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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
SIMULTANEOUSLY TERRIBLE AND DELIGHTFUL.
I mean, the concept is ludicrous but also sort of amazeballs. The heroine/narrator is named KITTY KATT, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. And OF COURSE the good aliens would all be hunks in Armani who are immediately crazy for Kitty. But even despite the ludicrousness and cringeworthy-at-times writing, I could hardly pull myself away from this.
Scads of Deus Ex Machinas? CHECK.
Protagonist who immediately rises to the challenge and saves the day rather easily despite never having previous military or alien experience? CHECK.
Incredibly fast love story that has the main characters hooking up within 24 hours and then professing love a day after that? CHECK.
An entire plot expounded through dialogue in a matter of pages? CHECK.
Clunky writing and hasty characterization? CHECK.
All of this adds up to more eye-rolling and incredulous squawking than I could possibly have kept track of. But EVEN SO: I had fun. It was most certainly a guilty pleasure, Oh-God-why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself? sort of fun. But FUN.
...Am I seriously considering buying the next in the series tomorrow at work? PERHAPS.
I mean, the concept is ludicrous but also sort of amazeballs. The heroine/narrator is named KITTY KATT, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. And OF COURSE the good aliens would all be hunks in Armani who are immediately crazy for Kitty. But even despite the ludicrousness and cringeworthy-at-times writing, I could hardly pull myself away from this.
Scads of Deus Ex Machinas? CHECK.
Protagonist who immediately rises to the challenge and saves the day rather easily despite never having previous military or alien experience? CHECK.
Incredibly fast love story that has the main characters hooking up within 24 hours and then professing love a day after that? CHECK.
An entire plot expounded through dialogue in a matter of pages? CHECK.
Clunky writing and hasty characterization? CHECK.
All of this adds up to more eye-rolling and incredulous squawking than I could possibly have kept track of. But EVEN SO: I had fun. It was most certainly a guilty pleasure, Oh-God-why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself? sort of fun. But FUN.
...Am I seriously considering buying the next in the series tomorrow at work? PERHAPS.
I think this was one of the past reads for the Vaginal Fantasy Book Club, just before I started following.
So first, off, the title. It is awful. If I hadn't found this at a used book store, I'd never have bought it, based on the title alone. Seriously.
This one starts out pretty good. I liked the characters and I liked that the main female was pretty kick butt and take charge, and not all whiny. However. Why the hell is someone who's so incredibly perfect at every single things she does, so incredibly intuitive, and genius-level smart working in marketing? I don't get it in the least. She see the answer to EVERYthing approximately 2.5 seconds after she's presented with the problem and NO ONE else around her sees it. That at the rape-y scene near the end made me knock this one down an entire grade level. It just...no. You can be alpha without being an extreme asshole, which Jeff wasn't 95% of the time, but when he was an asshole, he was REALLY an asshole.
ETA: I forgot to mention one of my major peeves. The verbage in this was just weird and awkward a lot of times. There were phrases I'd never heard of that were used OVER and over again. "To a man" is the one that comes to mind. Um, huh?
So first, off, the title. It is awful. If I hadn't found this at a used book store, I'd never have bought it, based on the title alone. Seriously.
This one starts out pretty good. I liked the characters and I liked that the main female was pretty kick butt and take charge, and not all whiny. However. Why the hell is someone who's so incredibly perfect at every single things she does, so incredibly intuitive, and genius-level smart working in marketing? I don't get it in the least. She see the answer to EVERYthing approximately 2.5 seconds after she's presented with the problem and NO ONE else around her sees it. That at the rape-y scene near the end made me knock this one down an entire grade level. It just...no. You can be alpha without being an extreme asshole, which Jeff wasn't 95% of the time, but when he was an asshole, he was REALLY an asshole.
ETA: I forgot to mention one of my major peeves. The verbage in this was just weird and awkward a lot of times. There were phrases I'd never heard of that were used OVER and over again. "To a man" is the one that comes to mind. Um, huh?
This book was fun.
I really liked the baddie jellyfish - I thought it was a cool concept that the real monster was not the 12 foot tall beast but a little jelly blob.
I must admit this was not the best written. Kitty had all the answers, even when she shouldn’t have had any. There were also cliches upon cliches. There are 10+ more books in this series so hopefully I see some improvement in the writing department, but also I’m not expecting high literature - they are fighting alien jellyfish!
Will continue on with the Katt books as I can see this series being a good palate cleanser between fantasy epics eg. Malazan or Stormlight Archive books
3 Stars - not the best written, just a fun romp with aliens - perfect for reading between fantasy epics.
I really liked the baddie jellyfish - I thought it was a cool concept that the real monster was not the 12 foot tall beast but a little jelly blob.
I must admit this was not the best written. Kitty had all the answers, even when she shouldn’t have had any. There were also cliches upon cliches. There are 10+ more books in this series so hopefully I see some improvement in the writing department, but also I’m not expecting high literature - they are fighting alien jellyfish!
Will continue on with the Katt books as I can see this series being a good palate cleanser between fantasy epics eg. Malazan or Stormlight Archive books
3 Stars - not the best written, just a fun romp with aliens - perfect for reading between fantasy epics.
The endless “serious” flirting is exhausting and confusing. Not doing it for me. DNF at 28%.
This book could do with better editing. It reads like a first draft - the characters are stiff as cardboard, the eye-rolling jokes are repeated, the "clever" slang is cheesy and dated. ("Hating on" something is a phrase better left to tweets or FB posts; it also felt false to the character.)
I really liked the idea of the story: a kick-ass chick falls in with aliens, and their Super Secret Squad ala Men In Black, and in love with their Commander. Some of the hi-jinx were fun, but most were merely big distractions.
Also, on behalf of all comic book girls everywhere: just saying your "into comics" doesn't make it so!
This happened with A LOT of the character elements: they would state very pointedly what they were "about." A classic tenet in good writing is "show don't tell." I rarely felt that character actions gave me any further insight into who they were and what they truly wanted.
The emotional elements could do with better foreshadowing - many times, a character would bring up something completely random (but supposedly relevant) without ANY preamble.
I really wanted to like this book, but it read like an amateur endeavor.
I really liked the idea of the story: a kick-ass chick falls in with aliens, and their Super Secret Squad ala Men In Black, and in love with their Commander. Some of the hi-jinx were fun, but most were merely big distractions.
Also, on behalf of all comic book girls everywhere: just saying your "into comics" doesn't make it so!
This happened with A LOT of the character elements: they would state very pointedly what they were "about." A classic tenet in good writing is "show don't tell." I rarely felt that character actions gave me any further insight into who they were and what they truly wanted.
The emotional elements could do with better foreshadowing - many times, a character would bring up something completely random (but supposedly relevant) without ANY preamble.
I really wanted to like this book, but it read like an amateur endeavor.
Good story, with a relatable heroine who thought outside the box. There was humor, action, and the pace was quick. My only issue was how fast the romance was, and how there was insta-love. Still, I laughed, and it kept my interest. If you're looking for a light, quirky, absurd but funny sci-fi with romance, I recommend picking this up.
Book was a fun read. It did suffer from two syndromes that irritate me, but overall, I will bother to read the rest in the series, so I must have liked it enough, right? First issue, this happens in all genres, not just romance. Too much world establishment, but at the same time, the lead character gets jerked around with promises to explain later, and it seems like half the book is spent telling her "we'll explained later", thankfully later does actually happen...kinda. Second issue, the main female lead suffers from both"oh, no I'm a slut"(get over it....and she does, quicker then in some books) and that she is perfect, all the guys want her, and all the girls like her, and she is overly competent. Ok, this could just be the fact that I'm sick, but, really, with not experience, she does all she does?
First half was slow, but then I started to like the book.
Reading over book reviews point out one of the major problems with how "competent" she is. Where would she learn to act as she does after spending her life as a marketing manager....and if she is so committed to helping others, why has she been a marketing manager up to now, and someone who is out there helping people?
First half was slow, but then I started to like the book.
Reading over book reviews point out one of the major problems with how "competent" she is. Where would she learn to act as she does after spending her life as a marketing manager....and if she is so committed to helping others, why has she been a marketing manager up to now, and someone who is out there helping people?
Gave up at 50% - this just wasn't working for me. Too much telling and not enough doing, maybe cause it's the first book for the series and there's a lot of set up to muddle through. Thinking of skipping to Book 2 because I like the concept; the execution didn't keep me interested, though. I did like Kitty and her parents, but some of the aliens - not so much.
This book was straight-up stupid.
There was a massive info dump in the beginning, and in the midst of said dump (and afterwards as well), there were numerous references to the sexy alien men as "hunks" and even "dreamy to the max" on one occasion.
Dreamy . . . to the max . . .
YEP. That happened.
There was also slut shaming, and a cartload of other ridiculousness, and just, NO.
There was a massive info dump in the beginning, and in the midst of said dump (and afterwards as well), there were numerous references to the sexy alien men as "hunks" and even "dreamy to the max" on one occasion.
Dreamy . . . to the max . . .
YEP. That happened.
There was also slut shaming, and a cartload of other ridiculousness, and just, NO.
Fast, fun and funny.
The biggest problem with this book is that first half of it felt like all exposition. It spent in an inordinate amount of time teaching & telling Kitty (and by default the reader) all about the Alpha Centauri Aliens. And surprise! letting her discover a ton of secrets about her own family background. To her credit the author tried to make it go down easy by masking it in quippy conversation punctuated by some action. But it really couldn't disguise that it was really just massive info-dump.
But the second part of the book kicks up into all action and makes up for the all the exposition.
I found myself with a goofy grin in the end. And even though I think the author needs to tone down the over-awesomeness that is Kitty (really, Kitty can do everything and every guy wants her), I am looking forward to reading the next one.
The biggest problem with this book is that first half of it felt like all exposition. It spent in an inordinate amount of time teaching & telling Kitty (and by default the reader) all about the Alpha Centauri Aliens. And surprise! letting her discover a ton of secrets about her own family background. To her credit the author tried to make it go down easy by masking it in quippy conversation punctuated by some action. But it really couldn't disguise that it was really just massive info-dump.
But the second part of the book kicks up into all action and makes up for the all the exposition.
I found myself with a goofy grin in the end. And even though I think the author needs to tone down the over-awesomeness that is Kitty (really, Kitty can do everything and every guy wants her), I am looking forward to reading the next one.