Body Master (Berkley Sensation) [Paperback]

Body Master by C J Barry
Paranormal Romance - August 3rd, 2010
5 stars

Body Master is an astonishing beginning to an exciting and new paranormal series. Clear writing and an intensely involving plot made this a story not to be missed! The complex relationship between the 2 main characters kept me turning the pages as sworn enemies became passionate lovers.

In this series aliens have crashed on earth. The problem is they pose a real threat and most of earth's population is unaware that they exist. These aliens have the ability to assume the DNA of humans and shift into the identity of any individual. But what makes them scary is that many of them feel earth is their personal playground. As a result, rashes of human murders by the aliens have created the special government agency XCEL. XCEL's sole purpose is to capture aliens and keep them contained but also to prevent them from being discovered by the general human populace. But the aliens' super strength and ability to change their identity makes them deadly and difficult to catch. To make matters worse, the aliens have been slowly building power by killing humans with money and influence and taking their DNA to impersonate them.

Seneca Thomas is the best agent at XCEL. But she has a secret. Her Native American heritage has given her special powers to detect the shifters even in their human form. She can also force them to shift back which makes them vulnerable and easier to capture. But she must touch them to do so. On her latest mission she wasn't able to reach the dangerous shifter she was assigned to capture and as a result her partner died. Guilty, angry and sick at heart Seneca is pissed when she discovers she has already been assigned a new partner. A partner who is a shifter named Max Dempsey. She is sure Max has only joined for nefarious reasons and will eventually betray XCEL. As a result, Seneca wants no part of him but her boss tells her she has no choice. If she doesn't work with Max their agency will lose their funding. Resentful, Seneca decides not to make it easy on her new partner and is blatantly hostile. There is no way she has to be civil to the creep, even if he is sexy.

But Max is willing to put up with her suspicion and antipathy because he does have an agenda of his own. And he needs the help of XCEL and their top agent if he wants to get his personal mission accomplished. The bottom line is he doesn't need his partner to like him just to give him what he needs. Both of them don't plan on actually caring for each other and even if they did have a relationship it would doomed.

The developing relationship in this novel is one of the best I've read. There is real hostility especially on Seneca's (I really enjoyed Seneca's tough attitude.) part until she sees Max as an individual and not just one of the dangerous shifters that have killed her partner. I enjoyed Seneca's slow and realistic development of feelings for Max. What I mean was Seneca didn't immediately like Max like most heroines do in romance books. It was also intriguing to see Max's point of view as he begins to realize that Seneca is not only a means to an end. Their transformation and the deep change in their attitudes and views of each other made for great tension and an extremely absorbing story.

The author also has several secondary characters that were equally 3 dimensional and had their own secret agendas that furthered the story. I was particularly intrigued by Seneca's crafty grandmother who tells more than she reveals. How does she already know about the shifters and where do her powers come from? The paranormal aspects made sense and flowed easily in the story adding a rich background that only made the story all the more fascinating. I hope this series goes past the usual 3 books that most authors write because I feel there is so much room for this series to grow. The original take on shifters and the Native American humans with their own special powers and is a sure fire hit!

This is a captivating new series! A mix of all of my paranormal favorites: mystical powers, futuristic aliens, crafty shifters and steamy romance. But it is the way the author seamlessly brings them together that makes it so satisfying a novel. My only regret is that it ended too soon!

Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

I loveeee C.J. Barry's sci-fi romance books and loved her Unearthed series. When I heard about this book I was itching to get my hands on it and now that I have, and read it under a day, I've got to say the book was absolutely fantastic!

This book is the perfect balance of action, romance, the paranormal element (in this case being the aliens) and a touch of humour.

I won't go into full detail about this book as the other reviews have more or less covered that but what I will say is I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to any sci-fi romance lovers out there, you will not be dissapointed!

EDIT: IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU BUY READ THIS! - Forgot to say that you shouldn't judge this book by it's cover. This book isn't an erotica, it's not even close. It has one sex scene near the end of the book (69% to be exact) and a smaller one shortly after. It builds up the relationship between the two main characters, which is what I liked anyway, reminded me of an Urban Fantasy novel in fact, the cover should have looked like one.

But anyway just an FYI for those of you who may assume this is an erotica/or book full of sex, it's NOT so don't buy this book assuming that because you'll probably be disappointed. Would hate for this book to get any negative reviews because of that, because it's such a great book, so just a heads-up.

I've always wanted to try a book by author C J Barry, and Body Master, a fun mix of paranormal and alien romance, was right up my alley.

Unknown to the general public, aliens walk among us. They are shapeshifters who take on the appearance of anyone as long as they have a DNA sample. Seneca is an agent on a secret task force and it her job to hunt down and capture dangerous shapeshifters. Seeing the worst of their race, her work has left Seneca with little love for the aliens. So she's less than pleased when, after losing her partner during a capture, she is assigned a new partner who is a shifter.

Max has wormed his way onto the task force, yes, he has the skills to take down his fellow shifters but his real purpose is to use his position to hunt down one shifter in particular - the traitor who was responsible for the death of many of his people and who murdered of Max's wife as well. Max will have to win Seneca's trust to find the fiend and then violate that trust to extract his revenge.

I really enjoyed Body Master, though if you think about it it's sort of odd to find the hero attractive when he's wearing someone else's body and when he could just as easily become someone else. However, on the whole I did the way the relationship developed between Seneca and Max once I got past the fact that Seneca's shift in attitude towards Max from hostility to acceptance was a bit too easy to believable. Max's change of heart from intending only to 'use' Seneca to 'wanting more from her' was better.

Other things I liked about Body Master: The background plot including the whole secret black market DNA dealing was interesting and I though Seneca's shamanish grandmother and her relationship with Seneca brought Seneca's character to life. But what I really liked about Body Master was that it was so different - what a great combination of sci fi and paranormal romance. I am really looking forward to the next book, terrificly titled, Body Theif.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews  4.8 out of 5 stars