loving the men in black

Influencer El Martin was taking photos for her Insta feed hiking in the Hollywood Hills. Technically, there was a “No Trespassing” sign that she may have ignored on her quest to find the perfect spot for her sponsored content, but she didn’t think that was any big deal. Until she was heading back down toward her car. Out of nowhere, a small flying craft maybe started following her.

Thinking fast, she grabbed her phone and went live to show her followers what was happening. As it chased her down the hill, she desperately called out to anyone watching about where she is and what was happening to her. She finally decided to throw her metal water bottle at it, to see if that would stop it. The craft was no match for the water bottle, and it went down, giving El a chance to get away. But what was it that she had just seen?

Carter Body was having a pretty typical day at work. He had to fix the printer (again) and teach the new guy what to look for in videos uploaded to social media. He needed to learn what was probably a hoax UFO sighting and what could be genuine. It was what they did in the Private Intelligence Sector, PIS for short but spelled out by letter when spoken. Basically, they were the Men in Black, the curious group of men all dressed the same who show up to get information about actual sightings of alien life.

When Carter saw El’s video though, he knew there was something there. It didn’t hurt that El was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. But the craft that she had in her video was familiar to him. He’d seen one just like it himself when he was a kid, shortly before his dad was killed. His father had also worked at the PIS, and when he died, his partner Marcus took Carter in and raised him. But there are things about that time in his life that never sat quite right with Carter, and seeing El’s video has brought up those feelings again.

Carter goes in search of El, so she can show him where she made her video. But she wants answers too. So they both start investigating the craft that was in El’s video, and as they spent time together, their chemistry was growing. But as their investigation takes them to a secret bunker filled with files to a magic show to a private airplane hangar, what they find brings them closer together, but also closer to mortal danger. Will love be able to save them, or will the weight of government secrets win out after all?

Love at First Sighting is a sweet rom com that blends the world of a model-turned-influencer with the world of a boring government worker who happens to deal with the possibility of alien life and the hoaxes and conspiracies that grow out of that life. Just thinking of how a Man in Black spends his days fixing the coffeemaker and scrolling social media is pretty funny.

Author Mallory Marlowe had a lot of fun turning the idea of the sleek, sophisticated Men in Black from the movies on its head and putting them into the context of an underfunded government agency instead. And I truly loved the characters of El and Carter. But I was hoping for a little more of the paranormal in this rom com, where it was really more of a mystery. It’s a fun mystery with a lot of romance, but I was looking for more aliens.

Egalleys for Love at First Sighting were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.