Release Date: February 4, 2014
Source: ARC
Order: Amazon || Powell’s
In a nutshell: Aliens have made contact and now Cara Sweeny (no extra e, so a lot less cool than everyone’s favorite Snark Lady) is chosen to host one of the first ever alien exchange students, Aelyx. (You can tell he’s an alien because he has an x in his name.) Cara’s doing it for the scholarship she’ll get out of it, and she even has an idea to blog about the experience. Things turn sour when people in her town get swept up in an anti-alien paranoia. Plus, she also starts to fall in lurve with Alien Aelyx (shocker) and he’s keeping a major (ish) secret.
We Judge Covers: It’s a book cover that screams, “YOU ARE TOO OLD TO BE READING THIS,” but I don’t even care because I think it’s cool. Or, at least, I thought it was cool until I read a bit of the book and found out that Aelyx is totally brown. At least olive. Another white-washed book cover? Yep.
Main Character: There isn’t much to say about Cara. Like many of the other characters and plot points in this book, Cara is paper thin. It’s a shame, because she’s basically created for readers to fall in love. I mean, she’s on debate team, she blogs, she’s ambitious and pretty. Still, her standout moments were few and far between. Sometimes the author overplayed her hand and Cara became less witty and more annoying.
Love Interest: Aelyx is bland and unemotional until he isn’t. He’s got a secret plan that we don’t delve too deeply into because the real plot of the book seems to be if whether or not he lets himself feel feelings for Cara. (Spoiler: he does.) (There’s kissing.) (The kissing might be the best scene in the book.) I get the feeling that you are supposed to like Aelyx because (1) – he is cu-ute and (2) – he does a great deal of protecting Cara. If that’s enough to get your heart fluttering, Aelyx is for you.
Negligent Parents? Nope. I mean, Cara’s parents care about her a great deal and they also love each other a lot. I’m only sort of confused by some decisions they make (the other half of the exchange program is letting Cara go to the alien planet for a year), but that’s more the author’s fault than the parent’s fault. I mean, supposedly Cara was selected for this program, and then her parents were informed. Weird.
1430: Woof.
The dialogue was sometimes cute! There.
#MEH: Pretty much everything else. The supporting characters were just as thin. Tori, Cara’s one time best friend, is a Latina girl who… SHOUTS CURSE WORDS IN SPANISH! Weeeeee! Us Hispanic girls do that all the time and it’s pretty much the only way to know we’re Hispanic.
The End: Probably don’t read this if you don’t want to know, but Cara basically forsakes all her life for Aelyx. I was not a fan.
Away Message Worthy Quote: Sorry. I got nothing.
For Traumateers who love: Nearly middle grade romance wrapped in a thin paranormal package.
Final Grade: D
You can find most of this and maybe more in my Goodreads review.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
