REVIEW: Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

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.

Okay, so picture MEN IN BLACK gone Rom-Com and you're got a pretty good idea of what TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN is like. The heroine, Kitty Katt (who, no, is not a stripper), took the news that aliens landed some thirty years ago on Earth in stride. No, really. I mean, if this had been about vampires she would have freaked and there would have been questions about blood, immortality and souls, but aliens? She basically gives the equivalent of an emotional shrug and moves on to more pressing matters. Like the Bad Aliens trying to kill her. You ever read the ANIMORPHS series? Do you remember the Yeerks? Those slug-like things that would crawl inside people's ears and take them over? Well, imagine those except as jellyfish instead of slugs and instead of taking their hosts over these guys go for a timeshare. Yup, a time share. Well, if they actually manage to be successful, they go for a timeshare. If they're not successful...well, when these guys are in control they alter their host's form to look kinda like Frankenstein-gone-Animal-Kingdom so unsuccessful mergings tend to go, er, wild. When the latter happens, super secret alien agents are deployed to neutralize the buggers. If the former, the big bad hides, plots, fumes and next thing you know evil scheme is launched and super secret alien agents are deployed to neutralize the buggers. Like I said, very MIB.

And then there's Kitty. Like the back cover blurb says, she goes from mild mannered (HA! Not even!) marketing manager serving jury duty one day to BAM! being the target of alien assassins. Which is when the aforementioned super secret alien agents show up and Kitty's life goes the way of James Edwards, only with a SUCCESSFUL romantic plotline thrown in.

Now, just to be clear, I don't generally like Sci-Fi, but the sarcastic, funny tone Koch employs makes the whole alien thing inconsequential. It was a hilarious book and a great read. That being said, it wasn't a PERFECT book. Some of the events were just kinda...cliche. And at times Kitty just seemed too perfect, too smart, too everything, with everything lining up just a tad to easily. But overlook that and it's impossible not to enjoy it.

Best part? Hands down Kitty's first big battle where she faces off against the Superbeings for the first time. Totally knocks it out of the park and shows her mettle. You go girl!

Best line? "My crazy's working a lot better than your sanity."

My rating: ♥♥♥♥/5