Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Memories with The Breakfast Club: Uncommon Ground
SERIES: Aliens in New York #1
AUTHOR: Kelly Jensen
PUBLISHER: Kindle Worlds
LENGTH: 147 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2017
BLURB:
Dillon Lee’s grandfather was a conspiracy theorist. Every summer he’d take Dillon on a tour of New York City while entertaining him with tales of aliens. Fifteen years later, after a phone call from a lawyer, Dillon is carrying his grandfather’s ashes from landmark to landmark, paying a sort of tribute, and trying to figure out what to do with his unexpected legacy. When someone tries to steal the ashes, a guy Dillon has barely met leaps to the rescue, saving the urn and the day.
Steilang Skovgaard is a reclusive billionaire—and not human. He’s been living in Manhattan for over twenty years, working on a long-term plan to establish a safe haven for his people. For seven years, his reports have gone unanswered, however, and he is the only surviving member of his interstellar team. The connection he forms with Dillon soon after meeting him is something he’s missed, something he craves.
But after someone keeps trying to steal the ashes, it looks as though Dillon’s grandfather was involved in more than theories—and might not have been exactly who everyone thought he was. Steilang doesn’t know how close he can get to the truth without revealing himself, and Dillon is running out of people to trust. Can these two work out what’s going on before the thieves set their sights higher?
REVIEW:
Sci-fi is probably my least favourite genre, and the word “aliens” would usually have me scrolling past on the hunt for a different book. But I’ve read one of Kelly Jensen’s short stories before and she made an impression, so I found myself adding this to my list, admittedly with some trepidation. Verdict? I need more aliens. More Dillon and more Lang would be nice, but ultimately I don’t care who the next book is about as long as there are plenty of aliens included. And as this book is tagged as number one in the Aliens in New York series, I’m hoping the author chooses to focus on this world for a few more books.
There are really three main characters in this story. There’s Steilang (call me Lang) Skovgaard – billionaire, alien, kitchen appliance whore. There’s Dillon Lee – pierced, purple haired, currently directionless. But importantly, there’s also Roth Fairchild – conspiracy theorist, artifact hoarder, pile of ashes. Lang’s attraction to unique looking Dillon is immediate, and while that’s generally acceptable in romances, the author includes a credible reason for it. She also provides convincing circumstances for Lang and Dillon to remain together practically from the moment the story begins, which allowed for a fast paced read-it-in-one-go story. At the same time, the author also took care to provide enough backstory that I felt a connection to these men and their circumstances. Lang’s sorrow and loneliness were well conveyed, I really felt for the guy.
In fact, the author did a great job of telling the story of Lang and Dillon while setting up for an interesting series. We learn about the alien’s home planet, the different Clans of aliens, their purpose for being on earth and we get a glimpse of alien technology. But Ms. Jensen weaves all of this information so skillfully into the story, that my brain had no problem taking it all in. That is my main issue with sci-fi type stories. There is often such an unloading of information that I struggle to remember everything I need to.
For some reason I was surprised by how hot the sex scenes were. I think maybe I was so interested by the alien angle that I didn’t go into this with much thought to the romance. Lang and Dillon are explosive together. And I think that was maybe magnified because beyond the bedroom they don’t have much time for any lovey-doveyness. There is alien mischief afoot that requires their attention – but once they get that alone time… I’m happy to report that I was well impressed.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in this series. I definitely recommend this. Even if you don’t particularly like sci-fi books, well, I’m not sure if this even qualifies as that. It’s more a contemporary story that includes aliens – and that sentence made a lot more sense in my head.
RATING:
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