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.
Touched by an Alien by GJ Koch is the first book in the Katherine
“Kitty” Katt series that is running to 6 books already. The main
protagonist of the series is Katherine “Kitty” Katt, who in this first
book of the series goes from her job as a marketing manager to fighting
extraterrestrial life and saving planet Earth. From the first encounter
with the “super beings” you’re in for a rollicking chase to save the
world in the end.
To begin I must mention that the whole story from start to finish is
very funny, humorous and has full laugh out loud moments. Using aliens,
nifty technology, MacGyver moments and full tilt action to enliven the
storyline. The storyline is great, it follows a nice logical order in
beginning with the introduction of Kitty to the Alpha Centaurians and
following this up with a nice plot that thickens as the story
progresses. What would a secret organization by without spies and
possible double agents? Although there are some element in Touched by an
Alien that might have been inspired by other alien films, it did not
bother me at all. With the strong portrait drawn of Kitty and how she
uses reference to films like Men In Black like “humming the tune” etc
was just great and fitted well into the storyline.
So meet Kitty, desk job marketing manager now, by accident, alien
hunter. When I first got introduced to Kitty I was directly hooked onto
her. Gini Koch uses Kitty in a first person narration throughout the
books, this was spot on for showing her personality and providing a very
lively story. Kitty’s statements and witty comments plus her casual
attitude towards what happens around her just rock. Next to Kitty, there
are the aliens that make up a large part of the book, Jeff and
Christopher who are Alpha Centauri and the good guys here to protect
Earth from the evil “super beings” and parasites that turn humans into
“super beings”. I was pleased at how the Alpha Centauri were visualized:
All men and women wearing black ironed suits, maybe again a bit
MIB-like, but it was just right and it does appeal to showing off a
secret organization, and adds a certain flavour to it. Back to Jeff, who
after meeting Kitty, hopelessly falls in love with her and this is
shown more than once by him giving innocent boasts and hints to Kitty
about marrying and having babies. This teasing in between Jeff and Kitty
was a nice addition, on top of the snappy and funny remarks of Kitty.
Jeff overall does not show that much of himself, other than being an
nice looking A-C and being an empath. Yes. Several aliens have special
power. All of them have this great feat called hyperspeed allowing them
to travel and act and talk fast. Not suited for driving though! Next to
this Jeff is an empath and can feel emotions. Christopher, another A-C,
also feels for Kitty and this together with a confrontation of Jeff was a
nice short dramatic scene. Similarly to Jeff, Christopher’s background
is again not fully shown and I would like to see more of them both.
As far as the plot goes, most of it became only clear at the end of
the book, using the first half of the book to create the right setting
and showing what the Alpha Centaurians have done so far. This again did
not bother me at all, Touched by an Alien is the first book in a series
so I expected some world/story-building in there. A great plus of this
was that nothing felt rushed and that most of the time you get to have
the dialogues featuring Kitty. When she takes the scene she just tries
to rationalize everything, Kitty-style.
Touched by an Alien is great, a humorous, action packed science
fiction book that gives you a thrilling and fast-paced story. Now that
Kitty has joined up with the Alpha Centaurians, I can only imagine what
she has in store for us!