Review: Aliens, Smith, and Jones by Blaine D Arden

Aliens, Smith, and Jones by Blaine D. Arden
Storm Moon Press
Novel: 200pgs
4 Pants Off

Blurb:
Connor Smith works for Primrose, an organization tasked with monitoring and tracking aliens and alien technology. It's a job that doesn't know the meaning of "nine-to-five". It also doesn't leave much room for a social life, a complication that Connor hasn't minded, until now. At the prodding of his best friend, Connor reluctantly puts himself back in the dating pool, even though it means lying about his remarkable life.

Elsewhere, Noah Jones has led a remarkable life of his own. Stranded on Earth in 1648, Noah was forced to transform himself permanently into human form to survive. He soon learned that in doing so, he'd become effectively immortal, aging only at a glacial pace. Alone, with no way to contact his people or return home, Noah becomes a silent observer of human civilization -- always in the world, but never of the world. Then, hundreds of years later, he sees a face in a crowd and instantly feels a connection that he thought he'd never feel again. But he's too late: Connor's already taken.

Destiny is not without a sense of humor, though, and the two men are pulled inexorably closer, snared by the same web of dangers and conspiracies. Worse, Primrose is now aware of Noah, and they aren't ones to leave an alien unrestrained. So while Connor struggles to understand the strange pull he feels toward Noah, forces without as well as within are working against them to keep them apart.

Review:
I have yet to be disappointed by something Blaine has written. I loved her short stories so I was overjoyed when I found out about a full-length book. On the upside, I really enjoyed reading this book; on the downside, it frustrated the crap out of me.

Conner Smith is an agent at Primrose an organization that hunts and keeps track of Aliens or alien artefacts. Connor is a busy little bee with no time for a social/love life. That doesn’t mean his best-friend Isa isn’t always trying to hook him up, and she isn’t exactly good at it. Until there was Jason, finally Isa gets it right and sets Connor up with guy of his dreams. Jason is perfect, Jason is awesome, and I was waiting for Jason to start laying golden eggs. Connor now has both a successful career and relationship.

If only there wasn’t that niggling sensation of being stalked and as if someone is trying to get to the deepest part of his mind.  To say that Connor has a lot on his plate is understatement.  Noah is over 300 years old and he’s just found his source for energy but it’s a bummer cus he’s got a boyfriend, and works for an alien prevention/extraction organization. When Connor has had enough of the stalking and the mind exploring he takes the situation to the big boss and in no time their reigning Noah in. Noah makes a choice to come clean and lay all his cards on table, it’s up to the agents at Primrose to believe him or not.

The story then becomes so obvious that it was driving me crazy. There is some crazy involving Noah, the evidence was just staring everyone Connor in the face, and his lust-filled brain just could not see it. I wasn’t sure about him being good at his job, when he couldn’t see the simple things. I am epically frustrated by the small amount of page time that Connor and Noah shared, and when they were together, I wanted to reach into the pages and kick the crap out of Connor. He frustrates me.

I am in love with the writing, Ms Arden is one of the few authors able to grip me and have me reading at 3 in the morning cursing and throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old, (you should have seen in it). I don’t want to say the book reminds me of the Men In Black but it seriously does. Even the very common last names of the main characters in their extraordinary lives ring true of the MIB. It’s a fast-paced novel, with a plot, I did not necessarily enjoy but it came together brilliantly.

This would make a fantastic series filled with awesomeness, and I would love to read about Connor and Noah again. Connor has some redeeming to do because I still at this very moment would like to go all Bruce Lee on his ass. Due to the lack of a romantic relationship between Noah and Connor my ire for him is strong, he remained that guy who went on about how perfect Jason was (I am not down with that). He comes off as naïve and I can’t believe in his integrity on the job, I just wasn’t buying the serious agent role.

Overall, I liked the book, the world building is quite good, and there are some fascinating characters. I love the whole alien hunters, and I really liked Noah. I am just being all pouty face cus I wanna tell Connor to ‘Suck It!’

4 Pants Off