The Harvest: Journey's End (The Harvest #2) by M.A. Church

 Adapting is a word Dale Michaels has become familiar with. As he settles into his new life with the Tah’Narian starship captain Keyno, Dale has adapted to life with an alien, space travel, and having his body mutated so he can carry a young. He’s closed the chapter on his old life.
Living on Tah’Nar, Dale has a loving mate and good friends. He’s helped cement peace with the Onfre. Sure, being double-dosed during his harvest led to some serious drama, but that’s over. Dale’s happy.

But life is never that simple.

Even though Dale loves Keyno, he still struggles with the way the Tah’Narians harvest young males as mates. Dale finds himself hijacked by his own body, courtesy of his extra dose of Tah’Narian DNA. Then there’s the devastating secret his mate, Keyno, has hid all this time. And if all that isn’t enough, outside forces threaten to rip Dale’s hard-won peace apart as well.

Join Dale for a non-stop adventure and a love that crosses several worlds and transcends space.

This has been the sequel that I have been waiting for because I just loved The Harvest: Taken.  I’m not a fan of sci-fi books in the slightest – and the fact that I love this series should say something!

I am so glad that we were able to catch up with Dale, Keyno, and everyone else as well.  I thought that it was great that Ms. Church didn’t *cut* anyone out of the sequel, they all had important roles in the first book and they continued on in this one.  I loved the fact that Dale and Keyno were just like a normal couple.  They weren’t an *insta-love* in the first book, and even in this book, Dale was still fighting with Keyno and standing up for himself and his friends.  I just loved that he didn’t lose who he was or change completely because of who he was mated too.

There is a great amount of suspense and action that kept this story going.  It wasn’t overdone to the point where there was something happening with every page turn, but just enough to keep you interested and wanting to find out more.  I thought that it was very smart of Ms. Church to add in some more of the different cultures that men had been Harvested from because that just added another new layer to the whole book.

Twists and turns were very apparent in the story, but, to me, that is what kept the story as interesting as it was.  There were so many things that happened that I really want to mention, but I don’t want to give anything away.  But I will say that Ms. Church did a great job at bringing together family and showing that you don’t have be blood related in order to love someone unconditionally.

I think that Ms. Church has another hit on her hands with this release and I really can’t wait to find out what is going to happen next in the world that she has created.

We open pretty much where we left off in book one, just got done visiting Colt and Ti on Ti’s home planet of Onfre. Everyone is getting alone and settling into the new friendships and the mates are finally settling into the new lives.  Until Dale starts getting antsy on the ship back home and starts his estrus cycle.  Once home and fully sated, life returns to normal until Dale starts planning a young shower for Jolak. Between the young showers, the attack on Ti and Colt Dale’s not sleeping, eating and losing weight. Is it because of the stress or did the first cycle really work? Are they pregnant?  Can anything be normal for Dale and his double dose?

Just like book one, I just loved it from page one to the last. Until like the first one, this one had more humor in it. I found myself crying, laughing and saying that nickname that Keyno loves so much. Once again even though we are focused in on Dale and Kenyo you can’t have this story without all the characters, including the young at the end.

 

I have been chomping at the bit for the conclusion of Dale and Keyno’s story for a while and I’m happy to say I was not in the least bit disappointed. Well – unless there’s not another book on the horizon. Will there be? Please? I won’t spoiler – but we definitely need to know what happens to the next generation of both the young and the ‘new wave’ at the end. That worked out well for Star Trek, so why not here? *grin*

On to the review. I’m going to assume you read the first book, because this is one of those series where you’ll not only be completely lost, but would miss out on the building of a beautiful, sweet love story. You need all the back story to understand the m-preg, or it won’t make any sense. Ms. Church does a hell of a lot of incredible world building in the first book as well that’s so important to the overall story.

Dale and Kenyo are settled into their life as a couple and sure enough, Dale goes into Estrus, which turns out to be a very taxing rather than sexy process. Basically, if Dale doesn’t mate constantly during the 24 hours of his cycle – he’s in agonizing pain. Even the horned up Keyno is a depleted mess by the time Dale is done. Soon, not only is Dale pregnant, but so are Chad, John, and Colt – all of Dale’s friends from the first book. Most of the rest of the story deals with the Alpha males fretting over their mate’s condition and the mates struggling with the unpleasant aspects of pregnancy – especially as they’re men! I loved all the birth sequences - probably my favorite parts of the book.

There’s not a lot of plot here – but that’s okay. The majority of the plot happened in the first one, with a few hiccups in the second one to resolve some of the issues brought up by the first. But if you’ve read the first book and loved it, you seriously won’t care. That’s because this story is all about the knee-weakening, awe-inspiring, cute love stories of the characters – primarily Dale and Keyno, as it’s told in Dale’s perspective. This is not heavy sci-fi, or dark, or gritty or anything like that. This is fun, sweet, sexy and told with a humorous and sometimes snarky touch.

But now that I’ve fallen in love with the world that Church has built and melted over these characters – there has to be more! I want more on all the characters – the current ones, the young, the future chosen. Bring it on! I give The Harvest: Journey’s End 5 pleading Stars for more books *wink*

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