I really liked this one. There wasn't so much female shamanish stuff as in the last one which spoiled that one a bit for me. This one was entertaining. I enjoyed it greatly as I went along. There wasn't quite as much romance perhaps as the last one. The H and h were not actually together for a large part of the book. They would each do their thing and then meet up every night or so. I nearly always enjoy books better if the H/h are together struggling against an outside force either literally or figuratively. Here they were sort of working separately. This was told in 1st person in a sort of snarky voice from the heroine. The sci fi was fairly solid and the plot was well rounded and made sense. This is the second installment in Katherine Allred's Alien Affairs series. I haven't read the first book however Close Contact reads perfectly as a stand-alone. This is the story of Echo, a genetically modified person who has been fired from her job as party planner for the Department of Protocol and forced to work for the Bureau of Alien Affairs as a secret agent. This change in her circumstances is directly related to events caused by the heroine of the previous novel. Echo is a hilarious character. She is vain, shallow and hates Kiera Smith (the previous heroine) with a passion. Her conversation is witty and caustic. She reminds me a lot of Betsy from MaryJanice Davidson's Undead series. I especially loved her clothes obsession!Echo is sent to recover a powerful sentient artifact from a planet where technology has been outlawed. There she meets and falls for the commander of the army, Reynard. Reynard is a classic hero and a complementary if slightly bland foil to Echo's high-spiritedness. There is a veritable feast of secondary characters in this story (most of them interesting) but I never lost track of who was who. The plot moved along at a brisk pace and held my interest throughout. I felt Echo's personality paled a little toward the end. I preferred her at her snarky best. The romance was ok but I like a bit more angst and passion. This couple accepted each other from the outset. I also prefer more technology with my SFR and the setting of a medieval type city didn't appeal to me as much. Otherwise this was a great story and I would recommend it to other fans of Scifi or fantasy romance.
