I liked this, but not as much as Strange Love, which was an unexpected delight, so I was expecting more from this one. I don't think it helped that both characters were aliens — part of the fun of the first one was Beryl being human and getting used to this new environment and acting in ways Zylar wasn't expecting, and while Zylar was definitely alien and there were cultural differences between them, they were both just really sweet and lovely. But here, both Helix and Qalu were a little more shut off and colder, and while Helix was getting used to being in a body for the first time, it wasn't as satisfying for me as Beryl learning about Zylar society and all that. I also preferred the more gradual relationship progression in the first book. Here, Helix starts off being interested, but Qalu is worried she had too much power over him and keeps shutting things down and keeping her distance, and I found that a bit boring. I was also intrigued by the idea of a fake relationship between the two which is part of the set-up, but that's quickly abandoned. I felt like there was a lot of potential here that went unrealized. I still had fun with this, though, and I'm planning to read the third book, which appears to return to the human/alien dynamic, so hopefully it'll work better for me.