ARC Review: Gini Koch – Universal Alien

The tenth book in the Katherine 'Kitty' Katt series, to be published December 2, 2014.
Genre: sci-fi / action / romance / humor
Cover: fitting the story beautifully



Being the wife of the Vice President isn’t easy. Especially when your talents lie in kicking butt and rocking out, rather than politics and diplomacy.
Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini find out just how difficult it can be when Kitty accidentally offends the Australian prime minister. Now they have to smooth things over, pronto, or risk creating and international incident the worldwide anti-alien coalitions will be able to use to force Jeff to resign and the A-C’s to leave the planet.
Before Kitty can make things even worse, a cosmic congruence and a little help from some powerful beings shoves her into another world – one where she’s been married to Charles Reynolds for years and aliens don’t exist. She’s also landed in the middle of a huge conspiracy and is marked for death ... but at least that’s business as usual.
Kitty’s not the only one confused, because the Kitty from that world has taken her place in this one. Now Alpha Team and the Diplomatic Corps have to make sure that no one realizes there’s been a switch while preventing World War III from happening And they have to do it while keeping this new Kitty in line, because she has views about what to do and how to do it, and time is running out.
Can each Kitty save the day before it’s too late and then go home to her own universe? Or will one Kitty decide to keep the other’s life, forever?


The tenth book in the Kitty Katt Martini series already, and Gini Koch is still going strong with this series. I loved this book, it was fun and so very well plotted out. At first, I did not like the blurb, it made me think of those books where twins take each others place, and I just cringe often while reading such things. But Gini wrote a brilliant story, or rather two, intertwined and I loved both of them. In this review I will call the original Kitty, Kitty 1, and the new Kitty, Kitty 2.


It is important for Kitty 1 and Jeff, the new Vice-President of the United States, to make a good impression on the Australian prime minister and his wife, and to ensure that, there has been a cricket match organized. Both Chucky and Raj have tried to get Kitty 1 to understand the rules of the game in the past week, but to no avail, and she is bored out of her wits. And it shows. So to get away from it all, Kitty 1 decides it is time for a visit to the bathroom, even if she has to take her secret service detail and her A-C guards with her. She will also get some coffee while she is at it.
But disaster strikes when she not only flips off the Australian prime minister when she misunderstood something the fans have done, she also douses the pair in coffee, while falling down the steps and hitting her head, hard. While Jeff is rushing her to the hospital on foot, as that is way faster than waiting for an ambulance, something strange happens, and she suddenly wakes up in an unfamiliar car, with three children in the back seat, one of them her little daughter Jamie...

In the meanwhile, in an alternate reality, Kitty 2 and her husband Charles Reynolds have just arrived home in America. They live half the year in Australia, and the second half in America, Washington D.C.. Charles has to go to work for the think tank, and so Kitty 2 takes their three children and gets ready for a day at the Zoo. Her best friend Caroline will meet her there. But before she gets there, a strange car tries to run them off the road, and shoots at them! The airbag explodes in Kitty2’s face, and she blacks out, only to wake up in the hospital with a very handsome but strange man standing over her ...

Somehow, the Kitty’s have changed places, as both their special talents are needed more in the other reality ...

It is up to Kitty 1 to survive the assassination attempts, and to find out who is targeting Kitty 2 and her family, and why. Just a normal day in her life, really. Being the only one with superpowers sure is a benefit.
And it is up to Kitty 2 to mend bridges with the Australian Prime Minister and his wife, who is a close friend of her and Charles in their world. And to do that, she needs to find that one special present she bought in Paris in her own world, but will it exist here as well?


If you ever wanted to know what would have happened to Kitty 1 if she never met Jeff, you will in this book. And it is done brilliantly. It was so much fun to discover the similarities in both worlds, and heartbreaking to have Kitty 1 looking for her friends and allies in this strange realm, and not being able to find anyone alive. And of course she has to convince her “family” and friends that she is not their Kitty ... Which is a lot easier for Kitty 2 to do, as Jeff is an empath and this Kitty just feels differently.

One of the most fun parts was their taste in music. For the most part, they share the exact same taste in music. But Kitty 2 met someone who became a personal friend, and thus she loves his music. But Kitty 1 doesn’t, it makes her fall asleep ...

I loved it, the big part that Jamie plays and the intrigues. Yes, we do discover who the Evil Mastermind is in both storylines. I will admit that I was not surprised at whom it turned out to be at all, but I did not guess it beforehand. I was thinking someone closer to them. So tell me, if you have not yet read this book, who do you think the mastermind is?

10 stars.

Be on the lookout for a special guest post by Gini Koch on my blog on November 14th, as it has a giveaway in it!

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian