Review: Alien Proliferation by Gini Koch

Alien Proliferation 
~Gini Koch 

Paperback: 480 pages 
Publisher: DAW 
Publish Date: December 6, 2011 
ISBN-10: 0756406978 
ISBN-13: 978-0756406974 
ASIN: B005ERIKM4 

From the author's website:
A new set of conspiracies, old enemies, and a dangerous new drug being tested on unwilling subjects are more than enough to deal with, but new parents Jeff and Kitty Martini have an even bigger problem -- the bad guys want their newborn baby.

*SPOILERS for books 1-3*

As Alien Proliferation opens, Katherine "Kitty" Katt (now Martini) is nearing the end of her pregnancy, and she's miserable:  bed rest, inability to decide on even the smallest baby supplies, and discomfort all combine to make Kitty one cranky agent.

Then, a phone call comes in - Kitty's best friend from college is in trouble.  Jeff and Christopher rush out to save the day, but of course it's not that easy: more problems are uncovered than are solved, and then suddenly - there's a baby on the way!  Take a (half) alien baby, add the fact that dad had been force-fed untested alien drugs before conception, and you have a white-knuckle delivery on your hands.

From there, things just keep going crazy and Kitty and Jeff's new-parent bliss is clouded by disappearing agents and the realization there's a mole trying to take out the team.  What comes next is a lot of action, secret agent stealth, sci-fi conspiracy, and a ton of fun.

My thoughts:
I have been a huge fan of Gini Koch since the first book and Alien Proliferation has everything I've come to love about this series:  Smart, funny dialogue, diverse and interesting characters, and boatloads of action.

In addition to the sweet and sexy rapport between Kitty and Jeff, one thing I really liked about Alien Proliferation is that we get to see more of Kitty's relationships with her two BFFs:  Chuckie and Reader.  I have adored Chuckie since we met him (even before, kind of), and he gets one of the sweetest, most saddest lines I've ever read:

He got up, and I handed Jamie to him. He held her well. "She really looks like you. Beautiful baby."
"I still don't see it, but I'll take the compliment for both of us."
He held her for a few minutes, walked around the room with her. He finally handed her back to me. "Thank you."
"For what?"
Chuckie kissed the top of my head. "For letting me pretend."
~page 126, Alien Proiferation

Sooo sweet, right?  We (and Kitty) also learn a bit more about Chuckie through some of the other characters he works with.  I was very pleased with the amount of information/page time Chuckie had in this book.

The Kitty/Reader relationship is, as always, wow.   We were treated to more information about Kitty and Reader's relationship in the previous book, Alien in the Family, but Alien Proliferation gives us more insight from Kitty's POV, and it was moving.

And....Christopher gets a love interest in this book - I know, right?!?  He's such a great character and he's had a few hard knocks so I was especially pleased to see him happy.  I'm looking forward to seeing them together in future books, giving Jeff and Kitty a run for their money in the "happy and sex-crazed" department.

My issues with this book were really specific to me personally:  I had a hard time following some of the conspiracy plot, and Kitty referred to her boobs as "torpedoes" way too much; we get it - they're huge.  (and I may have been jealous of Kitty's post-birth recovery; you'll have to read to find out why, lol)

This series is often described as "over the top" which is exactly right - but it's so much fun!!  Gini Koch's Alien series holds a proud place on my "Keeper" shelf and Alien Diplomacy is already on my "Books I Can't Wait For" list.

My Rating:

This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews

Silver Shark
~Ilona Andrews

Format: Kindle Edition 
File Size: 242 KB 
Publisher: NYLA  
Publish Date: September 14, 2001 
ASIN: B005N9FPOO

From the author's website:
Claire Shannon is a Kinsman, a woman gifted with enhanced mental capabilities. Her skills and her life were taken over by the military to fight in war that has raged on her home planet for decades. But as the war ends, she is forced to hide her abilities in order to make a new life for herself as a civilian. It’s a new persona, a new planet and new job that has her crossing paths with the powerful and alluring Venturo Escana. Is she strong enough to hide her true nature from her perceptive new boss? And as they grow closer, will she even still want to try?

Claire Shannon was born in a country at war. Brodwyn has been at war with Melko since before she was born; her entire life has been one of service and sacrifice - hot water, food, happiness, her life - all given up for the war cause.  Claire is a soldier; she has been since the age of 14 when she was taken from her sick mother's bedside. She's a member of an elite team of "psychers", or soldiers who fight with their minds instead of their hands.  Claire can disarm or kill any threat in a matter of seconds.

Claire's team is on a mission when she finds out the war is over and her side lost. They're killing all the psychers, so she's forced to hide her identity and manages to get deported to the planet of Rada, where she must learn to assimilate and hide her abilities or be killed immediately, no questions asked.

When she gets a job with Guardian Inc. as an assistant to the handsome and powerful Venturo Escana, she thinks all she has to do is hide her "talent" and blend in.  Then, one of her countrymen gets into some trouble and Claire is the only one who can help, but by helping will she destroy everything she has done to survive?

My thoughts:
Silver Shark is the second book in Ilona Andrew's Kinsman series, but it can absolutely be read as a stand-alone.  I read the first book, Silent Blade, because I have Book OCD and couldn't read out of order - with Silver Shark it really wasn't necessary.

I consider myself a "light" sci-fi reader, and Silver Shark was a nice fit for me - not too complicated as far as world building, and a bit of romance to keep me happy.  The world building was very good: I loved the contrast between Claire's home planet - grey, drab, depressing - and her new home, the planet Rada - colorful, friendly, vibrant.  You would think she would be thrilled to be there, but the mindset she was raised with is difficult to shake off, as when another refugee meets her on the street and tells her she stands out, which is a bad thing on her home planet.  She's scared but determined to adapt to her new life.

Silver Shark actually had two different types of world buiding - the physical world and the world Claire enters when she hooks into the system to use her psycher abilities:  This world is lush and full, as if Claire could escape her physical surroundings when she went to work.  I love that her "mental" world also changes after her deportation to reflect her new surroundings.

Claire is a great heroine - smart and resourceful, ruthless yet at times compassionate in her psycher mode.  Her attraction to her boss is achingly wonderful - she cannot reveal herself but yearns for him nonetheless.  I liked Venturo but feel like I would have benefited from knowing more about him; he was a good match for Claire though.

My main issue is with the ending - we're rolling along and the story is moving nicely and then BAM!  It's over.    Don't get me wrong - I'm happy with the outcome, but it was fast.

Silver Shark is a captivating short story, wonderfully descriptive and with a nice romance that doesn't overpower the plot.  I would absolutely recommend Silver Shark for readers who aren't sure if they'd like sci-fi and are looking for something to try, or for seasoned sci-fi readers who are looking for a quick, entertaining read.

My Rating:

This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Glow
~Amy Kathleen Ryan

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publish Date: September 27, 2011
ISBN-10: 0312590563
ISBN-13: 978-0312590567

From the author's website:
What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

Earth is quickly reaching it's expiration date, and two ships have been sent to repopulate another planet many light years away. Waverly and Kieran are the oldest of the first generation of children to be born on the Empyrian after many years of infertility, and as such are expected to marry and procreate soon.  While Kieran is completely on board with this, Waverly is not so sure this is the direction she wants her life to take.

As the story opens, Waverly and Kieran are looking out the window of the Empyrian at something that's got everyone talking:  The other ship. The New Horizon is supposed to be way ahead of the Empyrian, and until a few days ago, it had not been visible to them.    Kieran, as the oldest of the new generation, has been working with the ship's captain for many years, and he knows the captain is worried and suspicious.  Then, members of the New Horizon's crew forcibly take over the Empyrian, killing most of the adults and kidnapping the female children.

My thoughts:
Glow is a fabulous Young Adult Sci-Fi adventure that will keep you turning pages until you get to the very last one.  And then you'll turn it over and start reading it again.  Just when you think you know what's going to happen next, Ms. Ryan pulls the rug out from under you and you're left wondering how the heck that happened.

The girls are taken to the New Horizon, where they are quickly brainwashed into believing they've been rescued, when in reality they've been stolen.  The captain of the New Horizon, Anne Mather (Pastor Mather, as she is called), is a woman I love to hate:  she's using religion to keep the population of the New Horizon under control. She is a gifted communicator and she's convinced everyone on board that her way is best for everyone; that it's God's will that they succeed and must do so at any cost:  God helps those who help themselves.  Waverly immediately sees through the spin but is rendered helpless to fight; Maher has total control.  It is in Mather's dealings with Waverly, though,  that the author keeps us on our toes:  Mather brings up specific, reasonable doubts about the actions of the captain and crew of the Empyrion, forcing Waverly to realize fears she's been hiding from herself about what's going on aboard the Empyrion.

While the New Horizon is full of religious zealotry and is an experience of nightmarish proportions for Waverly and the girls, things on the Empyrion are not so rosy.  The only adults on board the ship are either dead or stuck in the engine room, slowly dying of radiation exposure.  Kieran attempts to take over command of the ship, but Seth, another teen on board, convinces the other boys that Kieran is responsible for the deaths of most of the adults and is going to get the boys all killed as well.  From there it devolves into a Lord of the Flies-type situation, becoming less about survival and more about who's in control.

I won't give away spoilers, but Ms. Ryan manages to build a spectacular love triangle into the background - Waverly's doubts about her future with Kieran merge with unexplored past feelings for Seth.  Again, she keeps the reader guessing:  Does Seth take after his father and have an axe to grind with Kieran, or is he just a sweet guy who sees his chance with Waverly and is taking it?  Is Kieran in love with Waverly, or is he doing his duty to the ship and humankind?

The end of Glow leaves me hanging, wanting more - I have no idea where Ms. Ryan is going to take me but I cannot wait for the rest of the journey.  There are some fabulous new authors emerging on the YA scene right now, and Ms. Ryan is definitely part of that group - she has the ability to capture the reader's imagination and twist the plot to keep the reader involved and continually switching sides about who's the hero and who's the villian.

My Rating:

Book received from the publisher at ALA.

Review: Alien in the Family by Gini Koch

Alien in the Family
~Gini Koch

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: DAW
Publish Date: April 5, 2011
ISBN-10: 0756406684
ISBN-13: 978-0756406684
ASIN: B004IYIUIS

From Goodreads:
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.

Agent Kitty Katt and Alien Jeff Martini are supposed to be planning their wedding. Instead, they're being attacked by man-hating Amazons, Kitty's being tested to see if she's "suitable" to marry Jeff, and attacks by shapeshifter assassins are taking up all their time. Then, when Kitty and Jeff's families both "coincidentally" show up in Las Vegas at the same time they're there, Kitty knows something's up...

My thoughts: I'm holding Gini Koch responsible for my sleepless nights - I stayed up way too late turning pages and then dreamed about this book!!! All my favorite characters are back and she's introduced some new ones too. (The old Star Trek episode with the Tribbles is one of my favorites so of course I was all over the Poofs. I want one!!!)

As always, the action was fast-paced and exciting, but what I really like about Gini's books is the depth of her characters, and Alien in the Family I feel like we got our best look yet. We got to see a softer, less sure side of Kitty and a funnier side of Martini.

I love Kitty and Jeff - they are one of my favorite fictional couples, but Kitty and Reader are my favorite fictional "noncouple". They had me "awwww"-ing and holding my hand over my heart, especially during the hospital scene. Reader was fabulous throughout the book, I want a BFF like Reader! Is it horrible that I loved how cute Martini and Gower were when they were jealous of Kitty and Reader's relationship? (Too bad, I loved it!)

I have been a fan of Chuckie since book 1 when we hadn't even met him yet. I continue to be a Chuckie fan - he's obviously still in love with Kitty but is supportive of her decision to marry Jeff (while letting her know he's available if things should fall through, lol). I do wonder why the female AC's aren't all over Chuckie - he's brilliant!

One tiny niggle: I did have a bit of an issue with the football players; it seemed to me that things could have gone another way for Kitty, and I'm apparently not as forgiving as she is - in my mind there's never an excuse to treat a woman that way.

Ms. Koch packs fast-paced action, over-the-top fun, super-sexy romancing and a fabulous ending into another amazing installment of her Alien series; it's going to be a long wait until December for Alien Proliferation!!!

My Rating:

This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Alien Tango by Gini Koch

From Amazon.com:
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.

___________________

Alien Tango has been one of my most eagerly awaited books this year; I literally jumped up and down when it arrived in my mailbox. I mean, that cover is gorgeous - it must have great things inside, right? Right!!!

It's six months after the events in Touched by an Alien (my gushing review here), and things have been relatively quiet. Kitty, or Commander Katt now, has been putting out small fires here and there but nothing big. She's been working with her new team of human pilots, and the super-hot A-C guys, when they get a call that there's big trouble brewing. They end up in Florida, which also happens to be where Martini's family lives...

OMG the action in this book is non-stop - there's aliens and alligators, human-supremacists and a stalker. People get killed, things get blown up, and there's some astronauts in quarantine who are having weird side-effects. Then Kitty meets Martini's family...and his fiancee!?!

Alien Tango was full of action, but there were some great threads running between all the action too: One recurring point throughout the book is Jeff wanting to to to Kitty's high school reunion - Kitty doesn't want to go but reluctantly agrees. I won't put up any spoilers but it doesn't go quite like she expected. We also meet Kitty's best friend, Chuckie. I mentioned in my TBAA review that I wished we'd get more of Chuckie - thank you Ms. Koch - I love him! (And the fact that Martini soooo does not love Chuckie is quite funny.)

And just when I started wanting more Kitty/Martini relationship action - bam! - Ms. Koch delivered - but not in the way I'd expected. (She's sneaky like that!)

Some of my old favorites are back: Christopher, Reader, and Kitty's parents, and now I've got new favorites - Chuckie and Martini's dad, Alfred.

I don't think it's possible to tell you how full of win this book is - the jokes are so corny they're funny. Alien Tango is like a comic book in novel format - the aliens, the action, the funny, the romance! I can't wait to see what's next in this amazing series. (BTW - are there plans for graphic novels? 'Cause I'd totally buy them!)


Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: December 7, 2010
ISBN-10: 0756406323
ISBN-13: 978-0756406325

My Rating:

A preview chapter of Book 3, Alien in the Family, is included at the back of the book - way to leave me hanging!!!!! April cannot get here soon enough :)

Alien Tango was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars to a book I didn't want to read!

I was first made aware of this book by Danielle at ALPHA Reader. She gave it such a good review, I thought, "I don't usually like stuff with aliens but I'll put in on my TBR." Then, for my birthday, my son bought it for me, and then I HAD to read it :) But I kept putting it off - I'm not really a big fan of alien stories.

This book is made of awesome! I want to stand in front of the bookstore in my tinfoil hat and tell people "Buy this book!" I loved it! (This always happens to me,btw, I put off reading a book and end up loving it.)

Katherine "Kitty" Katt, is leaving jury duty when she witnesses an accident and the resulting argument. Suddenly though, things take a turn for the weird when the man turns into a horrible monster and kills the other driver (his wife) and starts attacking the courthouse! Instead of running, Kitty grabs her Mont Blanc pen and ends up killing him with it.

When the police show up, so does Jeffery "Jeff" Martini (love that last name). He's a hottie, and Kitty is definitely attracted! He's giving off a "Men in Black" vibe, and Kitty ends up going to meet his superiors, where she learns there's much more to Jeff and his crew than meets the eye!

This book has it all - witty, sometimes campy dialogue, smokin' hot sex, international and interplanetary intrigue, and maybe even a lesson to learn. If I had to pick a quote, I'd probably put in half the book; I really loved Jeff and Kitty's repartee. The secondary characters were engaging and I probably developed feelings for half of Kitty's team; especially Jeff's cousin Christopher. I adored her larger than life parents and their menagerie. We heard a lot about but didn't actually meet Kitty's three best friends; I'm hoping we'll meet Best Friend Chuckie in the next book - Alien Tango.

There were some parts I felt like could have been pushed through a little - technical stuff that I would have accepted as part of the world building without a lengthy explanation, but even that was interesting to read the whys and whereofs of different abilities and gadgets.

I've officially got a new fictional boyfriend (check my list on the left sidebar) and Gini Koch has a new stalker! In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm giving this book 6/5 stars - (Officially it's 5/5 but my son said since he bought it for me I had to give it an extra star) This book is going on my keeper shelf and I know I will reread it many times! Thanks Danielle and Ian!!!