Review: How To Date An Alien by Magan Vernon

Book: How To Date An Alien by Magan Vernon

Series: My Alien Romance #1
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy 
Buy A Copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble *Kindle/Nook versions are currently FREE (as of 7-23-12)
Available Formats: Ebook / Paperback
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
How Did I Get This Book: Purchased
First Sentence: "If someone told me at the beginning of that summer that I would come face-to-face with death because of  Romeo and Juliet romance, I would never have believed it."
Description: High school senior Alex Bianchi's estranged father gets her an internship at Circe Operations Center to pad her college applications. But Circe isn't your typical military base. It's an alien-run operation center and not all of the aliens are friendly, especially the one that tries to kill Alex on her first day. When Ace, a dark-eyed Caltian, enters and saves the day, she can't help but be drawn to him. Can these star-crossed lovers survive when they're on the brink of intergalactic war?

It's rather difficult for me to categorize this book, because it spans several genres. Obviously it's a young adult science fiction story, but it is also a romantic comedy. I guess I'll go with sci-fi-romance-romp. How's that? At any rate, I certainly enjoyed it. 

Although the story centers around an Alien plot line, I would recommend it to readers who don't normally enjoy sci-fi stories. Vernon injects enough comedy, heart and romance within the book that it should appeal to a variety of readers.
 
I'm not sure that the character of Alex could be categorized as particularly unique, but she's likable nonetheless. She's quirky and snarky; traits I happen to adore in characters. As the book progresses she really comes into her own and shows a great deal of determination and gusto.


Ace, Alex's love interest, is also rather likable. Although we didn't get to know him as much as I would have liked. The book chugs along at a quick pace and unfortunately it causes some of the character development to suffer. I hope that in the next book we'll get to know more about Ace. From what we've seen, he is a great character, but I'd still like to get to know him better.


How To Date An Alien is a delightful comedic romp that readers are sure to find enjoyable. It's a quick, light read that will keep you entertained for a few hours. 

Review: Touch by Jus Accardo

Book: Touch by Jus Accardo
Series: Denazen #1
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction(?) / Paranormal Romance
Buy A Copy: Amazon | Book Depository
Available Formats: Ebook / Paperback
Publication Date: November 1st, 2011 (Entangled Publishing)
First Sentence: "I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there, waiting at the bottom."
How Did I Get This Book: From Publisher, For Review
Description: When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.

Except there's something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she'll turn to dust if he touches her.

It's not until Dez's father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there's more to this boy, and her father's "law firm," than she realized. Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation -- an organization devoted to collecting "special" kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons -- his entire life.

And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills.

The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they're caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.

A secret Kale will kill to protect.

 I do not really know how to put this delicately, so I am going to just come out with it. Touch by Jus Accardo was in a word (or two), freaking amazing. The characters, the plotline, the pacing; everything was just spot-on.

Kale is quite literally starved for touch. He has never been able to touch a person without killing them. When he discovers that he can in fact touch Dez, he cannot seem to get enough. He’s extremely affectionate with her and it’s just so incredibly priceless. He’s not only been starved for touch, he has spent his life basically in isolation from the outside world. He doesn’t understand things; he doesn’t quite have a grasp on the social norms and customs. In a sense he kind of reminded me of Brendan Frasier’s character in Blast From The Past. He’s ignorant when it comes to social interactions – especially those with women. I particularly love this little scene.


Then, making a spur of the moment decision, I brushed the lightest of kisses on his left cheek.
He sat up straight, eyes wide, and touched the tip of his index finger to his cheek. "What was that?" I blushed. "A kiss."
"That's what a kiss feels like?"
"Well, technically. There are a lot of different types of -"
"Show me."
"Show you what?"
"Show me some of the other kinds."
"You're asking me to kiss you?"
He nodded, hands curled around the edge of the bed. "is that not right?"



The internal dialogue used as she narrates situations like this just killed me. When she is forced to describe why people hold hands to Kale, I nearly died. Deznee just has such a spark; it’s impossible not to love her. The same goes for her relationship with Kale. Their connection is fierce, exciting and absolutely adorable all at the same time. There were a number of moments between the two that just melted me into a pile of goo.

The storyline itself is packed to the brim with action. Accardo grabs your attention from the very first page and never relinquishes control again. I was completely enthralled by Touch; it has action, excitement and an incredible romantic storyline as well.

I simply could not put it down. I read the entire thing in one sitting and then went back through my favorite parts and read them again. I still am flipping back through my favorite quotes and rereading them. You need to give this book a shot, because believe me, you won’t be sorry.

Favorite Quotes

Buzzed or not, I was still pretty sharp. Whoever those guys yelling in the woods were, they were after him. Drug deal gone south? Maybe he'd gotten caught playing naked footsie with someone else's girlfriend?

Mr. Mime didn't seem like he was rocking a sense of humor.

Stay calm? Was he crazy? He was pointing a gun in my general direction! If anything about that situation said calm, I was missing something.

He reached for me, hesitating for a moment before pulling his hand back. "Can... can I touch you again?"

"You're a human being, not a weapon. You don't belong to anyone."

I didn't know how to respond. Imagine that. Me. Speechless. Glaciers were probably popping up all over hell.

I sighed. If I had to have the sex talk with a guy my own age, I was going to die. Baseball analogies wouldn't work. He probably didn't even know what baseball was.

If possible, the rain fell even harder now. We were soaked almost instantly. Fantastic. Now on top of homeless chic, I'd be rocking the drowned rat look.

The guy who'd tumbled down the embankment, landing at my feet - the Six who'd tried to kill me, was more than that now. I didn't know when it happened, or how, but there it was.

I'd had a lot of guys look at me like I was a fun vacation on the beach, but the way Kale's ice blue eyes devoured every inch of me, full of heat and hope, I felt like Christmas morning. Timeless and perfect.

I understand now, Dez," he whispered sleepily. "I understand the hand thing."

Just you wait. Payback's a bitch, Daddy.

I waited a few minutes for them to get it out of their system - testosterone and all that. It took longer than I'd hoped, but eventually they'd settled for menacing glares and silent seething.

When we finally came up for air, he was smiling at me. It seemed to come easier to him now, smiling. It did funny things to my stomach.

"Just you. Only you. Always you."

"For me.," he said. It came out as a cross between a choked growl and a whimper. It was shocked, and it was possessive. Full of pain and laced with joy. "You were made for me."

A chair. Someone had thrown a chair at me. What the hell was this, WWE?

Review: XX by K.H. LeMoyne

Today is my tour stop for K.H. LeMoyne's XX! This tour was put together and hosted by Book Lovin Bitches. Be sure to enter in the tour scavenger hunt (the final tour stop) by collecting all of the words and putting together the key phrase.

 

Today is the 11th stop and the word to collect here is: Onyx! 

 

Book: XX by L.H. LeMoyne
Series: Phoenix #1
Genre: Science Fiction / Dystopian / Romance
Buy A Copy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords
Available Formats:Ebook
Publication Date: April 2nd, 2011
First Sentence:  "Analena shrank back against the wall and tried not to breathe."
Description: 2178AD - From the ashes of destruction rises the new rule of the Regents, leaders of mankind's new evolution. And a reminder of man's darkest instincts.

CODE NAME: PIPER.
Analena Maresco's cyber-enhanced arm gives her an edge, a weapon to rescue children held as organ replacements for the governing Regent's personal use. Supported by the renegade network and augmented by her unique skills, Analena straddles the line between rebellion and anarchy. To save the children, she risks both. With an extraction too difficult to handle, Piper needs more than remote assistance. She needs the presence of the shadow entity at her back.

CODE NAME: ONYX.
Trace Boden, a former Regent surgeon, hides in the city ruins beneath the New Delphi Capital super structure. Providing medical advice, instruction and supplies via the Down Below renegade cyber network, he operates in anonymity, slowly paying back the debt for his part in the Regent's atrocities. Yet, Piper's call is one Trace can't refuse. Exposed to save a child, he risks everything in a confrontation with Analena Maresco, the woman who can destroy his life forever.

Nowhere to hide, will the secrets Analena and Trace share forge a bond to combat the Regents reign of terror or cripple them both?

XX is the start of a new series that is an interesting combination of science fiction, dystopian and romance. It’s a futuristic tale complete with cool gadgets and a cut-throat society.

Analena is an intriguing character and I was incredibly interested to get into the nitty-gritty details that make her who she is. Unfortunately, I felt like we never really got there with her character. I think that everything was so focused on the development of the storyline and the relationship between the two main characters, that the development of Analena was put on the back burner.

The relationship between Analena and Trace was incredibly rushed. I felt like, as readers, we are cheated out of the fun part of the relationship – the wooing. I feel like the chemistry between these two is almost there and the story would have really benefited from a little more build up. Honestly, their first intimate scene together came out of left field; I thought for sure that one of them was dreaming. I kept expecting someone to snap out of it and wake up.

I think that plotline had a lot of potential, but at times things were rather jumbled. I had a difficult time figuring out the backbone of the story; why exactly these children were being abused in such terrible ways. You see, Analena spends her life rescuing children from these crazy corporations/government facilities(?) that perform basically mutilate the kids in the name of science. Honestly, I am still rather sketchy on the details. Whatever the exact case, it’s easy to get behind Analena and her story; I mean everybody hates people who mutilate children.

In certain parts of the story, when the characters are communicating through text, everything is written in short hand. I thought this interrupted the flow of the book and made it come off as choppy. I had to constantly reread these passages to try and piece together what was being conveyed. I will admit that I am not up on text-speak – I generally type of complete words. That being said, I honestly had a difficult time understanding these particular sections. For me, it definitely took away from the book.

XX certainly has a lot of potential and could be the basis for a really incredible series. That being said, there were a few aspects of the story that fell short for me. The character development and relationship progression was definitely off and the details were sketchy at times. However, once you are able to get a hold on the story, it is certainly interesting. It was rather quick read, in which the author did a great deal of world building. So, hopefully some of the kinks will be worked out in the sequel. 

 Favorite Quotes:

"Her body's abilities now only left her cold and eerily confident."

"If I tell you will you stop acting like a Neanderthal and listen to reason?"

"His angel wasn't impressed."

"He would be more than happy to crawl to hell and back to keep her safe. Or maybe just to keep her."

"Her pulse, reassuring and steady, beat against his skin."

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: 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!