"A futuristic author worth watching out for!"

Tess MacKenzie is on top of the world. She's finally going somewhere with her singing career when a creep tries to mug her in the alley outside the club where she sang. She really needs that lousy three hundred bucks so she decides to spray the creep with hair spray. It doesn't give her much time to get away but before she gets away she runs into a very large good-looking man. He has a silver creature with him who shoots the mugger with some sort of a light. Then the man asks Tess to come with him. Tess decides she really needs to be out of this scene, but then the creature turns his sights on her and the world goes black.

Cohl Travers is on a mission. He has to convince Tess to help him so he can get his father back. It's complicated and he knows there's no way he can explain the whole story to her. After all, Earthlings do not know anything about other planets and their inhabitants. He needs her voice and her voice alone. That's the only voice that will do for his mission.

When Tess awakens she is very upset but when she realizes that Cohl is an alien and they are traveling in space, she freaks big time. How can this be happening to her of all people? All Cohl cares about is if she'll help him with his mission but how will he convince her?

Futuristic romances are one of my all time favorite reads. When I find an exceptional author I'm her fan for life. This is definitely the case with C. J. Barry. I absolutely could not put this one down. It was simply stunning. This is one author I will be keeping my eye on for more of these fabulous reads!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted March 31, 2003

Author Interview

Winner of 2003 PEARL Award
- Best Science Fiction Romance

Summary

Life on Earth was just getting interesting for Tess MacKenzie. She'd postponed her singing career to support the family business and after eight long years, she finally earned her chance to shine. Her band was hot, her songs were rocking and Tess was on her way to becoming a star.

Things were definitely looking up.

That is until Cohl Travers, alien extraordinaire, swoops out of the night sky and snatches her off her planet. When he says he desperately needs her voice for a dangerous cosmic mission and the fate of two planets hangs on her song, she figures one of them is in for some serious therapy. Tess soon finds herself up to her neck in smelly bad guys, a robot with a superiority complex, an ancient Amulet that could end her singing career permanently and a man who can burn her from the inside out.

Cohl Travers thought he was free and clear of his destiny to become the next ruler of his planet. But when the warring Trakas abduct his father and hold him hostage for the Amulet, Cohl is dragged back to a fate he does not want with a woman he cannot ignore.

Together, they might defeat the Trakas -- but what is Cohl supposed to do about the feelings that Tess has unearthed in him?