Starstruck (Volume 1)

De: S. E. Anderson

Narrado por: Rena Gail

After an incident with a hot-air balloon causes college-dropout Sally Webber to lose her job, she sets off to find direction in her life. Crashing into a teleporting alien, however, is not on her to-do list. Now she’s on the run from TV-drama-loving aliens, and things are just getting started. Zander won’t stop reeling her into life-or-death situations to save her planet, as he waits for his laser-wielding sister to search the universe for him. Though Sally isn’t quite sure if he wants to save Earth from annihilation or just quell his curiosity of all things human. Now she’s got to find lost alien emissaries, as well as a job, and stop the planet from getting incinerated in the process. But with Zander as her roommate, what could possibly go wrong?

©Five years Bolide Publishing Limited (P)2018 Bolide Publishing Limited

Loads of fun!

Full of all kinds of sci-fi fun! you'll love the Firefly and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy references.

Fantastic Syfy story

Starstruck by S.E. Anderson is a humorous sci-fi adventure story. Rena Gail did an amazing job with the narration, bringing the story to life and making it more comical. The story is entertaining, interesting, humorous, some romance, and adventurous. Poor Sally has her own problems but now she is dealing with a TV drama, loving alien she accidentally run into. Now he put her into weird scenarios of life and death. Can she figure out how to stop the crazy alien does he? Does he want to destroy the Earth?? I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.would recommend

What on Earth!?!?

Well lookie there! I am first to review this YA sci-fi audio novel!

I asked a writers group for some suggestions for audio books as I was traveling. The author slid hers across the digital table and I thought I would give it a whirl. Bottom line? It’s pretty good! If I were 16-18 and a female, I think it would be darn good! It is, after all, a YA novel.

It’s got lots of action, well written and the narrator did a fine job on the female inflections, an “OK” (acceptable) job on the males. But for tweens and teens? Well, the issue lies in the foul language. Oh- I’m all about cussing! I’m a former sailor! But to keep this story totally YA (where it firmly belongs) a simple edit would seal the deal. If she changed the Fu*#’s to fracks... you’re in!! But that’s kind of too late now due to the investment in having the audiobook made. So the story is hovering somewhere in between YA and adult.

The female protagonist is a college drop out and is kind of an emotional train wreck- and again- college types would feel the writing is geared more toward younger teens. Sally carries on more like a high school junior more than a college sophomore. There are a couple instances of maturity but not enough to bring it to the “adult” level.

The action is good- story is kinda cool- and I would have given this a 3.8- it’s really just shy of a 4 for me. The Balloon (mentioned in the blurb) seemed kinda random to me- it wasn’t fully explained but kept popping up. There were a few developmental things that could have been polished up before investing in the reading as well.

But overall- pretty darn good. I don’t think hard core sci-fi fans would like it- but up and coming readers in their late teens should get a kick.

Good Job!

PS- listen to it (or read it) and you’ll understand my opening title line!

nice!

This is a really surprising book. took a few chapters but we'll with it. Off to get book 2.

Fun!

This is a fun, young adult book. Sally Webber comes face-to-face - or car-to-face, with an alien, when she hits a young man on her drive home one night. Thus begins her odyssey … to find a job, have a boyfriend, while the alien, Zander, becomes her roommate and keeps involving her in escapades to save Earth. It’s quite a ride. Note that there is some swearing, and reference to a lesbian relationship. I received a free audiobook, well-narrated by Rena Gail, with no obligation. The rating dropped a star as it wasn’t a completely clean book.

Wonderful and hilarious

Overview: This has been on my tbr pile forever. I’m more of a fantasy fan than scifi but something about this book stood out to me. And I have finally read it.
Sally is really your average girl. I could relate to her on so many levels. Life problems, job problems, and some ptsd that we really never talk about.
Then the worst of the worst happens and some jumps in front of her car before she can react. Bam! Life you’d expect to go down hill from here, but for Sally, it actually goes up. The alien, Zander, has this great ability to heal quickly. But you know… he’s from space and has his own secrets. Bring on the mayhem!

Narrator: fantastic performance! I loved how well they verbalized the book, gave characters good voices, and actually appropriately read the sentences. If someone was out of breath, she made them sound breathless. Tired? Nailed it. Drunk? Hilarious! She knew exactly how to put on a good show for us listeners.

Characters: I really love how diverse the characters are. It’s actually hard to imagine these aren’t real people and just words on a page. There is a lot of life and growth within the book that is really easy to get lost in and appreciate.

Setting: Modern day with netflix and pop culture references. It really felt like this could have happened in the suburbs I grew up in.

Style: Not sure where I’d put this one. It’s labeled as scifi/fiction and is great for both adults and YA. It’s a quick and easy read with some twists, a few predictable a few not. You can see the author is setting things up for future books but honestly, I have no idea what is being established and I’m excited to see what.

I can easily give this book a 5/5. It’s not my preferred genre and I’m actually excited to read the entire series. I love the characters and am fairly invested in seeing where this next adventure takes them. Zander is also *highly* quotable and I need to know what nonsense he’ll say next.

Great story

This is a great story that has interesting characters and keeps me wondering what happens next. I can't wait to see what happens next!!

So Much Fun!

I received a free version of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this soft scifi book. I love how the author wove in humor and absurdity into it. (Those chapter titles are amazing!). I ha so much fun escaping from my real-world problems and into Sally's fictional;l ones.
The narration is good and the voice matched well to what I would have thought Sally to sound like. She was playful without giving away the whole gag.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun and easy listen.

Great Sci-fi Read With Tons Of Humor!!

Starstruck by SE Anderson is the first volume in the Starstruck series.
This is a great science fiction story with a Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy vibe. Fast paced and lots of humor.
Sally Weber's life is sort of mess with a recent streak of bad luck and then she runs over an Alien with her car! Her mess of a life is about to become more chaotic and full of adventure now that Zander has been thrown into her world.
Great read, looking forward to more from this series!

Action Packed Space Adventure

Sally is stuck in a rut in her life, going through the motions but not really living. When she wakes up late one morning, costing her her job and basically making her have a terrible day, Sally had no idea that this was the start of what will be a very grand and epic space adventure with her very own alien guide. How can life be nothing but exciting when space travel, alien politics and saving the world are regular occurrences?

I was reading a lot of reviews on Goodreads about this being hysterical and I did not find it funny. Instead I found this to be action packed, full of crazy scenarios, kind of reminding me of the kind of science fiction adventure of The Hitchhikers Guide. We have Sally, a regular totally normal human girl who ends up finding herself in the middle of alien/space politics, evading capture, hiding the most sought after criminal, impersonating a certain frightening sister, having an alien roommate and attempting to date a nice normal human guy in the middle of all the space related mischief. It was a really fun adventure (it just wasn't funny- so don't expect humor going into this). While this book and current plotline wrapped up pretty well, this is just the start of Sally's adventures and I am interested in seeing what she will find herself involved in next.

The narrator for the audiobook did a good job of voicing Sally as well as creating distinct voices for all the other side characters. She had a great tone and pacing for every situation, keeping me engaged in the story and curious to learn more. I would recommend the audio version for anyone who enjoys listening to audiobooks.