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Review by KJ Van Houten

Review of Alien Contact for Runaway Moms

Audra Verhailey is good at running – that’s a really good skill to have when she needs to get away from an abusive boyfriend, but how is she going to manage it with an 8-month-old baby in tow? For a start, by going to the last place on Earth anyone would think of going. So Audra runs to the abandoned underground cities on Kwadra Island, home to the all-too-intriguing Kwadrans, aliens who had appeared suddenly four years ago when they mysteriously moved their island home to our world. No human in her right mind would go there, right?

Somehow on the way, Audra picks up a volunteer guide in the form of Tal Pelletier, Kwadran construction worker, who finds Audra and baby Roxie right after they reach Kwadra Island. He agrees to lead her to the underground, as much to his own surprise as to hers since it’s the last place he wants to go, too. Underground holds too many memories and he really doesn’t want to confront his painful past. But there’s something about the way baby Roxie smiles and gurgles up at him that he can’t resist. Yeah, it’s got to be the baby. It definitely isn’t the way his body reacts when he looks at Audra. Nope, not the annoying female who is obviously hiding a secret and running from who knows what kind of trouble.

Nearly a month after Audra’s disappearance, her uncle Matthew, an expert in cyber security, arrives on Kwadra Island. His search for his missing niece has led him this far, but now her trail is cold. Opsie Beaverclaw, duchess of the Beaver Clan, agrees to help him search the Island for her. It’s just because she’s bored after resigning as head of the Kwadran security force. OK, so maybe it’s his determined attitude to find and protect his niece that appeals to the scarred woman in her. Maybe it’s just those appealing blue eyes.

Audra finds more underground than she expected. It’s not as abandoned as she thought it would be, and there are more dangers than just getting lost on unfamiliar streets. Good thing Tal is there to guide and protect her, even if she doesn’t understand why he just walked away from his job on the surface and has stayed with her this long. Or is the biggest danger Tal himself. But now there’s evidence that someone is after them, or at least her. Is it her ex coming to steal Roxie from her? Audra has to learn to trust more than just herself.

Alien Contact for Runaway Moms provides two romances for the price of one! While the main story centers around Audra and Tal, I was just an happy to read about the relationship developing between Opsie and Matthew. Maybe because Opsie is portrayed in a different light than in previous books in this series. I really didn’t like her character before, but in this book, she steals the scenes with her strength and attitude.

I usually avoid romances that have ‘baby’ anywhere in the blurb, but I enjoyed the other books in this series so much that I was happy to give this one a try and I’m glad I did. I really need to find a better way to describe this series than ‘quirky’ or ‘a fun romp’ – those are exactly the right words, I just have been overusing them. Hoornaert’s balance of humour and serious story is delightful to read. I never recommend any of these books as standalone, although some people might be okay with that. I prefer to read the series in order to get the backstory that can’t be explained in each new book, the growing depth of characters and how they interconnect. In this book, I think not knowing more about the Kwadran society and Opsie’s background particularly, a reader might miss some of those connections.

Disclaimer: An ebook of Alien Contact for Runaway Moms was provided in exchange for an honest review.

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