I really liked this one. There wasn't so much female shamanish stuff as in the last one which spoiled that one a bit for me. This one was entertaining. I enjoyed it greatly as I went along. There wasn't quite as much romance perhaps as the last one. The H and h were not actually together for a large part of the book. They would each do their thing and then meet up every night or so. I nearly always enjoy books better if the H/h are together struggling against an outside force either literally or figuratively. Here they were sort of working separately. This was told in 1st person in a sort of snarky voice from the heroine. The sci fi was fairly solid and the plot was well rounded and made sense. ( )

Close Contact is the second book in the Alien Affairs series.
Echo Adams is not like Kiera Smith, at least she doesn't want to believe it's even possibility. But ever since Kiera's journal got out, all GEPs created by Dr. Gertz are under suspicion. Echo has lost her job at the Department of Protocol and been sent to work at Alien Affairs. Where she has just discovered that she is the only one who can help find the child of an all powerful Limantti (a large black quartz infested with an alien life form with psi abilities). This sends Echo on an adventure that will change her life.
I liked this story just as much as the first one. Again there are great characters, a great story, and great world building. But don't think you going to get an exact replica of Kiera's story. Echo is a different person sent to a different world, a world very much like earth in medieval times.
If you like character driven stories with romance, mystery, and adventure, you'll like Close Encounters. ( )

Not as good as Close Encounters, but not nearly as bad as I was led to believe by the reviews on amazon.com, either! I enjoyed this one for the mindless brain vacation it is, and will happily read the next one. ( )

Echo is a genetically engineered person (GEP) who works for the diplomatic corps. When it is discovered that some GEP’s have psychic abilities (see Book 1 Close Encounters), she is reassigned to the Bureau of Alien Affairs and sent to a planet that is off limits to the Federation. Not only does she not know what her supposed psychic abilities are, but she has to figure out how to use them so that she can recover a psychic crystalline life form. Things get complicated when the attractive commander of the king’s army catches her. Now she still has to save the world, but she should try to avoid falling in love too.

I should start off by letting you know I like my stories with more focus on the Sci-fi than romance. I don’t like it when the story is really just a romance wrapped up in a Sci-fi setting. I felt like the first book in this series managed to do that. This one didn’t manage at all. There was a lot more focus on the romance. The plot never really felt urgent or dangerous and it all wraps up so neat and tidy. Echo was a little too shallow and whiny to be an enjoyable character. Some of her commentary is amusing, but it's not enough to save this story. ( )