"outrageously funny paranormal romance"
When Maryellen woke up in the morning, it should have been
another routine day for the workaholic graphic artist.
Instead, Sub-commander Targon made his presence known as a
disembodied voice coming from inside her. This turns out
to be just the beginning of Maryellen's life changing
experiences. Ur Targon is certain that his cohorts placed him into
Marellens' body as a practical joke; but he is not
laughing. On a top secret, urgent mission to save the US
President, Targon needs a body of his own. From cab accidents with police cars to group therapy in
pyramids (with Trekies and Star Wars fans) OUT OF THE BLUE
has a little bit of everything. Katherine Deauxville
hardly gives the reader time to recover from one shocker
(that has you groaning in mortification) before she makes
you laugh out loud again. I especially liked the results
of going hunting for an appropriate body. Gads, that was
a hoot! (Am I tempting you to read the book yet?) While I greatly enjoyed this story, I had some issues with
several things. Maryellen's sister Felicia drove me
nuts! I think she was very sweet at the same time but it
was like she never listened to her sister. Rather than
noticing typographical errors etc, I noticed a couple of
inconsistencies with Maryellen herself (was she a virgin
or not? Sorry, but this really confused me!). I also
thought Maryellen and Felicia were a little pretentious.
As I've never read a book by Ms Deauxville before, I don't
know if it is just the characters, or her writing style.
Despite how this paragraph might sound, I did like
Maryellen who was resourceful, even if she was out of her
league dealing with Targon. I do like the way Ms Deauxville alternates between the
primary characters, the secondary characters Wolf Madder
from the FFI, and then the therapy group. It gave the
story a feeling of knowing what is going on for all three
parties at the same time without overloading the reader.
I thought this was really well done. While Targon is certainly overbearing and a pain in
Maryellen's life, he is a hoot! He has the capability of
taking a semi-solid form only for short periods of time.
During this time he glows kind of like a thousand watt
light-bulb, which is a problem in it's own. He has
a "guide book" of Earth culture that adds to the
humor; "invents" a great drink in champagne and orange
juice - which has funny results. And lastly, I think the
body he ends up finding actually matched his personality
in a way! As this is a romance, the characters are intimate, but the
scenes are insinuated rather than graphically written
out. (Which I can respect.) All in all, OUT OF THE BLUE is outrageously funny and if
you have the chance to read the story, it's a great
contemporary romance that I would recommend.
Reviewed by Cynthia Eckert
Posted May 19, 2004
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