Tag: Touched by an Alien series

REVIEW: Alien Education by Gini Koch

REVIEW: Alien Education by Gini Koch

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Kitty Katt-Martini has defeated alien monsters, foiled evil genius plots, and taken out the Mastermind, the man behind years of take-over-the-world schemes. She’s been head diplomat for the A-Cs, an alien race living on Earth for decades. She’s the First Lady of the United States and Queen Regent of Earth for the Annocusal Royal Family. She has tremendous skills.

You’d think dealing with the PTA president at her kids’ new school would be easy after all that!

With the Mastermind gone, Kitty gets to do some normal mom stuff, like get involved in her kids’ new school. And she does FLOTUS stuff like celebrate the opening of the Intergalactic School. Sadly, though, the Mastermind wasn’t the only enemy Kitty had. There’s still plenty of bad press to spin as well as robot and android plots, not to mention murder attempts and terrorist attacks, to thwart. And don’t even mention the PTA bake sale! But Kitty is just the woman to handle it all! She’ll just do what she always does – go with “the crazy.”

Review

This was a whirlwind read! I completely blew off sleep to plow through this as fast as possible. I know I will read it again very soon in order to go more slowly and catch all the details. For my first read, though, I just want to know what happens as soon as possible.

Once again, Kitty has a secret nemesis. I love trying to work through the hints and clues in an effort to catch who it might be (no clue after my first read). I was close on my Mastermind guess several years ago. I had it narrowed down to two people, and one was right. I’m excited about puzzling out this new secret.

Lots of new players introduced in this book. I’m not sure yet who will end up being a big player and what side everyone will end up on. But that’s part of the fun of this series. My favorite new characters are the kids who either are new or who get expanded roles in this story! Can’t wait to read more about them.

The other parts of the fun of this series for me are the humor and the action – and this book has both in spades. There’s very little down time in the story and many things are introduced but not resolved, pushing the reader forward to the next book in the series, Aliens Abroad, releasing in December 2017. I already have mine pre-ordered!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: My Favorite Re-Reads

Posted on by Jaymie

I sometimes have a complicated relationship with books. For the longest time, I kept each book I read. Eventually this created a space issue. Then I decided to just keep the “special” ones. There were no criteria for this designation – just a gut feeling. I kept all of my mystery series for certain. And then books I enjoyed so much I thought I might re-read them. Since I enjoy a lot of books each year, this meant I was still keeping a lot.

Eventually, I realized there were so many books I wanted to read for the first time that it was unlikely I would actually re-read everything I kept. But there are some…

My comfort books. The ones I go back to because I love the story or the character. Books I associate with certain events or seasons of life. The ones that leave me feeling wistful when I see them and I know it’s been forever since I read them.  Books that make me want to drop everything and dive into them all over again. And every January I try to read through as many of them as I can. It’s like visiting with old friends. Here are some of my favorite re-reads.

1. Andrew Clements books – These are some of the first books for kids that I read and loved. Clements tells great school stories about kids and teachers you want to cheer for. Frindle and No Talking are my favorites, but most of his older books are re-reads for me!

 

 

 2. Wings of Fire series – I remember the year I was setting up my library’s book fair and saw this book. I was captivated by the description and read it right away. Then I told all of my students about it. This is a special series! The first five books deal with the war for Sand Wing (a dragon tribe) succession. The second series picks up with a new set of young dragons living in a post-war world. This series just launched book 9, with book 10 slated for this summer. There’s also a stand alone book that fills in some backstory as well as some short e-books. And I think the series gets better and better as each book releases. I’ve taken to re-reading the books in the second series (books 6+) in anticipation of each new book, and that helps me remember all the cool details that are going to matter when the next book comes out.

3. The Westing Game – I read this mystery as a kid and fell in love with the twists and turns. This is the sort of book that you finish and have to read again right away to see where you missed the clues to the solution. I’m thrilled to say this stands up to the test of time. My son read it and loved it, prompting me to read it again as an adult. It was just as awesome as I remembered. In fact, it has become a go-to re-read for my teenage son as well!

 

4. The Harry Potter Series – I can’t tell you how many times we have re-read or listened to these books at our house! Each of us has a physical set of the books. Then we also have all of the outstanding audio books read by the amazing Jim Dale. The antics of the kids and the fight for good to triumph over evil never gets old.

 

 

5. The Fixer series – I have raved about this series multiple times on this blog in the short time since it went live. Book two is even better than book one. The main character is feisty and sticks up for the underdog and I love her. I look forward to spending time with the characters in these books – sometimes more than once a year.

 

 

 6. The Amber Photograph – I have three books by Penelope Stokes that I re-read periodically (this one, The Amethyst Heart and The Blue Bottle Club), but this is my most consistent re-read of the three. This is my sick-day book. If I’m in bed and don’t care to watch a movie or anything else, I will pull this book out. It’s an emotional one about a young woman driving across the country in search of information about who she is and about another woman hiding from her past. God’s redemption weaves through the whole story. It’s outstanding.

 

7. Deadline – Amazing suspense/mystery with a strong salvation message! This is a long, intricate book that covers a lot of issues including abortion, woven around a mystery of why the main character’s two best friends are dead. I love the passages that show one of those friends exploring Heaven. Deadline is a fantastic and inspiring mystery that I love to read over and over.

 

 

8. Touched by an Alien series – This is a very different book from the last two. And I love these just as much. This is a science fiction/romance series that over time has evolved into a science fiction/romance/mystery/suspense series. In book one, Kitty Katt discovers there are aliens on earth and she helps them take down a major villain. Over the course of the series, Kitty and her friends have to puzzle out who the true villains are and take them down as well. With two books releasing each year, and 500+ pages in each, this series gives readers a LOT to enjoy. I have several volumes in this series that are my ultimate favorites, but I usually re-read the last few before a new release and then re-read my favorite passages (don’t tell – I dog-eared them in my books!) when I want to enjoy some of Kitty’s best moments. Unlike the last two books in my list, this series is not Christian. The world view is much more open and the romantic passages are quite detailed. They are easily skipped over for any reader who isn’t interested in that portion of the story.

9. The Sons of Destiny series – Eight brothers with magical powers are exiled on a remote island because there’s a prophecy that if the eldest beds a woman, disaster will ensue and other prophecies about the other brothers will start to come true. Each book in the series focuses on one of the brothers. Two of the books are told concurrently (a pretty cool idea) but the rest go in order over time so that by the last book, the last of the prophecies are coming to pass. I adore this fantasy series. I have my favorite books and others that are less so, but I love the world where these take place and the main characters are fascinating. This is another book with a secular perspective. The romantic scenes are spelled out in detail, but again are easily skipped past if you want to get back to the magic and the story.

10. The Katie Chandler series – The last of my re-reads list is another fantasy series. Katie lives in a contemporary New York City and discovers that wizards, fairies and other magical beings really exist. Katie, though, is an immune. She has no magic whatsoever, so not only can she not DO any magic, but she can see through the illusions that the magic community uses to stay hidden. This makes her an important asset to the magical community when less-than-ethical forces try to take control. I just started reading through these again and I was thrilled to discover an 8th book came out at the end of 2016! So not only do I get to enjoy re-reading a favorite series, but I get a new installment at the same time!

 

So, those are my favorite re-reads. Do you have any books that you go back to time and time again?

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: My 2016 Favorites

Posted on by Jaymie

I read a lot of books every year. A lot of times,  I don’t remember all the details about the books I read. But I always remember how I felt when I finish. I remember which books follow me throughout the year – how I feel when I see them in the bookstore or library or online. These are the ones I want to go back and read again. These are the ones I recommend over and over and over.

When I went back through my list of the 304 books I read in 2016, I came up with 28 that were candidates for the best of the year. I whittled that list down to ten. And here they are:

10. The Scourge by Jennifer Nielsen

I read this one earlier this year, so I don’t have a review posted here at The Neverending TBR. This is a fantastic middle grade fantasy from the author of The False Prince. You can read more about The Scourge here.

 

 

9. Alien Nation by Gini Koch

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

8. Ms. Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

7. Darkstalker by Tui T. Sutherland

I love the middle grade dragon series Wings of Fire. This book stands alone as a backstory for a dragon that makes an appearance in the second five book series.

 

 

6. Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

5. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

 4. The Christmas Town by Donna VanLiere

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

3. The Charming Life of Izzy Malone by Jenny Lundquist

You can find my review of this here.

 

 

2. The Boy Is Back by Meg Cabot

You can find my review of this here on February 1. This was a fun romantic story told totally in emails and chat rooms and memos!

 

 

1. The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

You can find my review of this here.

REVIEW: Alien Nation by Gini Koch

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

First Lady, Kitty Katt-Martini, has negotiated the unexpected road to the White House fairly smoothly, all things considered. She’s foiled multiple bad-guy plans du jour. She spun the last attack so it blew back on the hateful aliens at the core of so many plots against them. She’s “Megalomaniac Girl,” and she knows how to think like the bad guys and figure out how to save the day!

But the Mastermind is still at large. Enemies from previous engagements are lurking, waiting to strike until they think they’ve been forgotten. And many humans around the world are still uneasy – if not downright hostile – about aliens being in charge of anything.

So when Kitty and the gang get the word that several previously unknown alien races are fleeing to Earth for asylum, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to triumph once again. So many things could go wrong. And if they can’t get things together on Earth, or manage the new arrivals smoothly, what’s going to happen when a ravenous horde of aliens follows the refugees with intent to devour everyone on Earth?

science fiction romance

Review

I have no idea how Gini Koch manages to churn out two 500+ page books a year in addition to her other writing, promotion, and personal activities! But I am so glad she does. These books are dense, chock full of action, sarcasm, humor, plots to foil and enemies to defeat. And I love every one of them!

This is book 14 in this science-fiction/romance/mystery/action series. I highly recommend reading them in order to get the most out of the character development and the “big reveals.”

My favorite aspect of this series is the characters. Kitty is one of my favorite characters of all time. She is sassy and smart. She defends the voiceless and the oppressed. She holds onto the hope that she can turn some of their enemies to the side of good – and she does. The cast around her is huge (another reason to read the books in order so you know who is who and how they connect to the main storyline), full of fantastic characters with their own well-defined skills and personalities. A lot of the humor in the stories comes from these relationships and the history between the characters, so the better the reader knows the characters, the more fun he/she has with the story.

This particular book is a celebration for long-term fans because some of the long-running plot lines seem to come to a satisfying conclusion. , Readers won’t know for sure, though, which enemies and plans are still in play until we see what happens in the next books in the series. Book 15, Alien Education, releases May 2, 2017 (release dates subject to change).

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥