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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New direction for Susan Kearney, August 11, 2007
This review is from: Island Heat (Mass Market Paperback)
As has been noted, this is a new-ish direction for Susan Kearney. Many people are familiar with her other sci-fi series (The Challenge, The Dare, The Ultimatum and The Quest). This book is a little different, in that is set here on Earth, and the aliens come are the minority.
Cade is from a planet where any children that are no the first-born sons are essentially slaves. When his first-born brother shoots him out of the sky and he lands near Shara's private island, things change. Cade is here to open a portal to his planet and make some kind of trade agreement between our world and his. Shara is on the island to escape from her movie star past that ended with a scandal.
One of the things I like best about Ms. Kearney's books is that she gives real reasons behind why people do the things they do. Motives are real, actions ring true. I like that Cade and Shara behave in the ways you might expect them to (assuming we can guess how an alien and a movie star would act).
The story is different and the world-building is done well.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The connection isn't there..., February 11, 2007
This review is from: Island Heat (Mass Market Paperback)
This semi-new direction in Kearney's writing had potential but this book was disappointing. However, if you're a die-hard fan of her work you'll probably enjoy it.
To me there was something missing - and I think it had to do with the characters but I cannot quite put my finger on the problem. Maybe it's because Cade's acceptance of his newly awakening power takes too long and is too awkward. Or maybe it's because there is a lot of build up but the resolution and subsequent "mutual forgiveness" between the H/h was too quick. The ending really wasn't good in my opinion.
I'm not sure but this book is NOT a "keeper" on my bookshelf!
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Aliens, volcanoes and film stars, June 12, 2007
This review is from: Island Heat (Mass Market Paperback)
Shara Weston is a retired film star who lives alone on her island in the South Pacific, recovering from the tragic death of her lover four years before. However she is somewhat surprised to see a man fall from the sky into the water and she goes to help him, discovering that he is rather unusual. Not only unusual because he dropped from the sky but other things happen that seem a bit off, for example he recovers very quickly, his clothes seem to change magically, and he has an obsession with salt. Fairly soon Cade Archer tells Shara that he is an alien and needs the volcano on her island to create a portal to his home world to transfer salt, something that is lacking on his world and an unjust hierarchy is in place which rations salt only to special people, 'The Firsts'. Cade's own brother Jamal is a First and is trying to prevent Cade's mission which is to find three special machines which are needed to make the portal and have been scattered around the planet. However, Shara's friend Jules has visions which usually come true and one of her visions predicted just this, and that Cade's actions would destroy the world. Shara decides to appear to help him and then, when convenient, to scupper his plans.
The action moves from Shara's island of Haven to Hawaii and then mainland USA. Various other people are involved in the plot including Jules, a security expert, a reporter and a vulcanologist. Shara and Cade face dangers all around including escaping a burning building, an aeroplane crash, being stranded in the desert, being held at gunpoint and being controlled by the mind of Jamal. However they seem to shrug all this off with remarkable aplomb and this especially goes for Teresa Alverez, the security expert, who seems to recover almost overnight from being tortured by Jamal and left for dead. Although obviously parts of this story have to be beyond belief (being about aliens) it was actually harder to swallow the actions of the humans in this story.
The romance aspect is less important to the story than the earth-destroying plot and in some ways it's a romance born of nearness and mutual appreciation rather than anything else. Cade is worried as he starts to gain powers that previously were reserved only for the Firsts, including mind control, and he uses this on Shara occasionally. She seems remarkably phlegmatic about it and apparently glosses over any future problems and they are also both amazingly forgiving of some of the dodgy and untrustworthy things they do to each other. And that's my main criticism with the book; the action is OK, the plot is OK but the alien aspect just doesn't work. There's no world-building as one would expect, the aliens aren't human and yet seem to have no problems having sex with humans and even making babies with them. There seems to be minimal adjustment needed by Cade to this alternative world and although we learn that his culture sees relationships with women very differently than on Earth, he is able to commit to an Earth-type relationship within a week. It's OK to suspend disbelief when reading this genre of novel but there's a little too much of that in this story.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, [...]. © Helen Hancox 2007
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