'Touched by an Alien' Katherine 'Kitty' Katt #1 by Gini KOCH

From the BLURB:

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.

This is the first book in Gini Koch’s Katherine “Kitty” Katt series. It is available as both a paperback and e-book.

I really thoroughly and surprisingly loved this book. Seriously, it’s awesome.

I found this book because of the cover art. The artist is the incredibly talented Daniel Dos Santos, who draws all of Patricia Briggs’s ‘Mercy Thompson’ US covers. I saw this image up on his website as apart of his book covers portfolio – and because I do judge a book by its cover, I went hunting and found it was Gini Koch’s ‘Touched by an Alien’.

The title kind of threw me, and I almost didn’t bother. Aliens may be how the science fiction genre got its kick-start, but I wasn't sure about an alien themed book. The closest I’ve come is Ann Aguirre’s ‘Sirantha Jax’ series - which I really love, but is set in another galaxy, not present-day earth. I was under the assumption that any alien invasion scifi book would be along the geeky lines of Star Trek. Boy, was I wrong and naïve.

A lot happens right from page one. The opening chapter involves Katherine “Kitty” Katt (yes it’s a stupid name, she only has her parents to blame) witnessing a domestic dispute turn deadly. She watches as a man kills his wife, and then sprout wings with dagger feathers. Katherine bizarrely goes into autopilot; grabbing her Mont Blanc pen she rugby-tackles this weird creature, and innately knows precisely where to stab and kill him.

After her hero-routine she’s swooped up by a group of hunky Armani-clad ‘agents’ who take her somewhere called ‘home base’ in New Mexico where they none too delicately break the news to her that aliens exist, and she might just have a job killing them…

Intense, huh? As the story unfolds Katherine discovers that these ‘agents’ don’t work for Homeland Security, but are actually an alien race called ‘Alpha Centauri’, sent to planet earth to protect us from a parasitic alien species that want to make drones of us all.

This is a fun, fast-paced and sexy read that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. ‘Touched by an Alien’ leans toward the melodramatic and outlandish –but it’s fun and Koch works it so well. Halfway through the first chapter you realize that Koch isn’t basing this story in any sort of realist, nitty-gritty reality – it’s much more of an Alien/scifi soap opera (space opera?). But it totally works. Especially because a good chunk of the story revolves around a very intense and unique love story.

One of the Armani-clad alien agents is Jeff Martini, and one of the first sentences out of his mouth to Katherine is “will you marry me?” Throughout those vital information-dumping chapters Martini provides comic relief and surprising chemistry whenever he turns to Katherine and says “so, how many kids do you want?” and “no, seriously – marry me!” He may sound creepy and clingy, but he doesn’t come across that way at all. This is the quickest romance I have ever read, and I’m a little in awe of how well it works. Martini is very up-front and truthful in his attraction to Katherine, and she eventually relents… that’s when alien bedroom stamina kicks in and Koch writes some very yummy and steamy sex scenes. Let me just say ‘whew boy!’

He stroked my arm and kissed my forehead, and I snuggled closer to him, enjoying the way his naked body felt against mine and revelling in the afterglow.

“You’re mine, you know,” he said quietly.

I kissed his chest. “Only if we do that again. A lot.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but I think it’s a fair price.”

I heaved a sigh. “Good. Nice to know I negotiate well.”

Martini chuckled. “You do everything well.”

“Flattery’s nice. Especially coming from the alien sex god.”

I loved the love story. I was really shocked that it worked so well for me, considering the fact that Koch sets up the romance right from the protagonists’ first meeting – it was fast, but held my interest throughout and remained steamy.

Katherine is a great leading lady. She’s not your typical action heroine – she’s a Jewish marketing exec thrown into the middle of an inter-galactic war just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I loved her. She’s snarky and sometimes barely clinging to her mental stability amidst all the Alien revelations. She’s great.

Martini is amazing. He could have come across as creepy and smothering because he hits on Katherine so quickly, but Koch really finessed his character. He’s funny, charming and just generally swoon-worthy. I loved him!

I loved this book. I went in sceptical, but came out a convert – to the point that I might have to go looking for some more Alien-themed fantasy books. ‘Touched by an Alien’ is extremely melodramatic, with an over-the-top, flamboyant and unbelievable storyline. But it’s fun. Koch doesn’t take herself too seriously – she writes fast and furious action-packed scenes and an even faster romance. It all came together beautifully for me, and I found myself totally sucked in.

Second book ‘Alien Tango' comes out on the 7th December 2010. I can’t wait.

5/5