I picked this up on a whim out of my TBR pile. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a sci-fi novel featuring aliens from a different plane of existence. Despite my lukewarm feelings about the premise in the beginning, I admit the story sucked me in the more I read. I enjoyed the world-building. Frank's description of Beneath and the creatures that inhabit it were well done. I also enjoyed Julian. Though it was hard to take his actions in the beginning, I think Frank did a fairly credible job of redeeming him.

Asia was harder to take. Although I understood her actions in the beginning (if I'd been kidnapped I image I'd have tried to escape/flout authority, too) they became increasingly hard to excuse away as the novel progressed. Though even that isn't my main issue. My main issue was her insistence that she "wasn't made for forevers and happily ever afters". That's it. That was all the resistance between her and Julian. It wasn't the fact that she was from Earth and he wasn't, or that he brought her to his world without her permission, or that his people needed her to feed them energy, all of which I could have understood. Instead it was just "eh, I'm not a HEA type of girl".

Beyond that, there were several holes in the plot. The idea that Julian and Asia had to have sex in order to feed his people energy was somewhat outlandish, but so was the rest of the plot, so I could set that aside. It was harder to set aside disbelief over other things, such as the way Julian and Asia constantly fought with each other which hampered the progress of the romance.

Having said that, I'm willing to cut the novel a little slack because it's the first of a new series. I did enjoy the world enough that I plan to read the next entry, Stealing Kathryn. ( )

Couldn't Wait For It To Finally Finish

This author was on my "To Read" List, but I didn't know which titles I wanted when I was at the bookstore. I chose this one and "Stealing Kathryn".

I was pretty disappointed after the first few chapters. The creation and concept of "Beneath", it's population and laws was just fine. Both the characters, Asia and Julian, just ended up annoying me greatly. I was totally frustrated with Asia's stubborn refusal to accept her new reality, and Julian's sensitivity annoyed me even more. The love-making seemed over the top and out of context in this novel (and I do like it steamy).

I couldn't wait to finish reading it and put the book down. Now, I'm not sure I have the stamina to read the next title in the series, even after a break. Good plot, bad character development. ( )

This is the first novel in Jacquelyn Frank's Gatherer's series, and I enjoyed the unusual world that she created called "Beneath", an alternate dimension that runs parallel to Earth and populated with a majority of men after a devastating plague that decimated the female population.

I couldn't help but wonder if Frank was inspired to write this from reading L. J. Smith's "The Forbidden Game" series. Both had main characters named Julian, both revolved around men stealing women to take back to their worlds below Earth, and they both had floating worlds with treacherous pathways connecting them. I don't know that she has read Smith's books, but it seemed more than coincidental.

Frank has a knack for creating complex worlds and well-developed mythology and I liked this first entry in this new series. ( )