Review: Touched By An Alien by Gini Koch

Book: Touched By An Alien (Gini Koch)
Stand-Alone or Series: Series, Katherine "Kitty" Kat #1
Pages: 389
Genre: Science Fiction / Romance
Description (From Goodreads):
How can a sexy marketing manager join forces with an Alpha Centauri male in Armani to save the planet-using hairspray, a Mont Blanc pen, and rock n' roll? Easy... She's Touched by an Alien Marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt steps into the middle of what appears to be a domestic dispute turned ugly. And it only gets uglier when the man turns into a winged monster, straight out of a grade-Z horror movie, and goes on a killing spree. Though Kitty should probably run away, she springs into action to take the monster down. In the middle of the chaos a handsome hunk named Jeff Martini appears, sent by the "agency" to perform crowd control. He's Kitty's kind of guy, no matter what planet he's from. And from now on, for Kitty, things are going to be sexy, dangerous, wild, and out of this world. 

I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into when I picked this book up, I haven't really read that many science fiction books. What drew me in first was the cover, I am a huge fan of Daniel Dos Santos ( he did the cover art for the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha/Omega series by Patricia Briggs) and the description sounded interesting enough. Then, I found a used copy at my local bookstore for $3, so I felt compelled to buy it.

Like I said before, science fiction is a relatively new genre to me and I have never read a book that was centered around Aliens. I was a bit skeptical at first but, thankfully, the book proved all my doubts wrong. 

The storyline was definitely intriguing and well thought out - the plot line was highly involved. I found myself having to really pay attention to both the dialogue and the descriptions to keep up. I am not going to lie to you, I figured this would just be a quick read, which I could just breeze through, but it wasn't.

Something else that I really appreciated about this book was the tone. I don't really know how to describe it in a way that will do it justice; but it is just written perfectly. There is just enough comedic relief that it keeps things interesting, but it's not necessarily over done. The book walks the fine line between funny and corny and is able to remain in the former. 

However, the main selling point is the characters. I adore them all, especially our kick butt heroine, Kitty. I have never seen a character quite like her, she is truly a force to reckon with. She is courageous, hilarious, witty, sassy, capable and yet, still relatable. She goes around killing the superbeing with nothing but hairspray and ballpoint pens while rocking out to some truly awesome tunes (I'm talking the likes of Aerosmith, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, Motorhead, & more!). Let me tell you, if the planet was really in turmoil I would call up Miss Kitty and her team to bail us out.

Early on in the book Kitty teams up with a group of Aliens to help protect humanity from some truly icky superbeings and we are introduced to a great collect of characters.There is Kitty's main love interest, Jeff, who is also an empath. This means that his super cool Alien power is to tap into people's emotions, which coincidentally means he also forms attachments to humans quickly. As you may have guessed, he forms a connection almost immediately to our girl, Kitty. Because of this, he is always tuned into her specifically and is always there to comfort her when she needs it. Can we say, "perfect boyfriend"? 

The rest of the ragtag cast is equally as awesome. All of the members of the secret alien organization are incredibly good looking and hysterical in their own way. My personal favorites (besides Jeff and Kitty) are Christopher and James. Christopher, like Jeff is an alien, and he is an absolute smart ass. James, a former model, is a human like Kitty. He acts as the field teams' driver and is sassy in his own right. 

I would recommend this book to everyone. I was a little unsure about branching out into science fiction, but honestly, this book was amazing. It is peppered with great one-liners and awesome quirky alien details. Like the aliens can run super fast, but they can only cover distances they could run normally. Does that make sense? So to travel long distances they use these portals that are hidden in the bathrooms of different airports. I find this hilarious, especially when Kitty finds herself trapped in the mens bathroom with a bunch of Armani clad Aliens. Simply priceless.

So, do yourself a favor and go get a copy of this book. The next in the series, Alien Tango is going to be released in December. The third book, Alien in the Family will then be released in April of 2011. I know I can't wait!