"Whimsical science fiction romance"

In Button Creek, Texas, Ph.D. astronomer Daniel Murphy shares looking at the stars with his eight year old son Will. The former Columbia University professor Daniel runs the local grocery/gas station as he hides from his deceased wife's parents who want to raise Will as their own. While on the rooftop with Will studying the heavens together, they notice strange lights in the sky with one splitting away from the others. In spite of his former credentials, Daniel cannot explain to Will what they saw.

Daniel meets Zara, the new waitress at Coombs Luncheonette. Like every other male including his son, Daniel cannot resist her lure. Zara feels the same way but it is also especially nice to his son. However, her desires are irrelevant as she comes from another planet in which the men are ill and assigned earthly breeding has occurred. She has been designated to mate with Robert Lotello, whom she has not been able to locate because her stud Robert Lotello is in hiding under the alias Daniel Murphy.

This is a whimsical science fiction romance that sounds like Starman, but has a heavier emphasis on the star crossed relationships than on the suspense. The lead couple is a delightful pair while his son is too precocious for this world. The Button Creek crowd adds warmth and emphasizes the differences between the two planetary species in a positive uplifting way so that readers enjoy a fine tale that should lead to the telling of the romances of several other Female ET lights too.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 15, 2004

Summary

Daniel Murphy has never gotten stargazing out of his system. Even as he and his young son hide out in Button Creek, Texas, the ex-astronomy professor still finds excitement in the stars. When a stunning new waitress from out of town—way out of town—starts working at the local diner, Daniel finds watching her even more exciting. Every red-blooded male around, in fact, has eyes for this bewitching stranger.

Zara is a little bit more unusual than most women, and is oddly unfamiliar with cars, washing machines, and many other everyday appliances. But what the good-looking single dad doesn't realize is that passionate chemistry between them could take them both a lot farther than he ever imagined. Because Zara's come a long, long way looking for one perfect man...