Neptune's Tears by Susan Waggoner (review)

Seventeen-year-old Zee has been reared by historical re-enactors whose focus is on the 1960s and '70s hippie era, now some two hundred years in the past. When aliens arrive, her father thinks they herald the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but they turn out to be a big disappointment, seeking only to study art and literature rather than reveal technologies that will ensure endless energy, space travel and world peace. Zee, however, falls in love with a visiting alien, but he's a mystery; while he seems to love her, he can't imagine a future with her, and the story he tells her about why they can't be together turns out to mask a devastating truth. Zee is also a trained empath, who can discern internal injuries and help people with pain management; now she discovers additional powers as a diviner, which would make her essential in a world where she could intuit the next moves of the anarchists who continually develop new weapons of mass destruction. This is a surprisingly fresh twist on the paranormal-boyfriend genre; Zee has her own seemingly paranormal gifts, but they seem more sci-fi than supernatural, and her concerns for the status of her relationship are balanced by the excitement of her blossoming career. (In particular, her relationship with a patient who is dying after a rich, full life helps keep her focused on what's important.) With terrorist attacks, trips to exotic locations, and mysterious obstacles interrupting and ultimately intensifying the path of true love, the plotting is cinema-ready; combine that with likable characters and a reasonable page count and you have a handy recommendation for romance and/ or sci-fi fans who may be reluctant readers.