*~~*ARC kindly provided by the author to me in exchange for an honest review *~~*

What a strong (full length) novel debut by this new-to-me author Emmalynn Spark.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Why? I was really captivated by the way the author fleshed out the character’s struggles and how we experience the new planet Alex and Luke are now living on through Alex’ POV. The first person narration was a perfect use in my opinion and we got an insight of a character who was on earth someone pretty “normal”; Alex isn’t a leader, he is chosen because of his abilities in biology and chemistry and his urge to discover new life forms. He is pretty ordinary compared to Luke, one of the leaders in the mission to start new life on this planet when life on earth is forlorne. Yet Luke would be lost without him.

When they arrive on the new planet they soon find out they are the last survivors… and their struggle begins.

I really like how realistic Emmalynn Spark described the surroundings, how vibrant the new planet is. Lush and green, full of life that has to be discovered – something what Alex always wished for – except not at cost of losing dear people he was very close with.

Alex grief and Luke’s desparation to find other survivors on the new planet is very emotional and in ways it’s hard to endure – to hear Alex’ thoughts while he is in grief for his friend, also to hear his thoughts while he watches Luke, his only companion, seeing desperate and stubborn keeping on the idea to find others, hoping against hope. See him utterly lost and losing hope.

Their relationship blossoms during the span of the book and both start to become a pair. I really liked how this was also a natural progress and that both guys are in need of human contact, of closeness and intimacy.

This book has an ending between a HEA and a HFN. I can easily see a sequel to this book. Some would say a true HEA isn’t possible, being the last two human beings on a new planet and that they realistically are going to die after a span of time without leaving any children behind. I am not sure if this would be a HEA after all and the way this particular book ends is very fitting and I can easily see how they are able to have a fulfilling life on this new planet – no matter how long or short it is.

A very thrilling, touching book with a not too unrealistic premise and an outcome I’d personally still call a HEA. 🙂 5 out of 5 stars.

Review originally posted on my blog with added content Mikku-chan / A world full of words

This was good overall. Kind of a slow start, but a good plot. Good character development and interaction between the main characters, and author did a great job creating emotion and empathy in this reader. I have mixed feelings about the end, but that may be by design. The author has a lot of talent, and I'll keep an eye out for future work.

I really appreciate the copy for review!

This was a very entertaining read! I liked the world building and the storyline. The guys were great, I’m glad they had eachother. They had love and eachother in the new world. I could totally feel Alex’s emotions and what he was going through, so for him to be happy in the end, really made the story perfect!

A short but sweet story of finding love and learning to cope with biggest lemon life could throw at you. The two heroes are great together and sweet. I struggled with the ending and how hopeful the two Heroes were because if I was in their predicament I wouldn’t be hopeful I’d be hysterical.

This book was wonderful. I loved Alex and Luke. Their characterization was awesome. The one thing I would have liked more of was dialogue. There was a lot of summarizing what was said that would've been more impactful hearing them actually say. The overall story was great. It was touching, interesting, and the ending was beautiful.

Alex has been asleep for about a hundred years when he wakes up on his crashed 44026155inter-galactic ship. The ship is supposed to be bringing colonists to a new world, one that is viable and ready to be populated by humans. Earth was running out of time, so ships were dispatched with a variety of people on board.

When Alex wakes up…most of the people on his ship have been killed because of a malfunction. His best friend and the woman who encouraged Alex to ship out despite his being gay (apparently gay colonists weren’t accepted) is one of the victims.

He’s alone. For a terrifying few minutes, Alex struggles to regain movement in his limbs and find out if he really is the only human left alive.

Fortunately, Luke Belka is also alive. He’s command trained and takes Alex under his wing immediately. Even once they find out that they truly are the only two remaining souls alive on their ship, Luke follows procedure and begins to set up a rudimentary camp. He’s the one who maintains hope and helps to keep Alex focus.

As time passes, Alex explores and begins to suspect there is no one else coming to assist them. While Luca continues to focus on building the communications array, Alex develops feelings for his crewmate. Luckily enough, those feelings are reciprocated although Alex finds himself questioning whether it’s more about convenience than emotion.

This book was too short! I would have loved to have read more about the relationship between these two men. It was an emotional roller coaster, and I feel as though the author – given enough pages – could have really explored that. Great idea! Loved the world that was created and the simmering passion between the two men.

Give it a go if you are looking for a quick read…m/m romance!

While this book sounded like it would be engaging based on its description, I found the plot to be a little lacking and I did not connect with the characters like I wanted to.

Two men out of thousands survive landing on an alien planet. They both react very differently, but both reactions are so realistic and possible that it hurt. It was so easy for me to see a situation not too different occurring in the future and it was almost terrifying. I can't imagine being as strong as Alex. This was a great journey into the human psyche and if it leaves you feel a little unbalanced, maybe it's for the best.

Abundance is a book about Alex and Luke being the only survivors from Earth and they're on this new planet called <i>New Earth </i>. It's a book about their journey and whether the human race lives on.

What I like about the book is actually that the first scene really captured me. The way Spark wrote about Alex being drained from his cryo pod and the emptiness he felt knowing that his friends had died. Then meeting Luke and watching that friendship begin, bud and turn into something that was unexpected. Even if as a reader I went into the book knowing I was going to be reading a cool sci-fi LGTBQ+ inclusive novella, it was unexpected.

Alex and Luke were adorable. Alex saw this new world as an exploration adventure and Luke wanted to stay hidden, to stay safe and to keep Alex safe. While Luke frustrated me at times, I still found his character to be quite enjoyable. The side characters were in the book just enough without it being too annoying. I liked the flashbacks. Overall, it was a fun, good read.

The only problems I noticed in the novella were a couple of sentences that made no sense/were missing words. (e.g "I was sure someone should have been by now.") Maybe it's just me but it seems like there's meant to be an 'awake' in there? (e.g. "I was sure someone should have been <b> awake </b> by now.") This was line 22 on my iBooks, not sure where that would lie for other people. The second being at one point there was a mention of a woman named "Elaine" on line 106 when I think the author meant to write "Eileen".

With those aside, I did enjoy the book which was provided as an ARC by Nine Star Press & Netgalley for an honest review.

Overall rating: 4.0
Would I recommend? Yes! If you're in the market for a short sci-fi, dystopian novel with pretty much two polar opposite characters, I definitely recommend checking out Abundance!

Abundance is a sci-fi survival book about two men, Luke and Alex, who are the lone survivors of a malfunction of their colony ship when it lands on New Earth. As they set about surviving on an unknown world, a relationship between the two develops.

The two big emotions that this book plays with are hope and grief, deeply felt by Luke and Alex, respectively. The first quarter or so of Abundance focuses almost exclusively on Alex's grief with respect two the deaths of all of the other passengers on the ship, some of whom had been his friends on Earth. However, while Alex was mourning these deaths, he also begins to lust after his commander and fellow survivor, Luke. This section gave me a bit of whiplash, switching between lengthy ruminations on death to drooling over a shirtless Luke. Personally, it felt a little weird, tonally.

This first quarter of the book was my least favorite, and I found that it picked up from there. Luke's basically only motivator is his steadfast belief that other colony ships had landed before them and that those other people were coming to save them. For me, this hope was more affecting than Alex's grief. It was heartbreaking to watch Luke determinedly build a communications device and wait by it day after day, waiting for a response, and not receiving one.

I also particularly enjoyed Alex's explorations of the nature around them -- his excitement about the exploring spilled through the page and made me excited, too.

Luke and Alex's relationship felt a little odd at first since they were pretty touchy with each other from the get-go, but I really enjoyed how it developed throughout the book. Alex working hard to maintain Luke's unflappable hope for rescue was adorably sad, and I do enjoy the 'only people in the world' trope.

My only beef with their relationship was that the pacing of the book made it a little hard to keep up. The author would often summarize their daily routine, and then just say that a significant amount of time had passed without incorporating any change to their relationship, which just felt a little unnatural to me.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I stuck with it past the first 20% or so, which I didn't enjoy as much as later sections of the book. It wasn't particularly deep, surprising, or emotional, but it was an entertaining, fun read for a lazy afternoon.