religion, Lily X uses preexisting terms - including referring to Kit's magical energy source as her chakra. This felt out of place in a sci-fi book, especially because Lily X seemed to have no problem with strong worldbuilding. It also felt weird because the concept of a chakra is (as far as I know) linked to Hindu and Buddhist ideology, and the Kit is described as white. She's frequently referred to as pale and red-haired, and though I understand that none of the characters in "Made for Me" are exactly humans, it still feels strange to see Lily X using a chakra here. After I learned that the author describes herself as coming from a "brown family" I felt more comfortable with some of her choices, but reading this out of context still felt strange. Similarly, Ana is described as physically larger and more intimidating than Kit, with a military background. She "growls" her words when she's angry. Unlike Kit, Ana has more non-human features like horns. She's also described as having darker skin and her hair is always referred to as being in "locs", a term not used in relation to Kit. It feels strange that Ana, who as far as I can tell is coded as Black, is frequently more aggressive and "dominant" than her lighter-skinned counterpart. I've seen this trope played out pretty frequently in romances, and it never sits right with me. Again, it's nice knowing that the author is a woman of color, but it still felt uncomfortable enough that I took off a star for it.

All this aside, "New World: Made for Me" still holds as a solid sapphic romance, with a short enemies-to-lovers plot, chases through space, and well-written smut scenes. Although not all of it was right up my alley, I'm sure this would be the perfect read for lots of people. I'd highly recommend to anyone looking for a "the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one" kind of trope, characters working through their trauma together, smut with strong plot behind it, or just a sapphic space romance in general.

This is the second book I read in this series which is becoming very interesting. Poignant and well developed, a story that kept me hooked till the end.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is a great crossover between sci-fi and smut (4.5). I love a bit of well-written smut set in an interesting world. The romp happens in its own little universe of friends who find their partners. And the friends are certainly diverse: beasts, mage, feline, POC, non-POC, farmer, blue-collar, highly educated. Very good. This time (2nd in the series) it is upright Ana’id who is caught between a rock and a hard place. I loved to get a glimpse into the magical world of Kit and see the inner demons of Ana’id - well done and with more depth. The author paints this „new world“ with bold strokes I would love to see some more details - I am sure that would enhance this series even more. I didn’t like that the root situation was left not quite resolved (is the other shoe gonna drop?).

Trigger warnings: PTSD and intense war scenes, torture, attempted rape

Thanks to Carina for an ARC. I wrote the review voluntarily.

I have never had three words break me as hard as the "I see you" written in this book. This is such an emotionally charged read. From battle field flashbacks, to a mad scientist, to desperation, to magic, to mates and mating.... I was delectably exhausted by the end. I could NOT put this book down, it has everything from every genre beautifully written into the chapters.

It is the second book in the series... do you have to read the first book to enjoy this one? No, but the friendship Ana shares with two characters back home does hit more sentimental notes if you've read the first book. I was thrilled to see my two favorite leading ladies make some cameos in this one. It made me remember why I absolutely love all the worlds Lily X is building and these amazing women? They are each so unique and wonderful to get to know on the page. Cannot wait for the next in the series.