Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

Touched by an Alien
Touched by an Alien is the story of Katherine “Kitty” Katt, who goes from being a marketing manager in Pueblo Caliente to helping an Alien Agency protect the Earth from nasty things from Space. The thing is, all the aliens in this agency are drop dead gorgeous (the author turned a major flaw in romance fiction into a feature!), and the hunk (Armani-clad!) that first appears to help her is ready to make his moves on her.

The book drops you right into the action. One minute Kitty is leaving the court house, the next a man sprouts huge wings and starts attacking everyone. Not to be cowered, Kitty rummages her purse in search of a suitable weapon, finds a pen, gets off her high heel shoes (sensible girl!) and goes for the kill.

When the Armani-clad hunk, Jeff Martini, appears to save the day, the day is quite saved already. Of course there needs to be some damage control, after all a winged monster just appeared in broad daylight and started to attack people, so Kitty is escorted by Martini and the rest of his entourage (all of them male, all of them gorgeous) to a safe place.

And then the flirting starts. Because Martini is very impressed with our girl and makes his claim soon enough. And keeps doing it, to the point that I felt like screaming “Down, boy!” (later I realised I should also have been saying “Down, girl!”).

After the initial action the plot starts to drag a bit, mostly because there is a lot of information being dumped on the reader (and on Kitty, I suppose), but since it is all new, aliens and monsters and other things from space, it's to be expected. Once the plot is moving again, it becomes much better, and goes much faster. And faster means fast, because this book is a page turner, and what is refreshing is that it does not rely on cliffhangers – you genuinely want to know what happens next.

The story was entertaining, and I was chuckling on the right parts at the beginning. Then the jokes got old, and I started to get a bit tired of all the banter. Because if there is something in this book is a lot of banter between characters. There are a lot of cheesy lines (and cheesy pick-up lines), and they soon lose their charm. Also, some of the characters lose a bit of their charm towards the end of the book, especially Kitty (so sensible in the beginning, taking of her shoes before running, only to end up going into a battle with her purse. And her iPod. And her hairspray).

As a Fantasy and Science Fiction aficionado I had some trouble with the believability of this book. This book gets its Science Fiction more from blockbuster movies than the genre literature. There are explosions, monsters, parasites and aliens, but most ends up serving as backdrop to the romance. But there is some development of the plot, and that, I liked. I liked the story of the parasites (once they were on Earth, that is. The idea of jellyfish-like parasites travelling on Space... *shudders*) and the aliens, and even the religion aspect of it.

On the romance part, though, I have nothing to complain about. Well, it was predictable with whom our heroine was going to end up with, but I don't think the author ever wanted it to be a mystery. There was also a hint of what could have been a love triangle, but it was dealt with as a means to character development and not to throw angst at the reader.

If you're a big romance fan, and don't care much about getting the science right, this book is probably for you. If you, like me, like your science fiction to be more about science, you can still enjoy this book as light reading, for the romance and the chuckles.

(3.5/5)