I Think I’m in Love with an Alien is silly and fun. It’s a book for nerds, and it could have come from the AO3 fan fiction universe (maybe it did?). The premise is delightful – and potentially hilarious but somehow not all the jokes landed for me. It’s a tender romance set in the present (post-pandemic) in ordinary America with a friendship group of misfits who meet on an Aliens Among Us website.

Jen, our heroine, has set up a group chat, a breakaway from the main website. Members of the group are Jeneticist (Jen), JazzyPlum (Jaz), Squidhead (Tad), FarFromHome (Ravik), Stargazer (Poppy), and Seeker (Tam). The group agree to meet up in Rellows, Utah, to attend Outer Space Con, which seems to be a thinly disguised Roswell, New Mexico, as it’s a sleepy town that comes to life for all things alien-themed.

Jen has been talking online privately with Tam (full name Tamzir Jaarn) and is keen to meet him in real life. She is a loner, she’s always been considered weird and is bullied for her interest in the extra-terrestrial and the way that she hyperfocuses on things that interest her. She is low-key estranged from her mother and sister (judgy and mean, I call them) and is trying to find her tribe. She’s bisexual and doesn’t experience visual attraction, and through their chats, she’s already half in love with Tam before they meet, so his ‘difference’ isn’t an issue for her at all.

Meantime Tam has been stranded on Earth for a year, after a holiday adventure went wrong when he travelled from his own universe and his pickup didn’t collect him. He is isolated and lonely because he regularly moves location to stay hidden and doesn’t make friends or engage in communities, so he loves the group chat. Tam’s observations about humans are very funny – his language is old-school and awkward (and a little clinical); he describes humans as Terran mammals who have cranial fur. The downside is that his speech patterns are a bit stilted and it is not easy to believe in his growing attachment to Jen.

Tam has a device he uses to hide his real appearance from humans, but he has no control over what the humans see. He doesn’t twig that two of the others in the group are also aliens, even though they quickly clock him. Luckily no one is hostile and there’s a neat contrast in the ways that these three have landed on Earth and how they feel about being stuck here. Tam soon confides in Jen, so she knows that he is an alien. Most of the book takes place at the Space Con as they attend sessions, get to know each other and share their secrets. By the end of the Con, all six are aware of each others’ identities – and unfortunately, a couple of other human Con attendees have noticed the other-worldliness of the aliens.

After the Con, there are various obstacles to Tam and Jen getting together and even though Tam is from another universe and still wants to go home, it’s pretty relaxed.

Tam and Jen have an emotional connection that develops as they spend time together, but there’s not much on-page chemistry. Their physicality is less clear, and when it happens, the logistics of their eventual coupling are glossed over.

Group and private chat texts thread through the novel and this was the most fun for me – there’s rhythm and banter in the texts that is absent in the real-life interactions.

There’s satire (“Owen Lusk has designed a spaceship”), environmentalism (“they should focus on fixing the planet they’ve poisoned instead of squandering resources to steal another”), human foibles (“humans are impulsive and difficult to govern. I collect that’s why their society has so many laws”) – and plenty of internal dialogue from both Tam and Jen but none of these things have any real bite.

Ann Aguirre is a prolific author, also writing as Ava Gray and Ellen Connor. She might be best known for her Sirantha Jax sci-fi series (which I haven’t read) but I’m surprised she doesn’t do more with this premise, which invites so many possible strategies and genre combinations. The book has potential to be romantic suspense with an on-the-run plot, or even a thriller, with its identified baddies, a ticking clock and hostile relationships. There’s plenty of scope for drama and intrigue, and yet, none of this happens. There’s not even a big climactic moment at the end! I loved the idea of it, and the author tells a good story, but I Think I’m in Love With an Alien could have been so much more.