"Be transported into an awesome alien story set on earth-- no passport required."
Reviewed by Emily Rowe
Posted December 20, 2010
Science Fiction | Romance Science Fiction
Aliens live among us. This is not news to the newest
captain of the Centaurion Division, Katherine "Kitty" Katt.
For the five months she has lived with the aliens from
Alpha Centauri and has dealt with super alien nasties,
killer alligators, anti-alien conspiracies and threats from
outer space on a daily basis. All this while finding time
for boyfriend and A-C Jeff Martini, and dinners with her
folks who themselves have worked for super secret government
agencies long before she ever did.
Now an experimental spacecraft unexpectedly returns to the
Kennedy Space Center. Kitty and the Alpha Team are called to
investigate only to be thrown into a series of life and
death struggles, space entities, political conspiracies and
reunion's with obsessive old high school ex-boyfriends. But
all is fair in love and ALIEN TANGO.
ALIEN TANGO is an alien book where aliens aren't trying to
take over the world (yet), but they are already here. I
love that when a villain is dead he/she/it stays dead and
gone, but there are other villains out there— or rather
here. I love the connections within the connections within
the connections. The reader never knows who is going to
pop up exactly when or where, though there are clues. The
main characters are well written and hilarious. The
heroine is definitely an alpha female, but isn't without
her flaws, which is rare.
More character names are introduced in this book and a new
reader could get lost quite easily. Anyone interested in
the story should definitely start with the first book of the
series, other wise you may be overwhelmed by the character's
names, call names, and field names. You don't want to miss
out on an otherwise hilarious series that will hopefully
continue.
SUMMARY
It's been five months since marketing manager
Katherine "Kitty" Katt started working with the aliens
from Alpha Centauri, and she and Jeff Martini are getting
closer.
But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously
returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest
of her team are called in to investigate. Now the team
must survive murderous attacks, remove a space entity from
a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a
serious crush on Kitty's high school boyfriend. And that's
all before evil masterminds decide Kitty's extermination
is vital.
ExcerptChapter 1
"Are you sure she can do this, Captain Tucker?"
"Absolutely, Commander Martini." Jerry chuckled. "Like
lickin� butter off a knife."
"Jeff, I�ve done it already."
"Yeah, don�t remind me." I could hear him talking to
someone in the background. "Christopher says you
shouldn�t
brag about your first landing."
"He should talk. It was like five months ago. I�ve
landed
plenty of times since then."
"With Jerry�s help." He was worried. It was cute.
Annoying, but cute.
"Jerry�s helping me again."
"Jerry�s not in the plane." Martini sounded really
stressed.
"I�m right next to her, Commander. She�ll be fine."
I
looked to my right to see Jerry passing me the �he�s
really
bugging me� sign. I passed the same right back.
"Jeff? I love you. Now, shut up. I do need to
concentrate." This was true. I was landing a supersonic jet
for the second time by myself. The first time had been a
lot
more exciting, and I define exciting to mean survival was
nowhere close to a given.
"Kitty, I�ll be right here, but I�m not talking you
through anything. You ready?" Jerry didn�t sound worried.
But then, that was part of his charm.
"Yep." I relaxed and did what Jerry had spent the better
part of the last four months teaching me -- how to fly and,
most importantly, how to land. We were part of the new
Airborne Division, created pretty much because of me. Not
that I was some sort of great flier -- certainly not five
months ago -- but because I�d managed air support so well
during Operation Fugly.
Well, that�s what I called it. Most everyone else
referred to it as The Big Engagement or something equally
impressive. I suppose when you take down Public Super-Being
Enemy Number One and all his cronies, it does deserve an
impressive title. They were just big, fugly monsters to me,
but then again, I�m not from Alpha Centauri.
It had been a shock to discover the Roswell UFO rumors
had been based in a lot of truth. But now I was living in
the Dulce Science Center, routinely trained out of Home
Base, aka Area 51, and most of my friends and co-workers
were aliens, or A-Cs, as they called themselves. You could
spot them easily -- they were the drop-dead gorgeous ones
in
black and white Armani.
I was allowed the Armani outfit, too, but I spent most
of
my time in jeans and whichever concert t-shirt struck my
fancy. Today, in honor of the big solo event, I was in my
newest Aerosmith shirt. Steven, Joe and the rest of my boys
had never let me down, after all.
Jerry was a great teacher, and one of the things he�d
stressed was making this all seem second nature, like
driving a car or killing a newly formed parasitic
super-being. So, while I was nervous, I tried to put myself
into a relaxed state.
Didn�t work.
"Wow, that was an impressive �made you look�
moment,"
Martini said as I pulled up to avoid slamming into the
dirt.
"I think my heartbeats should go back to normal in a few
minutes."
"I went down too fast."
"Baby, I�ve never thought that was a problem of
yours."
"Jeff!" Of course, he was right. And one to talk.
"Commander Martini? Could you keep the chatter and
romantic innuendos down? I really want Kitty to
concentrate." I was back up next to Jerry and he shook his
head at me. "Too slow at the start, too fast at the end."
"Okay, you all said it was stupid, but I want what I
asked for."
"It�ll wreck your concentration," Jerry said flatly.
"It�ll help it."
"Oh, give her what she wants. Girlfriend, gimme the song
cue." Thank God. James Reader -- human, former top
international male supermodel, coolest guy in the room,
and,
somehow, the person in my �new life� I was closest to -
- was
finally on the radio. I�d have been in trouble if he
wasn�t
gay, since Martini wasn�t a man open to the idea of
sharing.
"James, we�re going with something a little off the
standard path."
"Not Tears for Fears. Please." I heard a lot of
groaning.
"How many of you are on the intercom?"
"Your entire team, Alpha Team, and HQ. But no pressure,"
Reader chuckled. "Now, what song?"
"Elton John�s �Rocket Man�." Lots of groans. "Or
we could
go for John Mayer�s �Bigger Than My Body."
"Elton John!" Ah, the chorus of male voices choosing
their lesser of two evils.
"Why not Aerosmith?" Reader asked.
"Because I need to slow down, not break the sound
barrier. Follow it up with his �I�ve Seen the
Saucers�, I
think it�s going to be a two song landing."
"Sir Elton coming right up."
"You�re the best."
The music started and I truly relaxed. I ran through a
few loops and maneuvers to clear out the aborted landing
attempt. It took most of �Rocket Man� for me to feel
ready.
Then I started down again, from a bit higher than before.
The next song came on, perfect for landing, at least as far
as I was concerned. I touched down to the beat, even.
"Great job, Kitty!" Jerry was landing now.
"She does have a great singing voice." Tim Crawford, my
team�s official driver. We�d sort of bonded over music
during Operation Fugly. I still didn�t know what he
actually
listened to, but he controlled my car iPod now, and was
getting really good at picking out what songs to play in
tense situations.
I finished helping Elton on the high notes. "Thanks,
Tim,
you�re a prince." Reader was a sweetie and put
�Crocodile
Rock� on while I taxied and parked my jet.
"Kitty? You can get out now." This was Matt Hughes, one
of my flyboys.
"Laaaaaa�la la la laaaaaa." The song wasn�t over.
The
music stopped, mid-la. "Oh, fine." Spoilsports.
"Love your voice, Kitty." This from Chip Walker, one of
my other flyboys. "Just need you out of the jet."
"Liar." I climbed out. Jerry was waiting for me. He,
like
all our pilots and drivers, was human, so while he was
cute,
he wasn�t up to A-C standards. Though I�d told him he
could
grow it out, he still kept his blond hair in a crew cut.
All
the pilots assigned to me had been at the Top Gun school
before joining us during Operation Fugly, and they all
maintained their Navy attitudes, even though they were now
officially part of Centaurion Division, the American
government�s name for what I thought of as the Alien
Protection Organization.
Jerry grinned. "You make it look easy, Commander Katt."
We were back on the ground and so back to formality. In the
air, he was in charge. On the ground, I was. More than one
person had mentioned that this was truly frightening.
"It�s a gift, my love. And I have the best teacher
around." Okay, he was back to formality. Me, not so much.
We headed towards the main headquarters building. As we
got nearer, a tall man with broad shoulders, rather wide
features over a strong chin, light brown eyes and dark,
wavy
hair left the building and came towards us. He was in
Armani
and, as always, looked beyond drool-worthy. He spotted us
and then was next to me before I could blink.
"Nice to see you, Commander Martini, I�ll just leave
you
two alone. Enjoy." Jerry gave Martini a quick salute, shot
me a wink where Martini couldn�t see it, and trotted off
to
the main building.
Martini grunted at Jerry, then pulled me into his arms
and kissed me. This definitely made it all worthwhile. His
lips were soft, like down pillows, and his tongue could do
things I�d never imagined before I met him. I wrapped my
arms around his back and enjoyed how he pulled me even
closer against him. But I could feel his hearts and they
were pounding.
He ended our kiss. "You know, I thought you were going
to
die. I don�t know if I can run fast enough to pull you
out
of an exploding jet."
I leaned against his chest. "Jeff, I was okay. I have to
be able to do this."
"Why?" I didn�t answer. He sighed. "I don�t get
kidnapped
every week, you know."
"Once was enough for me." I could still see him, on his
knees, hands bound behind him, being tortured and almost
killed.
"Baby, don�t dwell on that," he said softly.
"I don�t." Well, not all the time. There were whole
days
I�d gotten through without that memory surfacing and
suggesting I might not be so lucky next time. Because there
was always a next time.
"You may be human and able to lie to me, but not about
your emotions."
"I know, Mister Empath. I just�." I sighed. "I just
want
to be able to do everything I can. Not only for you, but
for
our missions. If I can�t fly, then I�ve got one less
weapon
in my arsenal."
His turn to sigh. "Okay. You did great the second time.
I�m really proud of you."
"James tell you to say that?"
Martini grinned. "Yeah. Did I do it right?"
"You always do it right."
"Nice to know." He put his arm around my shoulders, I
put
mine around his waist, and we walked to the main building.
"So, are we going to your high school reunion?"
"Jeff, I don�t know why you want to go." This wasn�t
completely true. As an A-C born on Earth, he�d been
schooled
within their community, only. They were a tight-knit group,
all related somewhere back there in the generations, so
every day was a reunion of some sort for them. I could
understand Martini�s interest in how the other half had
done
it, but I still didn�t want to attend.
"They�re supposed to be fun, romantic, exciting."
"You are watching way too much Lifetime Channel. And
why,
may I ask?"
"Helps me relate to you."
"Hardly."
"You don�t think I relate to you well?" I could hear a
little bit of hurt in his voice.
"No, I think that, as the super empath, you, more than
any other man I�ve ever known, relate to me just fine.
However, I don�t think you watching "Mother, May I Sleep
With Danger" again will give you more relatability to me."
"Tori Spelling�s really an underrated actress."
"So�s Shannen Doherty, you�ve told me. I�m
impressed.
Join their fan clubs. I miss your "Fantasy Island"
fixation."
"I�ll stop watching Lifetime if we go to your
reunion."
"Wow, you can�t even lie if I�m not looking directly
at
your face."
The door opened before we got to the entrance and
Christopher White came out. He looked upset. "Jeff, we have
a problem."
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