Intergalactic warrior-in-training
Marcum trades his spaceship for high school classes, basketball, and homemade
pies in order to court Earth girl Selina. So what if his first motive is to
exploit her obvious gift of time-bending—the ability to slow the passage of
time—something that would be invaluable in fighting other aliens. Now he can’t
help falling for her. When his planet’s leaders learn the secret of her gift
they vote to breed her with Marcum’s arch rival, Coreg, whose ability to speed
up time has helped him beat Marcum at every simulated battle they’ve practiced
together. Creating a race of people with both abilities would make them
unstoppable against their adversaries, the star cannibals.
Selina starts to fall for both Coreg
and Marcum’s clumsy flirting, but she doesn’t fall for their attempts to entice
her into galactic warfare. She hates video games like that. She’s afraid of
heights. She’s never even been alone with a boy in a car, let alone a
spaceship. And she doesn’t think Marcum’s spaceship is anything more than one
heck of a science project until Marcum takes her to the moon and back.
It may seem like she can make a
moment last for hours, but what’s the point if it makes those uncomfortable
moments stretch out longer? Do Coreg and Marcum really expect her to give up
everything she cares about—her best friend Alex, her special needs brother,
Hershey’s chocolate—to go up, up in a rickety spaceship again and, dare she
think it, fight? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen. Especially since one of them is too
awkward to even kiss her.
But hormones are the same from one
end of the universe to the other and a few almost-kisses have put stars in
Marcum’s eyes. Nevertheless, keeping his loyalty to his planet means going
along with Coreg’s plan to kidnap her. He hates himself for keeping Selina's
fate a secret from her. Hates himself more for not going after that kiss. When
his conscience becomes a black hole of love and guilt, betrayal seems his only
option. The question is, whom should he betray?
And—why does Alex keep getting in
the way?
