Review: Unearthed

Title: Unearthed
Author: C. J. Barry
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Series: Unforgettable/Book 1
Published: May 2003

Just when Tess MacKenzie is about to get her big singing break something out of this world happens to her. His name is Cohl Travers and he's Tess' kidnapper. But this isn't your ordinary kidnapping. Nothing Cohl does is ordinary. He's like Indiana Jones with a twist. The twist is that Cohl is from another galaxy. So just think of him as a inter-galactic Indy.

My first novel by C. J. Barry proved to be interesting. I wouldn't say I was crazy mad in love with the story but it held my attention and kept my interest that I'm reading the next book in the series. I took me a bit to get into the story and at times moved slower than I liked.

The story starts out on Earth where Tess is about to be mugged. She's rescued by a tall, gorgeous hunk of manliness. But her rescuer turns out to be her kidnapper. Cohl Travers is in dire need of a singer but not just any singer will do. He's searched the galaxies to find just the right voice for what he needs. Tess has that voice. So Cohl takes her back to his spaceship and explains to her why he needs her help, leaving out a few details. Tess has some moments of freaking out, which is to be expected but overall she handles the situation pretty well.

Tess was singer who had put her dreams on hold for years but that was about to change. She was about to get her chance at a recording contract. Then fate stepped in and she's now in another galaxy with a gorgeous alien who gets her hot and bothered. At first she wants to just get back to Earth and her life there. Then she gets to know not only Cohl but his planet and some of the people. Cohl's mother and Tess get along well and Tess begins to understand what's at stake. She decided to help Cohl and it turns out they make a good team.

Cohl was a guy who turned his back on the family business, so to speak. He took off to find adventure and profit by earning a reputation for locating rare and valuable treasure and artifacts. Now he needs Tess to help him locate an amulet and exchange it for his father who has been taken hostage by some real nasty aliens. Cohl is a born leader and it shows as he commands his ship. He also attempts to command Tess but that doesn't always work and she shows she can and does get the upper hand.

The tension between the two is well done but I did think they fell a little too quickly for each other. There were time constraints because Cohl only had a certain numbers of days to find the amulet and get it to the nasty aliens who were keeping his father. There was also Tess thinking she wanted to go back to Earth and Cohl thinking he had to send her back. So they thought they only had a set number of days and then they would never see each other again. When what they really wanted was to be together, they just didn't know how it could be done. Talk about long distance relationship!

Cohl also had an interesting relationship with Pitz. Pitz is Cohl's right hand, um man, sort of . Pitz is a robot with a computer for a brain who seems to have more information than Cohl usually wants. Their bond is intriguing because Cohl doesn't treat Pitz like an expendable piece of machinery. He treats him like another person which shows the depth of their relationship. Pitz thinks nothing of giving up his existence to save Cohl but it's something that Cohl wouldn't even consider.

Aside from the plot moving a bit slow in places the overall story was well written. Tess and Cohl worked well as a team and a couple. The sci-fi aspect was not too intense, no getting bogged down in technical jargon that took too much away from the romance. Just enough to let the reader know that this was a science fiction setting.

There are four books in this series with Ms. Barry publishing a new series about shapeshifters in 2010. She also writes romantic suspense under the name Samantha Graves. For more about both C. J. Barry visit her website here.

Rating: B+