When an enterprising bunch of alien Odilians kidnap a quartet of Earthlings in order to populate a sexual reality show called “Close Encounters,” the victims are in for the ride of their lives. Never was there a more mismatched group of people – a socialite, an interior decorator, a mechanic, and a Vegas lounge singer. However, they are thrown together, gassed with pheromones, and expected to have sex sixteen ways from next Tuesday at the drop of a hat. It’s stressful to say the least, but the two couples connect romantically as well as physically, and love blossoms in spite of the aliens’ attempts to create porn for the interstellar masses. With the help of one sympathetic Odilian, the couples plan to escape their space-ship prison; however, one question lingers: are the feelings that these lovers share real, or are they simply the result of captivity and an overload of synthetic pheromones?

Close Encounters by B. H. Dark is a humorous joyride of a novel populated by rich colorful characters and cartoonish space aliens. The two couples are absolutely appealing, and one cannot help but love them. Cassie and Beau are the younger couple and have that starry-eyed sweetness that only youth can bring to a relationship. Eve and Leandros and slightly older and are more experienced. They add a big injection of fun to the mixture, and while the younger two are busy gazing rapturously into each other’s eyes, Eve and Leandros are busy on the dance floor getting down and dancing to the disco music. For all that the sex in this novel is incredibly hot (and it most definitely is), these couples are just plain sweet together. In spite of their physical strength, the men seem to be the more vulnerable characters in this novel, with Beau fearing that socialite Cassie won’t want a good ole boy mechanic from Alabama and Leandros figuring that as a fickle performer he cannot give Eve the permanency that she craves in her life. And they all worry that what they have with each other on the porn space ship is temporary.
Scenes featuring the interaction of the two couples are interspersed with scenes of the aliens bickering among themselves about how to situate their subjects and how they are going to make a mint off of their reality show “Close Encounters.” This comedic relief makes for a wonderful contrast with the rest of the story.

In all, I enjoyed reading B. H. Dark’s Close Encounters immensely. Any reader looking for a story combining sex and fun will probably feel the same.

Reviewed by: Whitney