Take a married gay couple, put them in an archaeological dig (on an alien planet), toss in a vengeful ex-lover who refuses to accept that her finance married another man, and then tie them all together with a mysterious gender-transforming bracelet.
With all of that going for it, even the worst writer on the face of the earth could probably hold my attention. Fortunately, the lovely Ms. Lathem is a very, very good writer . . . and this is a very, very good book!
Really, I loved everything about it. The romance between Evren and Shane, both before and after Shane’s transformation, was fantastic. There’s no question that these men are not just in love, but as deeply and as passionately committed to one another as any straight couple. Shane’s vulnerability, and his fear of being rejected as a woman, is played just right. Lathem balances those serious moments with just enough humour surrounding the physical aspects of being a woman to keep us engaged.
The development of Shane’s gender change is definitely the driving force behind the story, and I quite liked the resolution, enough though it wasn’t what I expected. I would have liked to see Evren struggle a bit more with suddenly loving a woman, rather than a man, but his back-story is developed well enough to make his acceptance completely plausible.
If anything, this book could have been much longer – I would have loved to know more about the dig itself and the culture of the alien planet – but that’s just me being greedy.
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I'm always on the lookout for new sci-fi and LGBT related books. This one sounds really interesting, especially since I love archaeology. Great review; I'll be putting this on my TBR.
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