Body Master

readers will relish C.J. Barry's entertaining tale.

Secret government agent Seneca Thomas of Extraterrestrial Criminal Enforcement Locality (XCEL), New York City Division, provides a needed innate skill as she can identify the alien shapeshifters who live amidst mankind. The aliens were stranded on earth when their spaceship crashed two years ago in the Badlands. They use homo sapiens DNA to appear as human.

Seneca's partner Riley is killed in the line of duty while hunting for "Jack" a serial killing shifter. Wanting revenge, Seneca is outraged when XCEL leadership assigns her Max Dempsey as her new partner; Max is a dreaded shifter who offered his services to find the rogue killer. He conceals his personal agenda of killing the psychopath who murdered his wife and exposed their race to potential disaster even perhaps genocide. Worse he detests his attraction to his acrimonious human partner. Both are stunned with what they find.

In some ways mindful of Alien Nation, the opening XCEL science fiction romantic police procedural is a terrific manhunt (make that ET hunt) thriller. The story line is fast-paced with the shifters intermingled with New Yorkers coming across as genuine. With the two lead investigators forging a star-crossed relationship while going after Jack, but discovering so much more, readers will relish C.J. Barry's entertaining tale.

Harriet Klausner

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic Read

If readers are looking for a new reading experience that's full of action, intrigue, amazing world building and an unlikely romance between two characters as unconventional as can be, then grab a chair and hunker down with Body Master. Ms. Barry has exploded my senses with this book.

I have to give the author credit for doing such an incredible job with world building. She made is seem effortless and convincing. Lately the word 'shifter' in romance pertains to wolves and the big cats but readers are about to be treated to a huge change when they start reading about Max. Max is an alien from some other planet who has to adjust to life on earth. And man, do they adjust - it's more than attitude and custom, it's how they appear. I was constantly astounded as to the depth of detail that Ms. Barry wove into her story. The writing was brisk, exciting and well paced. The dialogue was enjoyable and lent tension and drama when needed. There was mystery and mysticism to spice up the wonder of it all. Ms. Barry incorporated so many fascinating aspects into her characters but revealed them through the course of the story as a natural progression of events. The author didn't dump anything on me or over-justified any of the facts. I found out when the heroine found out, I felt when the heroine felt- be it confusion, anger, fear or passion and I grew to respect each character as I got to know them.

Max, though alien, is still a male and a wonderful hero. He's intelligent, driven, focused and fights an internal pain and anguish that he thought could never heal. Once I found out what happened to him, what he was fighting for and the scope of what he was up against, there was no way I could put this book down.

Same thing for Seneca, the heroine - she's a spitfire and yet strangely intuitive to what is happening. Oh, she fights it and she's darned good. She's a woman on a mission and she thinks she knows what she needs to and her decisions are based on fact. Unfortunately for her, good for me, she faces more challenges to her belief systems, her faith in humanity and her heart. On top of that her facts are flawed with omissions. I commend Ms. Barry on creating a character I was interested in, cared for and was curious about. I also got a kick out of her special talent. It comes to play at critical moments during the story and I thought it was an awesome addition. In fact, it rates quite high on my "Very Cool!" meter.

Secondary characters abound but some of the strongest are the villains which have various degrees of nastiness. There are fatalities that occur and a couple stunned me. I know my jaw dropped a few times during the course of the book which naturally means the author took me by surprise with clever writing, misleading clues that sent me through a maze of emotions. My favorite secondary characters have to be Max's best friend Apollo and Seneca's Grandma. Ms. Barry was a true artist in her handling of Max's other friend, Carl. I have to say, he was involved in one of those jaw dropping moments and I can't even begin to tell you the number of goose bumps I got from that.

Read the Full Review at The Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.