The Wildborn follows Airik, brought up to be a morazir, a warrior forced to serve the Veynari, who have made it a point to conquer civilizations. Airik must live with the oaths of a morazir, specifically to remain untouched, untaken and unconquered. When Airik is given the task of decommissioning a planet, he sees a rogue spacecraft heading towards the planet and he pursues it in time to see it crash. Rather than follow the rules that he should, he decides to rescue the occupant within, a young woman named Nora. This book also follows Nora, a young woman who had been living on a space station until her uncle forces her to flee from an unknown threat. Now Nora is at the mercy of an alien soldier who is determined to keep her alive but is bound by his oaths that mean his touch is only meant to destroy. Now forced to stick together, they go on foot in search of something to send word back for a rescue to come to their aid. Airik is determined to keep to his oaths but there is something enticing about Nora that makes him remember things he thought he'd lost in his childhood and their connection begins an irresistible pull between them that Airik is set on keeping once they leave the planet. As time passes and the pair grow closer, Airik has to consider the truth that the Veynari won't allow one of their soldiers to be weakened by something like love. In order to keep what he has found with Nora, Airik will have to find a way to keep her safe from the world he came from after finding a way to rescue her from a planet they are both stranded on.
The world in this book is in a way, terrifying to behold. The idea of this empire in space that has made it a point of taking over different civilizations and the various experiments that they commission is horrible enough but then we're given the details about how the morazir are chosen in childhood and the fact that only so many of these kids survive to adulthood and it just all serves to highlight exactly what kind of force is at work here. Torani gave the readers an interesting start to the book, showing Airik's parents and then parts of his childhood to add emphasis to the fact that Airik is considered a "wildborn". His parents truly loved each other and rather than allow for him to be modified in the womb, his parents chose to keep him as he was naturally meant to be. The fact that this kind of thing is controlled is chilling to think about and then add that to the fact that the Veynari take from everything, and this force driving Airik is like the boogeyman, always in the background, something that adds a hint of threat to every moment. It's something that Airik has been unable to escape and yet, once Nora enters the picture, readers are able to understand exactly what is at stake when Airik begins to consider a different future.
I thought the fact that Torani made this book a dual-narrative really helped to highlight the differences between how the two leads were raised and yet how they are able to connect through their losses, proving that personal struggles transcend the conflict of aliens versus humanity. The detail given to the planet that Airik and Nora are stranded on also served to emphasize what the Veynari would commission and how quickly they would be to get rid of something they have no use for. The planet is contaminated by a contagion that they are determined to get rid of and this threat is something that Airik is personally familiar with. Seeing the effects of it on the plants and wildlife give the book a threat that they can deal with in the present moment but it also can have lasting effects on the whole of the universe if it is left the way that it is currently. There is also the threat of whatever forced Nora's uncle to evacuate his niece from the space station. Altogether, the world of this story is a threatening place and our leads will be forced to contend with many different obstacles over the course of not only this book but several more installments, to say the least.
As for the characters, I can't rave enough about Airik and Nora and Lucky and Torren. Each of these characters worked their way into my heart and I have not been able to let them go yet. I think these people will be living in my head and my heart for the foreseeable future, I just can't let them go yet. I felt so much sorrow for Airik and the losses he had and I rooted for him from the start to let himself fall for Nora because he deserved something more for his life, something his parents had and which he deserved to have as well. As for Nora, I wanted to help this poor girl to find peace. I wished I could have helped her more for the losses she had in childhood and I really admire the way Torani handled the themes of grief and destructive thoughts with Nora. It felt realistic in the sense that while Nora had received therapy, she still felt the things she did because of her environment and the adult influences she had in her formative years. I was so grateful that these two characters found each other and were able to if not move on, at least find a common ground that would help them find ways to process their trauma in a healthier way and fall in love.
I want a Lucky for myself, I LOVED this little animal companion, quickly taken in by Nora to become a formidable animal companion for the rest of the book. I loved how Lucky became a member of their family, how Airik trusted Lucky to take care of Nora and how Nora trusted Lucky to find Airik when she needed him. All books need an animal companion and Lucky is one of the best ones I've seen in any book. As for Torren, I loved how he was the one piece of Airik's childhood that was determined to stick around. Torren literally calls himself Airik's "brother" and is happy to repeat that to anyone, especially when he knows that Airik is denying it. Their relationship was heart-warming and each time he came back into the story, I knew I was in for some heartwarming scenes between the two morazir. I can't wait to see what comes next for each of these characters in future installments.
As for the plot and themes, Torani has made something beautiful here with the careful handling of Nora and Airik and their trauma. Nora broke my heart with her belief that she wasn't worth love and when the truth was revealed, I wanted to swoop in and rescue her alongside Airik. Torani worked the themes of grief with a careful attention to the way grief has a way of changing the mindset of the individual, showing Nora and her disregard for her safety until Airik starts to make it his point to keep her safe. I also appreciated the fact that Torani didn't have Nora and Airik automatically healed by their new relationship. The foundation is there to make changes for the future but the healing will take time to truly take effect, if there is ever a way to completely heal from trauma. There are no easy solutions to the issues in this book and I love that.
The journey to get off the planet is only the start of the many plot threads in this book that have been planted here to expand into future stories. There is also the issue of the substance on the planet that Airik is meant to decommission, a substance that could kill everyone that inhales it. Alongside the threat of the Veynari, both of these threats will be major players in the future that will force Airik, Nora, Lucky and Torren into new trials that I can't wait to read. It also bears mentioning that the spicy scenes in this book felt like a natural progression to the relationship between the characters. This wasn't done to be gratuitous, the spice was added to enhance the connection already building between the leads and it felt like a necessary part of their new love. I adore when books take their time with the spicy scenes because when done right, they feel earned and the new level to the relationship feels important with the physical added in with the mental connection that already existed between the characters. There is spice because all new love stories have spice eventually and it was not added in to hide the fact that the leads don't understand each other as individuals or cared about each other before the physical became a component of their relationship.
In the end, I LOVED and ADORED this book. It was everything I was expecting and everything I didn't know I needed from my new read. Read it for the alien romance but be amazed by the blossoming of young love and a found family I can't wait to see more of in the future.
Rating on my Scale: 10 Stars. Seriously, this book is a solid 600+ pages and I still would have been able to read twice that amount just to stay in this world with these people a little longer. I can't wait for my special edition to arrive so I can read it all over again.
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