Season of Strangers

This is my 1st Kat Martin novel. I am glad that I read it before I read some of the reviews posted here. I loved the book. Loved both the storyline and the writing. I thought it was fascinating and found it very hard to put down. I read it in 2 sittings and hated when it ended as I wanted more. If this is Kat Martin's worst novel, as some reviewers here have posted, then I certainly look forward to reading the ones that they think are good. Kristie Leigh Maguire - romance author

Julie and Laura Ferris are sisters who have no one left but themselves. Julie is a Realtor in Beverly Hills, working for a family-owned business that is being slowly run into the ground by Patrick, the playboy son of the owner. Patrick has always wanted Julie, but she has refused him for eight years, unwilling to be just another one of his women. One day, the two sisters are enjoying the beach, and the next, things are different. Laura begins acting strange and Julie gets debilitating headaches. Shortly thereafter, Patrick suffers a heart attack, but recovers more quickly than can be imagined. As Patrick seems to be renouncing his old ways, Julie finds herself drawn to this new, better man. But her sister needs her now more than ever, as she insists she was abducted by aliens that day on the beach. I admit, I was not expecting the aliens. But Ms. Martin wove in quite a bit of knowledge about space travel with commonly accepted alien lore (Area 51, Roswell, etc.). But the stellar part of Season of Strangers was Patrick. Patrick's changes come about as a result of an alien named Val merging with the spirit of the old Patrick. Watching Val learn about becoming human, while integrating the best parts of Patrick's life, was fascinating and well-done. Best of all was watching him fall in love, a concept that didn't exist on his planet. While the concept of alien abduction was different, the story of personal growth and love was exceptional. Niki Lee Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I'll have to say this is definitely an unique paranormal romance for Kat Martin. Julie and her sister are on the beach when they hear a buzzing noise, Julie doesn't realize what happened, but her sister swears she's being invaded by Aliens and they took her on the space ship. Trying to figure out what's going on with her sister, she's also fighting her attraction to playboy Patrick who is big into drugs and sex. An Alien, Val, decides he needs further research on Julie since she's blocking their experiments on her. So Val takes over Patrick's body and discovers what a human being feels like and what a human goes through that he doesn't deal with in his alien world. I'm not into paranormals but when it comes to Kat Martin, I'll read it. She did a good job, even though a little bizarre. I loved the ending.

I gave this book 4 stars because you wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. It was pretty fast paced as most of her books are, lot's of action and drama, intense emotions. But some of the concepts were far fetched and hard to grasp. There were just a few things that kept me from giving it 5 stars: I just couldn't get over a male alien inhabiting Patrick's body. Because the aliens look like what we all have seen in pictures - big eyes, huge head, skinny long arms and legs - quite strange and ugly. And that was Val. Who is now in Patrick's body. Whom Julie loves. Yuck. I couldn't get over that. I guess it's his soul or spirit or something that's in Patrick's body. But what happens to Val's alien body while he's in Patrick? It just stays aboard the spaceship? The book didn't answer that. Also, the fact that Brian still to the end never believed that Laura was taken aboard the space ship and experimented on. If he loved her, wouldn't he trust her? I thought eventually he would believe her and find some proof himself, but he doesn't. Also, Julie never finds out that she was taken onboard twice. Don't you think Val/Patrick would have mentioned that??? I thought for sure she would undergo hypnosis like Laura did and everyone would find out, and it would collaborate with Laura's story. But, nope, didn't happen. If it did, it would have rounded out the story nicely. And the reader wanted it to happen and thought that it would. It got a little tiresome with Val/Patrick constantly negating and putting on the act of disbelieving in UFOs during Julie's research, when the reader knows he's an alien. Got a little old. Too much dialogue of all his dumb reasoning/explanations when they don't account for anything anyway. Other than that, it was a good...interesting read.

Realtor Julie Ferris and her sister Laura are enjoying their day relaxing in a private cove on Malibu Beach owned by friend and client Owen Mallory when both discuss hearing and not hearing an odd buzzing sound that seems everywhere and nowhere. They fail to complete their chart as each has an urge to take a nap. Not long afterward, the siblings feel plagued by that lost day that neither can fully recall. Since their day at the beach Julie, who rarely had a headache, suffers from crippling migraines and remembers only falling asleep; while Laura suffers from nightmares of an alien abduction. Meanwhile at the real estate office, realtor Patrick Donovan recovers from a cocaine heart attack that changes him from a drug using philander into a considerate person who wants Julie as his lover. Julie is stunned by the makeover and her attraction to the newly improved Patrick, but rationalizes that the near fatal heart attack warned Patrick that he can no longer abuse his body. However, she soon realizes that extraterrestrial Val Zarkazian has taken possession of Patrick's body; he has fallen in love with the earthling, but must leave and when he does Patrick's body will die just like the man's soul has already did. SEASONS OF STRANGERS is a well written but odd paranormal romance as readers will need to adapt to a male lead body snatcher. The fast-paced story line hooks the audience from that eerie opening scene on Malibu Beach and never slows down as Julie begins to ponder the impossible by connecting the dots. Sub-genre fans will enjoy Kat Martin's third "Earth Girls Are Easy" when they fall in love with non-traditional males (see SCENT OF ROSES and THE SUMMIT). Harriet Klausner