Here’s the cool thing about Red Handed – besides the fact that it was really quite good – it’s a young adult novel that has an adult counterpart. But before I delve into that, a bit about Red Handed {via B&N.com}:

“Phoenix Germaine has been trying to earn back her mother’s trust after going into rehab and kicking Onadyn — the drug of choice for New Chicago teens. But when a party in the woods turns into an all-out battle with the most ferocious aliens Phoenix has never seen, she’s brought home in what appears to be an Onadyn-induced state. Hello, reform school. Except, what her mother doesn’t know is that Phoenix has just been recruited to join the elite Alien Investigation and Removal agency, where she’ll learn to fight dirty, track hard, and destroy the enemy. Her professional training will be rigorous and dangerous, and the fact that one of her instructors is Ryan Stone — the drop-dead gorgeous, nineteen-year-old agent she met in the woods that night — doesn’t make things any easier. Especially when dating him is totally against the rules….”

As I previously stated, this book is good; better, in fact, than I thought it was going to be. And what’s great about it is that, though it has science fiction elements, it doesn’t overwhelm the non-scifi reader. Phoenix is the type of heroine that you can get behind and the chemistry between her and Ryan is almost palpable. An excellent summer read. Red Handed is the first book in the Teen Alien Huntress series, but Enslave Me Sweetly and Awaken Me Darkly are the adult Alien Huntress series counterparts. Blacklisted – the follow up to Red Handed – is due out later this month.