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Review of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SEXY KIND by Karen Kelley (see her website)Brava, April 2007
The planet Nerak is perfect--perfectly boring for Mala. When her android valet suggests one more hormone smoothie to deal with her boredom, she decides to follow her explorer-grandmother's example and visit Earth. After all, she is something of an expert on Earth. She's viewed the fascinating XXX documentary, Callie Does the Sheriff a number of times. Although the elders have banned space travel (they've also banned males as that sex created wars and problems, something tiny and resource-poor Nerak couldn't support), Mala decides to hijack a spaceship and head for Earth. She leaves her valet, Barton behind to cover for her.
Sure enough, Mala finds a sheriff--sexy Mason McKinley. But Mason is the kind of guy who only believes what he sees--and insists he doesn't see anything he doesn't want to believe in. What he does want to believe in is Mala, though. Fueled by chocolate (there's no chocolate on Nerak), Mala is a sexual dynamo and Mason enjoys every minute. The only problem he has is her strange delusion that she is an alien. When Barton arrives, sorting out problems for the town of Washboard, Texas's single female, everything seems to have fallen into place. Unfortunately, though, Mala's ship was seen and tabloid reporters want to make Mala a story--a story none of them believe to be true.
Author Karen Kelley (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of romance by Kelley) goes completely camp in this novel of alien love. Mistaking an XXX-rated movie for a documentary is only the first in a series of mistakes and blunders as Mala explores a huge and different world, determines that bigfoot (Hypotronds to those of Nerak) have survived on Earth, mistakenly believes she is dying when the sun sets (Nerak has two suns and never gets dark), and spends three thousand dollars of Mason's money on sex toys to make sure her seduction of the local sheriff goes off on schedule. Barton, rejected on Nerak, is precisely what Mason's friend Carol needs--and would be pretty much a treasure to any woman.
Modern Science Fiction requires development of plausible explanations for such details as having a tiny planet with gravity equal to Earths, parallel development of the English language, sexual compatability between alien species, faster than light space travel, and a breakdown in the law of conservation of energy (at one point, Mala admits to generating a gigawatt or so of energy through sex--the equivalent of a nuclear power plant). Harking back to an earlier time in SF, Kelley simply goes for the romp. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SEXY KIND isn't Science Fiction to make you think, it's paranormal romance to make you smile--and guess what, it works.
Four Stars
Reviewed 9/02/07
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