Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Dillon Lee’s grandfather was a conspiracy theorist. Every summer he’d take Dillon on a tour of New York City while entertaining him with tales of aliens. Fifteen years later, after a phone call from a lawyer, Dillon is carrying his grandfather’s ashes from landmark to landmark, paying a sort of tribute, and trying to figure out what to do with his unexpected legacy. When someone tries to steal the ashes, a guy Dillon has barely met leaps to the rescue, saving the urn and the day.
Steilang Skovgaard is a reclusive billionaire—and not human. He’s been living in Manhattan for over twenty years, working on a long-term plan to establish a safe haven for his people. For seven years, his reports have gone unanswered, however, and he is the only surviving member of his interstellar team. The connection he forms with Dillon soon after meeting him is something he’s missed, something he craves.
But after someone keeps trying to steal the ashes, it looks as though Dillon’s grandfather was involved in more than theories—and might not have been exactly who everyone thought he was. Steilang doesn’t know how close he can get to the truth without revealing himself, and Dillon is running out of people to trust. Can these two work out what’s going on before the thieves set their sights higher?
Uncommon Ground (Aliens in New York #1) by Kelly Jensen is an entertaining and enjoyable story. And I will certainly be reading the second installment to see what happens to this couple and the next step in their relationship and the events that happen here. But having said that, Uncommon Ground also suffered from two things for me in comparison. One wasn’t something it could have anything to do with but I had just finished an absolutely brilliant science fiction novel and anything that came immediately after wasn’t going to measure up. Again, not this story’s fault.
But the other? It doesn’t hold to the usual meticulousness with which Kelly Jensen permeates her typical stories. There’s such a preciseness, a air of completeness about mostly everything this author writes that I have come to expect from her tales. And I sort of tind that lacking here.
Maybe because I find the backhistory and foundation incomplete and Jensen is going to include that in future novels in the series. Perhaps its the swiftness of the relationship between Dillon Lee and Steilang Skovgaard. But so much here didn’t logically add up for me. And I liked these characters and the whole idea/arc that Jensen seems to be building here. But as the story progressed and events happened quickly, I just wanted more answers to fall into place. And the ones that did, again felt too slight in their delivery. They ended up putting forth more questions than the answers they supposedly provided.
Aliens among us is a familiar trope as even Dillon remarked and I still feel like I’m waiting on Kelly Jensen to fully put her mark on this trope, series and story. I know this author can write science fiction because her novel To See the Sun is a 5 star favorite of mine. So I will wait to see how this series and the characters grow and proceed.
If aliens among us and science fiction are your things, here is a series to take a chance on. I am going to to Purple Haze, book two. I will let you know what I find
Cover art is such a disconnect for me. They look absolutely nothing like the characters and really what makes you think aliens? Dillon has a strange face, purple hair, piercings and weirdly colored eyes for starters. I won’t get into Skov. This is an utter fail.
Sales Links: Amazon
Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 1st edition, 147 pages
Published June 22nd 2017 by Kindle Worlds
Original Title Uncommon Ground
ASINB0731VVQTZ
Edition Language English
Series Aliens in New York #1, Memories with The Breakfast Club
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 