Review: Alien in the Family by Gini Koch

Book: Alien in the Family by Gini Koch
Series: Katherine "Kitty" Katt #3
Previous Books in the series: Touched By An Alien (#1), Alien Tango (#2)
Pages: 480
Genre: Science Fiction / Romance / Comedy
Buy A Copy: Amazon | Book Depository
Available Formats: Ebook & Paperback
Publication Date: April 5th, 2011
Publisher: DAW
How Did I Get This Book: Purchased
First Line: “In spring time a young alien's thoughts turn to love. And marriage. And, as fast as possible, the baby carriage."
Preview Book: Preview on Google Books
Description: Super-Being Exterminator Kitty Katt and the Alpha Centaurian she loves, Jeff Martini, should be finalizing their wedding plans. But that was before she discovers Jeff is in line to become Emperor back on his home world. Kitty knows she is everything a royal family wouldn't approve of, and is bracing herself for the worst. As it turns out, the royal family is just the beginning. Especially when extraterrestrial Amazonian terrorists are determined to start and end Kitty and Jeff's nuptial festivities with a bang.

If you have read my reviews of Touched by an Alien and Alien Tango, then you are probably aware of my obsession with this series. It is easily one of my favorites of all-time and Kitty is hands down, my favorite narrator.

With the first two books in the series, Koch has set the bar amazingly high and Alien In The Family certainly doesn't let you down. I will try my best to refrain from including spoilers for the first two books, but please be warned, some minor details may be touched on.

In Alien in the Family, all of our favorite characters are back and simply as wonderful as ever. Kitty and Martini are still going strong and all of Kitty's boys are back in the game. Christopher takes more of a side role in the third installment, while Reader is given more screen-time, so to speak.

Kitty is, as always, spunky, sarcastic and incredibly fun. Like I said before, she is probably my favorite book narrator, because she is such a spitball. She has a no-nonsense attitude, she doesn't take crap from anybody, has phenomenal taste in music and will not change for anyone. Honestly, if you haven't read this series before, I encourage you to go back and read my reviews for the first two books - I describe the cast of characters in great detail.

As far as plot goes, it's the format that we've come to expect and love with these books. There is some crazy world-dominating plot going on that Kitty and the boys have to investigate. As always, there are multiple plans going on and they have to wade through everything to determine what is exactly happening. This time, our cast is faced with a variety of aliens, including a planet of lesbian amazons who are determined to bring their galactic war to earth.

While all of this is happening, Jeff and Kitty are trying to plan their wedding. This means we get to meet some new characters, including Kitty's extended family. In Alien Tango, we were introduced to Jeff's family and believe me, Kitty's is just as crazy. I am particularly fond of her Nana Sadie and Nona Marie. 

Kitty and Jeff are rarely separated in Alien in the Family, so we are treated to tons of wonderful moments between the two. I have always been a fan of their banter, and there is an abundance of it here. We are also given a number of scenes between Reader and Kitty; their relationship is really explored in this installment. I have always been a fan of their friendship; Reader just gets Kitty.  

I am going to wrap this up, because I don't want to get into too many series spoilers, but believe me, Alien in the Family is a great installment to the series. On a final note, I desperately want a poof - which is the official royal pet of the A-C royal family. Trust me, you will want one too!

 Favorite Quotes:

"The U.S. was the immigration country of choice even for alien jellyfish things that turned humans into scary monsters. It made you proud, really."

"I had no issues with lesbians, but I didn't swing the bat that way, and I kind of resented getting molested."

"They didn't answer. But I was thinking. I'd had to do a lot of thinking like this over the past year, and it was starting to come naturally."

"Wow, bossy and nasty. What a fun combo."

"I'm with the Naked Ape." Jareen said. "Let's get in there and kick some evil overlord butt."

"Restraint is not exactly my watchword, either."

Review: I Am Number Four

Book: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Series or Stand-Alone: Lorien Legacies #1
Pages:  440
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction
Purchase A Copy: Amazon | The Book Depository
Publication Date: August 4th, 2010
How I Got This Book: Library
Description (From Goodreads): In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorian. Nine aliens who scattered on Earth. Nine aliens who look like ordinary teenagers living ordinary lives, but who have extraordinary, paranormal skills. Nine aliens who might be sitting next to you now.

The Nine had to separate and go into hiding. The Mogadorian caught Number One in Malaysia, Number Two in England, and Number Three in Kenya. All of them were killed. John Smith, of Paradise, Ohio, is Number Four. He knows that he is next.

I AM NUMBER FOUR is the thrilling launch of a series about an exceptional group of teens as they struggle to outrun their past, discover their future—and live a normal life on Earth.

I AM NUMBER FOUR.
I AM NEXT.

I will be honest; I did not really have any interest in reading this book before I saw the movie trailers. Shameful, know. But, I am Number Four surprised me, in a number of ways.

I am Number Four is an absolute riot. The plotline is packed full of action – which is to be expected. However, there was a surprising almost of emotional storyline woven throughout the story as well. John’s relationships are given a great deal of attention, which allows for the reader to actually connect with him. In a lot of action books, I have a difficult time relating to the characters. The plotlines are enjoyable, but I don’t get that emotional connection with the characters. Right from the get-go you are introduced to the characters of Henry and John together. They have always been a team and it is obvious how much they rely on one another. Henry has been assigned to care for John and has basically filled the role of father.  Therefore, John’s character is extremely attached to him – he’s been the only constant in John’s life.

When the duo moves to Ohio, John makes his first real friends in Sam and Sarah. I loved his relationship with both of these characters. Sam is certainly quirky, but he is an extremely loyal friend to John. Sarah, who is the romantic interest for John, is an awesome character. She has incredibly sweet nature and accepts other for what they are. The relationship between John and Sarah was adorable; I loved watching it unfold.

There is also a tremendous amount of character development throughout the book. When we are first introduced to John, he is extremely timid and very much a little boy.  As the story goes on, he comes into his own and starts relying on himself. He not only begins to develop his powers, but he gains a great deal of courage as well.  

As to be expected the plotline was incredible and simply out of this world. There is a great deal of action and a handful of different aliens. The overall pacing was fast, but that is to be expected in an action adventure book – you are supposed to stay on your toes. 

There were some predictable elements to the story, but that is to be expected. Honestly, sometimes you can only take a storyline a few ways. The writing was also, how should I say this… sparse. Things were very direct, and I can understand why – it is meant to be a fast paced action story. However, I can’t help but feel like the writing could have included a bit more flourish; better visual descriptions and just richer text in general.

Overall, I really enjoyed I am Number Four. There was a surprising amount of emotion within the storyline, which made John easy to connect to and champion. I am interested to see how the next books play out – will there be a I am Number Five? I want to see more of the alien kids, but I hope we stay with John. Now that I’m emotionally invested in his story, I want to see it to the end!

 Favorite Quotes

"When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope." 

"I'll come back to you," I say, "If it's the last thing I do, I'll come back to you."  

Review: Alien Tango by Gini Koch

Book: Alien Tango by Gini Koch
Series or Stand-Alone: Series; Katherine "Kitty" Katt #2

Previous Books in Series: Touched by an Alien
Pages: 439
Genre: Science Fiction / Romance
Publication Date: December 7th, 2010
Description (From Goodreads): It's been five months since marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt started working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri, and she and Jeff Martini are getting closer. But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of her team are called in to investigate. Now the team must survive murderous attacks, remove a space entity from a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a serious crush on Kitty's high school boyfriend. And that's all before evil masterminds decide Kitty's extermination is vital.

 I honestly don’t know where to begin. I guess, first of all, I want to mention how truly kickass the cover is. Daniel Dos Santos – you are a god. 

Now, on to the book. Just like Touched by an Alien, Alien Tango sucks you in from the first page and never lets you go. Koch injects her work with just the right balance of humor, wit, drama and excitement. Once again, Kitty is kicking alien ass and taking names. This time around her entourage of Armani clad studmuffins has expanded – shes now the Commander of the Airborne Division. This means she was fully inducted into the boys club after, what Kitty calls “Operation Fugly”.  All of the pilots from the end of book one, now report to Kitty; and let me tell you, they are just as scrumptious as the Aliens.

Kitty’s “flyboys” are extremely attached to her and they want to be involved in all of her crazy endeavors. So when craziness ensues; they quickly come running. The most memorable of the boys is Jerry; the pilot who helped Kitty land her plan in the end of the first book. He’s full of charm, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when the opportunity calls.

Of course, the entire Alpha Team is back; so we see lots of Reader, Tim, Gower, Christopher and Jeff. Honestly, let’s take a moment to sit and ponder the deliciousness of these fine gentlemen…. alright. One of the things that I really enjoyed about Alien Tango is that we got to see more of Paul and Reader’s relationship. For those of you who don’t know – Reader is a former male model who is now the official driver/pilot/total badass for the A-C’s Alpha team. And Paul is the extremely awesome A-C who is dating Reader. Their relationship is completely adorable; I am pulling for a Kitty/Martini & Paul/Reader double date in the next book… because the scenes with all four of them are truly priceless.

Speaking of Martini & Kitty – once again they are pure magic. I love their banter… they are so right for each other it almost makes me sick. I love the scenes in which Kitty completely freaks out and Martini is the only one who can calm her down. There is a particularly wonderful scene that involves a killer alligator (who Kitty names Alliflash) that seems to have singled Kitty out as dinner. 

They have their fair share of ups and downs in Alien tango, mainly because Kitty’s many admirers seem to be coming out of the woodwork. We finally get to meet Chuckie, who of course is in love with her, we are also introduced to two astronauts who are rather fond of Kitty; Brian, a former high school boyfriend and Michael, Gower’s brother. This is the only part of the book that kind of annoyed me, I feel like there are already enough characters who have the hots for our heroine – we are now up to 5. 

Alien Tango is packed with the same exciting energy found in Touched by an Alien, but Kitty and the gang face a whole new host of problems and adventures. Once again there are plenty of fun airport scenes and coincidentally, marvelously awkward bathroom scenes. A great deal of the book takes place inside a NASA building, where the A-C’s are dealing with an unusually weird alien problem.  We also get to meet Jeff’s enormous family and are treated to a hilarious dinner scene in which Kitty single handily takes on the entire female portion of his family while eating her weight in dinner rolls.

I think that Alien Tango was a wonderful follow up; once again there is an abundance of wit, sarcasm, humor and adventure. The characters stay true to form – Jeff is still sarcastic, Christopher is still glaring at everyone, Reader is still the best BFF on the planet and Kitty is still.. awesome. Honestly, there isn’t a single character that I dislike in this series. They are all fabulous in their own way. Their adventures are still out-of-this-world (pun intended); there is a crazed stalker out to kill Kitty, a couple of freakishly fast alligators, a handful of different bad guys, an alien hate club, a showdown at a high school reunion, a couple of chase scenes (some with cars, some with alligators) and so much more.

If you haven’t picked up a copy of Alien Tango, or Touched by an Alien for that matter; please do. You don’t have to be a fan of science fiction to enjoy these books – they aren’t your typical alien books. They are character driven, action packed and just all around awesome.

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!