A series of books involving reptilian-alien protagonists

Question

I'm trying to track down these books I read when I was younger. I've done some fruitless searching online and am stumped. It's been a good 10 years since I read any of them. Cover is very 70s/80s (lots of blue I want to say?).

The series of books involves reptilian-alien protagonists. These people form platonic life-bonds, normally with members of their own species. The first book stars a female. She bonds to a human male (I want to say his name was Daniel) instead of to one of her own species, causing family strife. Later on in the book she goes through some sort of priesthood(?) training involving rosary-type beads, during which she starts having feelings for her (same-species male) mentor, and comes to realize her bond-mate has become evil and is using her for nefarious purposes. She later either breaks her bond or kills her bond-mate and is very traumatized by it. I don't remember much else except there seemed to be a lot of metaphysical stuff in it.

Answer 1

This sounds very much like the In Her Name series by Michael Hicks. The books of the series are Empire, Confederation and Final Battle. I recently read the first one and look forward to reading the other two. It's about a reptilian race named the Kreelans who are waging war against humanity across the galaxy. An orphaned boy named Reza is taken hostage by the Kreelans and bonded to one of the aliens to learn their ways in an effort to determine if humans have a soul and are worthy of not being destroyed.

Answer 2

Harry Harrison's "Eden" series?

The blurb for the book series is as follows;

In the parallel universe of this novel, Earth was not struck by an asteroid 65 million years before the present. Consequently, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs and other reptiles never happened, leaving the way clear for an intelligent species to eventually evolve from the mosasaur, a species of reptile related to the modern monitor lizards. This relationship would mean that the intelligent species are not dinosaurs but lizard-people.

The lizard-people are known as the Yilané, and are the dominant life form on most of the planet. However, during the evolutionary process, the species became non-viable on the two American continents, leaving them free of Yilané for millions of years and opening an ecological niche for a top predator. A human-like species, the Tanu, evolved to fill the niche in North America, but are only found on that continent. By the time the novel begins, the humanoids have reached a late stone age level of technology and culture, with a number of societies having developed farming skills.

....

The central characters are Vaintè, an ambitious Yilanè; Stallan, her vicious and obedient adjutant; and Kerrick, a "ustuzou" (the Yilanè word for mammal) who is captured by the reptiloids as a boy, and raised as a Yilanè. Kerrick eventually escapes to rejoin his own people, ultimately becoming a leader. Another notable Yilanè character is Enge, the leader of a faction of pacifist Yilanè who reject the militaristic and violent attitudes of their culture. This group is violently opposed by most other Yilanè, especially Vaintè. Enge befriends Kerrick, and acts as his teacher, while he lives with the Yilanè.

Answer 3

This sounds like the Xxan War series. The first book is Mating Season.

Zondra Daahn has hit her quickening with no warning. She's on the prowl for a male to sate her, unwilling to wait for a Xxan-mix male to be sent to her. Evan Duncan is just the overbearing, alpha male she needs. There are a few little problems, of course. She's the Fleet Admiral's goddaughter, and the powerful sex pheromones of her quickening may permanently tie Evan to her.

A Xxannian female has never mated with a human before, and Evan isn’t willing to take that chance that he can’t ripen her and give her children. If the only way Zondra can have a full life is to do so without him, that’s the way it’s going to be. Damn the dreams of her driving him insane. If he can convince himself not to stop by just to make sure she’s okay, this plan can work...can’t it?

Not if Zondra and her family have anything to say about it. She wants Evan, and the scientists at S.L.A.L. say there’s a way. Like all the females of her race, she will have the man she wants, no matter what she has to do to get him.