Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter: Book Review

Genre: Romance, Aliens
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: Alien Huntress #1
Date Published: May 31, 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult
Size: 306
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 1416510052

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RIDDING THE WORLD OF EVIL, ONE ALIEN AT A TIME: THAT'S MIA SNOW'S MISSION.

Snow is in the forecast.

In a time and place not too far away, Mia Snow is an alien huntress for the New Chicago Police Department. Heading up her expert team of Alien Investigation and Removal agents, Mia's unmatched at battling the elusive enemy among us, and she's the perfect girl for the job. She's seen her brother die at the hands of aliens. She's earned each of her scars. And she'll die before she cries. Now, a series of killings have Mia and her partner Dallas tracking alien suspects -- but a sudden blast of violence leaves Dallas fighting for his life.

They are ice and fire.

The chance to save Dallas appears in the form of a tall, erotic stranger. An alien. A murder suspect. Kyrin en Arr, of the deadly Arcadian species, holds the power to heal the injured agent but not without a price. For Mia Snow, that price is surrendering to Kyrin's forbidden seduction...and embracing their electric attraction. She's walking a knife's edge, risking her badge and even her life. The closer she gets to Kyrin, the more Mia learns about her own heart, her human needs -- and the shocking secret that will shatter everything she's ever believed.

Review:

The cover was so carnal I expected lots of sex. What I didn't expect was that the book would be too focused on the story about the alien case handled by the protagonist. Reading this book, I felt too impatient just waiting on that carnal thing to happen between Mia and Kyrin. When it did happen, with my growing anticipation, I'd been sated when the author had delivered that sexy scene (finally!) effectively. It was raw and hot, but that one time only.

The thing is, if Gena Showalter so wanted this book to be about the action (alien combat and stuff), she should have chosen a different cover for the book because what I felt was that I was betrayed by the sexiness of it. I was growing impatient reading this book just waiting on that thing to happen that I didn't enjoy the whole process of reading.

While this book take on an MIB (Men in Black) setting with aliens living acclimated to earth under strict jurisdiction, I couldn't peg this one as scifi. While there is so much information served about the nature of some aliens and how A.I.R (Alien Investigation and Removal) do its job, Mia's thoughts are just too nagging that I'm blind with the fight scenes and the supposed splendid scifi shit. Though I got that feeling held at the back of my head. It maybe is because the author knows nothing about fighting.

The action sequences were so lame. The way the author has written them, it seems as if the AIR agents are nothing but kids playing with their toy guns with that classic point and shoot maneuver. Yes, the futuristic setting is a world of high end gadgets but the author could have carried off much more with its characters given the background, which is surprising to me because she has written so many series that this book plummeted in her level.

While the beginning was mediocre, the plot twists near the end are superb. I could say that the author did get back on her track as a writer. They somehow explain why I hate Mia as a character. It has something to do about her roots and her effed up childhood. Apart from that, the thing I like about this book is the plausibility of the kind of chemicals that other aliens breathe and what differs us (humans) from them on that aspect. Just with that and certain other things, I could say that there is so much future with the story as a scifi one had the author set the series the way a scifi story is written instead of it being an erotic paranormal romance.