BOOK REVIEW for "Hack: Cosmos Alien Mail Order Bride #2: Intergalactic Dating Agency" by Annie Nicholas

Hack

Cosmos Alien Mail Order Bride #2

Intergalactic Dating Agency

by Annie Nicholas

Published: October 14, 2019

SUMMARY

On a mission with the Intergalactic Intelligence Agency to stop human abductions, Hack tracks the slave traders from Cosmos Resort and Dating Agency, an alien singles vacation spot, to a cruise ship. The resort introduced voluntary humans to aliens as prospective mates. The keyword was voluntary. The humans on this boat had chosen to have their memories wiped because they wanted nothing to do with aliens. Just as Hack is closing in on the slavers, he’s struck by lightning, short-circuiting his shapeshifting nanobots and cutting him off from his team. In an effort to hide, he uses the last of his strength to make himself look human before passing out in the closest bed.

Aspiring ocean videographer, Jeannie Havers has a hot lead on a rare shark spotting. She’d love for them to star in her latest documentary that shone a spotlight on sharks declining numbers and their importance to the ecosystem. With her last few dollars, she books a cheap cruise to a singles resort near the sighting. She has seven days to find them. That is until she wakes up with the worst hangover ever next to hottest man in the world. And he claims they are soulmates.

Hack’s new face makes him weirdly irresistible to the local human women and impossible to go unnoticed by the slavers, but he’s stuck like this until his nanobots recover. Worse, his soulmate is one of the humans who had chosen to have her memories wiped because she didn’t want to be mated to an alien. Could he spend the rest of his life pretending to be human?

~ BOOK REVIEW for Hack ~

*****(4) out of 5 Stars!

This was a delightfully entertaining paranormal sci-fi suspense tale!

This story begins with Hack, shortly after we left him at the end Trace (the proceeding volume in this series).  There is an awful lot of back-story dispensed in the first part of chapter one, but all of it is well-handled; such that I believe anyone just picking up this novel would be able to follow along.  Of course, having read the prior story gives a lot more insight not only into the current situation, but into the main players as well.  

Hack is the main male protagonist here.  As his name suggests, he has an affinity with technology, including the highly advanced nanobots that his team uses to not only change their appearance as necessary for disguise, but to assist in all manner of spy matters.  Unfortunately, Hack's nanos are mostly obliterated by a lightning strike, and so he is at a distinct disadvantage in trying to perform his duties without full use of his normal skill set.  Then there's the matter of him finding his fated mate and being more than a little distracted by her presence.

Maybe she should have been more afraid than she was, but he'd been in her bed all night and, from the state of her clothes, hadn't touched her.  

Jeannie works as part of a nature documentary film crew, and is in fact at the resort under somewhat false pretenses and on quasi-assignment.  She isn't looking for a man, but rather a particular type of shark that she is hoping to get footage of for a future endeavor.  Jeannie actually feels an immediate affinity to Hack, but doesn't recognize their soulmate bond for what it is, having had no experience with such things in the past.  

There are fewer peripherary characters in this episode, and only short encounters with the ones who do make an appearance.  Still, it is fun to see (or at least hear) some old friends from the prior volume, even in limited quantities.  

Once again, the main feel of the book is upbeat and happy, much as you would imagine things to be at a lovely island resort.  But there definitely are machinations in the works by the slave traders, and there is a fair amount of menace promoted by them.  

Like most middle books of any trilogy, this one advanced things with the main story arch only minimally, mostly serving as a place keeper until - hopefully! - things can be resolved in the final book.  Which, of course, will be centered on Crypto, who as of the end of this book is missing in action, so it should be quite the finale!  

I received an eBook copy of this title from the author,

and have willingly provided an honest review.