I went back and forth on what I thought of this story until I realized that I was struggling with two different aspects of the book: Originality (creativity) and Mechanics (grammar, style, technique, etc.). The originality of the idea of this story is a solid 4 stars, maybe even a 4.5. On the other hand, the Mechanics of this story is barely worthy of 2 stars. I chose the lesser score because the mechanics, in the end, help to decide whether or not a book is readable. As much as I'd like to give the author props for her originality, I finished this book too soon, and had too many questions left unanswered because the way in which the ideas were delivered wasn't on par with the originality of the idea.

So what is the idea? A young Native American woman is undergoing testing to help her raise money for college. One of the tests is a DNA test, unbeknownst to our heroine, and results in her being abducted by a super secret, government (sort of) agency because....wait for it... she has inhuman DNA!!! She then must find a way to escape from her captors and find out the truth about herself before her time runs out.

So, our heroine (who looks human, has human emotions, and no supernatural abilities), is super naive to the realities of the world because she was raised on the reservation, but is not human. And she never suspected, in spite of the fact that she has a perfect star in the middle of her chest. (For those of you who have never seen the show Ancient Aliens, there is a belief amongst certain tribes that there are indeed aliens out there, but they are often referred to as Star People...wonder if this is where the author, got the idea.)

Sounds very interesting. Add that the author added a potentially steamy love story in the mix, and we should have a major hit! Unfortunately, it falls flat.

Let's begin with our characters: Cassia, the so very naive NA woman; Amy, the best friend who is going through law school, but manages to get killed in spite of the fact that she's a super-conspiracy theorist; Keanu (yes, like the actor), the handsome love interest who teeters on the line of lover and enemy; Agent Myers, a decidedly vile little man who could be a great threat if there were more of him; and the grandmother, Cassia's foster grandma who knows the secrets of Cassia's birth (because she was the midwife), but won't tell her until the last 10 pages or so.

Cassia is so naive, she borders on stupid sometimes. Emotionally, she still seems very young, almost teenaged, as she falls head over heels in love with Keanu after a single "chance" encounter on campus and one date the following day. She falls so in love with him, she sleeps with him (sans protection) after having known him for maybe 48 hours. If she knew him longer, I was unaware of it because there was very little mention of time, which in my opinion is just one of many problems with the writing style.

The seasons were changing as we enter Cassia's story (ignoring the opening scene of her birth 20 years prior), and the author describes the coldness in the air to let us know we're getting into winter, but other than Cassia's birthday (later, on Valentine's Day), I don't really remember any mention of dates or months or time. Now, I have never been a big believer in time, but in this case, it was one of those distractingly bad choices the author made, making this story difficult to follow.

Although, I'm not sure that is a true statement. This was not a difficult read, but I did find myself trying to go back to estimate how long certain things were taking. How long was she trapped, and tortured, and raped while in the secret facility? The timeline gets further muddled after Cassia becomes pregnant and it becomes apparent that Cassia's condition is maturing faster than normal. She could have been pregnant for a month, or 4, or 8, or God only knows how long.

And about the baby daddy... Is it the hot love interest, Keanu, who fell so in love with her, even though he was working for the enemy? Or is it the sickeningly vile Agent Myers who is an angry ball of nastiness? She was with Keanu only the once (a scene that if given a few more details would have been perfect in a romance novel) before she was taken and then Myers raped her nightly until they find out she's pregnant. Once they know she's pregnant, he quits, but Keanu comes back and makes love to her again...

Wait, what? He works for the enemy, lied to her from the very beginning, works for the people who let Myers rape her nightly, (let me emphasize that) she's been raped NIGHTLY, and yet he comes back and says some sweet words, strips her down, and she just lets him into her? By this point, I'm beginning to realize she CAN'T be human, because I don't think any woman would let him back into her life at all, let alone let him have sex with her, after all that. Nevermind the fact she's probably sore and emotional because of the pregnancy, but she's been broken down physically, mentally, and emotionally by Myers, yet she's all in love with Keanu again after a matter of moments?

By this point, if it wasn't for the fact that I really wanted to know if she was an alien, I think I would've put the book down. The rest is more of the same: flat characters, naive mistakes, very quick plot-line that has no sense of time and just seems to meander along til we get close to the finish line. There was a huge sense of urgency around them, but our fleeing lovebirds seem not to notice as she thinks about how she's going to tell him she's been raped repeatedly, and also thinks about how she has to survive for the baby inside of her, and how much she loves this guy she barely knows.

I was fairly certain how it would end, but I was still hoping for a little more information about where she came from. While I was given more info about her, it was very anti-climatic and not fully developed.

As I've been writing this review, I've been slowly developing my thoughts on this book, and I think I can finally put my finger on what it is that bothered me most: This book reads like a romance novel, but there is no romance! The characters have the emotional depth of romance characters, but we don't get the graphic, steamy love scenes. We're always just a little short of the payoff of a romance novel.

So we have a romance novel that's been marketed like a supernatural mystery, and there is very little mystery, not quite enough romance, and very, very little supernatural anything. It's almost as if the supernatural qualities of this book were an after thought. The author made her point about love conquering all, and then she realized, "oh wait, what about all the supernatural qualities this character should encompass? Hmmm, let me write it in as an epiphany; that should fix it."

Overall, it was a fun, quick read, and for an almost free book, I would probably still recommend it... as long as you could get it for less than $5. ( )