Making Mandy by Lyka Bloom

I hate to use the word, and will apologize now to anybody I might offend, but I can’t think of a better word to describe Making Mandy than schizophrenic. It’s a wow, OMG, and WTF story all wrapped into one!

The first half of the story is quite lovely, an incredibly sweet love story featuring a middle-aged divorced gentleman and his transsexual lover, both desperately looking for love. Having met on an online dating site, their first date is dinner at a fancy restaurant, where the dialogue between the two is just stellar. You can really feel the loneliness of them both, and their desire for simple companionship. From there, they go back to Janessa’s house where, before things can get heated, her coming out is handled exceptionally well. Martin initially isn’t sure what to think of a girlfriend who still has a penis, but the two end up in bed, where they orally please one another several times throughout the night.

With morning after sobriety casting a shadow over the night before, Martin blurts out some rather inappropriate comments about how Janessa is asking too much of people who just want a normal partner, someone like them. The confrontation is handled very well, with the pain and confusion of both coming through. Lyka Bloom makes us sympathize with Janessa, but she also makes us feel (at least a little bit) for Marin. In the heat of the moment he smacks her . . . and she retaliates by knocking him out with a candlestick.

It’s from there that the story takes its darkly schizophrenic turn.

Taking Martin’s comments to heart, Janessa sets about making her perfect lover – somebody just like her. Over the course of the next few weeks she transforms him into the perfect shemale lover, manipulating him physically, mentally, and emotionally through both surgery and hypnosis. The transformation is a simple one, lighter on the details than some of Bloom’s other stories, but interesting because of the motivation behind it.

Janessa doesn’t want to create a mindless bimbo slave. She agreed to a date with Martin because she fell in love with him, finding somebody in his emails and phone calls who she could enjoy being with. No, she just wants more feminine version of Martin, a shemale lover who still has his personality, but who will love her for who she is. It may have its ethical challenges, but it's actually quite romantic!

The entire story is exceptionally well done, with the emotional element the strongest I've seen in a transformation story in quite some time. I loved the romance of it all, even in its darkest moments, and once Janessa succeeded in Making Mandy, found myself cheering for their happily ever after.

Reviewed by Sally