Sailing By Gemini's Star (The Constellation Trilogy Book 3) by Katie Crabb; Pirate Trilogy Docks With Thrilling and Particularly Emotional Finale

 

Sailing By Gemini's Star (The Constellation Trilogy Book 3) by Katie Crabb; Pirate Trilogy Docks With Thrilling and Particularly Emotional Finale

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Since this is the final book in the series, please read my previous reviews for Sailing By Orion’s Star and Sailing By Carina's Star. I must reiterate that this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!!

The final volume in a series needs to end on a high note. This is the last time that we encounter these characters and we need to see them become better, stronger, more mature people who are changed by the various conflicts. The plots should move to a definite conclusion and all loose ends should be tied. We should close the book with a sign of relief and maybe a lump in our throat and a tear in our eye that the adventure is over. Katie Crabb’s final Constellation Trilogy Book, Sailing By Gemini's Star does all of that and more. It is a perfect ending for one of my favorite series that I read for this blog.

In the previous volume, Pirate Captain, Rene Delacroix, Sailing Master/Navigator Frantz Seymour, and Quartermaster, Auden Carlyle have been arrested for piracy. They are being taken to their former stomping grounds of Kingston, Jamaica to await trial. It also means that Rene has to reunite with his abusive grandfather Governor Sir Andrew Travers, his weak willed father Naval Admiral Michel Delacroix, his loving mother, Astra Travers Delacroix, and Michel’s first mate and surrogate son and Rene’s one time surrogate brother, Nicholas Jerome. Needless to say, it's a very uncomfortable family reunion.

Rene, Frantz, and Auden’s mentor, Captain Ajani Danso and his crew are planning for a rescue mission putting their own freedoms on the line. To free his son, Michel suggests that Rene plead insanity, that he followed Danso out of hysteria and an obsession with pirates, so he can be released and move to London to get away from it all. The Royal Navy can take care of Danso and his crew. As for Frantz and Auden, they will have to take their chances. Well, Michel asked the wrong guy because Rene says nothing doing. He would rather fight and die with the surrogate family that loves and accepts him than the blood family that he ran away from. Meanwhile, Michel, Astra, and Jerome have to make tough decisions that affect their own futures. 

Sailing By Gemini's Star develops the characters in ways that are very surprising and ultimately rewarding. It reminds us that for all of the elaborate sea battles, pillaging, sword fighting, and daring escapes, there are rich vibrant people that are involved in them. In fact Crabb makes most of her characters so relatable and identifiable that when they engage in one on one battles it's hard to know who to root for.

Even though he is in his twenties, Rene has matured from the naive kid that he was, to an adventurous adult with a strong moral compass, to a wily veteran sea dog who has left behind a legendary status as “Lucifer The Morning Star.” Even though he had previously sailed on Danso’s crew, he has retained a reputation in his own right. 

He found a surrogate family with Danso’s crew and won't abandon them. Danso mentored and encouraged him in a way that his father never did. He taught him but gave him enough room to create his own legacy. It's this devotion that motivates Rene to stand against his birth family and alongside his adopted one.

Returning to Kingston reconnects Rene to many of the issues that he left behind. To find comfort from the mother who supported him. To call his grandfather out for the abuse that he and Frantz were forced to endure. To find closure with his father. Also, to resolve his complicated relationship with Jerome, someone who he once admired, then grew to despise, and now feels empathy for. 

Danso is ready to move on to the next chapter in his life leaving a vacancy wide open for Rene to fill. Rene also wants to strengthen his relationship with his lover, Frantz but he can't move forward if he can't fully face his past.

Besides Rene, other characters go through wonderful meaningful changes. Astra finally asserts her independence away from her father and unhappy marriage and becomes part of Team Pirate. She reunites with a former lover and lives a life beyond her previous conventions. She becomes a better stronger character than the one who felt empathy for others but lacked the courage to openly help them.

Michel also develops as a character. He becomes a man who realizes almost too late that he lost everything and everyone that is important. It is only when he hits rock bottom and finds himself alone without his wife, son, or closest friends and truly sees the monster in Jerome that he helped create. Only then does he make some serious changes in his life and frees himself from his former identity as lackey of the Royal Navy.

By far the strongest development occurs in the most unlikeliest of characters: Nicholas Jerome. Just as I was prepared to write him off as a remorseless bigoted villain, Crabb pulled a switch on me. As I began this book and saw Jerome's vulnerabilities, I said, “No no don't do this to me, Crabb! Don't make me start caring about him when I disliked then hated him for two books!” But sure enough she did and I did.

 In a way, Jerome has become one of the most important characters of the whole series, if not the actual central character. He is the first character that we meet in Book 1 working as a cabin boy right before Danso and his future first mate, Abeni make their escape. We have seen him bond with Michel and Rene treating them like the family that he never had. We see him worry that his half-Romany heritage will turn him into a target and reject his estranged mother for not only her background but for abandoning him. We see the years of military regimentation transform him into a ruthless and efficient pirate hunter. We see him vow to hunt down Danso, who slipped past him, and Rene, sacrificing their previous friendship. 

In this volume, Jerome goes through intense emotional and mental turmoil as he is abandoned by those that he loves the most in the world, particularly Michel. Left on his own and then ultimately at the ironic mercy of the pirates, Jerome takes a long hard serious look at his life and the remorseless duty bound unfeeling monster that he has become. He is turned into someone whom Michel and Rene can't quite reject because of their familial bond but who also feels unworthy of their forgiveness, love, or understanding. 

Jerome's redemption is a slow moving process as one by one the kinks inside his armor are stripped away leaving him with no ship, no title, no crew, no friends, and no family. He is completely broken and devastated when faced with the reality of his previous actions. It is a truly well earned and rewarding moment when Jerome finally accepts the overtures of friendship in Danso's crew, particularly from Rene and fights on their side.

Sailing By Gemini's Star is a fine ending to a wonderful series where final battles are drawn, future plans are made, people move forward, and the crew disembarks at their final destination. However, there is a slight glimmer of hope beyond the horizon that suggests that the story is not quite over for Ajani Danso, Rene Delacroix, and Nicholas Jerome. That as long as there is an open sea and a ship to set sail, there will always be plenty of new adventures.

Priceless Passion by Ary Chest; Historical Gay Romance Covers Love, Class Struggles, and Self-identity

 

Priceless Passion by Ary Chest; Historical Gay Romance Covers Love, Class Struggles, and Self-identity 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: When writing a Historical Fiction novel featuring a member of the LGBT+ community, it is important to write them accurately with how the time period affects their lives, relationships, and their feelings about the world and themselves.

 Yes there are some that minimize those struggles and are just as effective, The Shabti by Megeara C. Lopez for example. It is a Supernatural Horror novel set in the 1930’s which treats the romance between the two lead male characters as a nonevent as compared to the supernatural entity that is haunting them. That is a rarity. 

To realistically portray a character, particularly an LGBT+ in a historical time period, it is important to accurately capture that time period, homophobic and transphobic warts and all and how the lead character challenges those standards. Otherwise, there's no point in writing about that time period at all. Ary Chest’s novel, Priceless Passion excels in giving us a gay man's struggles with class division, poverty, homophobia, and romance on his journey towards self-reflection and discovery of his own identity.

In 1927, Baltimore, Eustice Mercidale is a son of external wealth and privilege but internal misery and despair. His father, Burton is a coal industrialist who rules his family and business with an iron fist, emphasis on fist. His mother, Jessica, is a non-entity who goes along with whatever her husband wants to maintain social standing. His sister, Ophelia, is a wild flapper who challenges her father's authority. Eustice himself is torn between behaving like the good obedient son and his own desires for rebellion and finding his own path.

The first few chapters give us the opulence, extravagance, and corruption during the Roaring Twenties, the flaws that would later lead to the Great Depression. The Mercidales live a seemingly enviable life of immense wealth. They have a large network of business partners, society matrons, and affluent young people. They go to parties to see and be seen. Eustice and Ophelia went to the best schools and traveled. They seem like the family everyone would want to be like. But it is all a front.

Eustice feels the intense pressure to excel and be the #1 son who will take over the family business. He can't rebel but Ophelia does. She wears short dresses, goes out all night, and has many affairs. She openly flaunts her flamboyant behavior defying a staid cold environment that is all surface but no substance. That wants but doesn't need. That has but doesn't deserve. That owns but doesn't love. That controls but doesn't understand. Eustice understands these feelings but can't yet find it in his heart to openly challenge his father like his sister does.

There are some hints that Burton’s staid, religious, overly moral personality is a front for corrupt and criminal activity. The employees who mine and separate the coal to support the Mercidale’s lifestyle work under horrible conditions which are augmented by Burton’s decisions to cut corners on safety and worker benefits. He encourages Eustice to become more involved with the business so he is able to see this darker, more hypocritical side of his father. 

Eustice’s standing within the family requires him to defend his father's actions, because they will soon be his, while inwardly hating what Burton has done and the abusive hold that he has on his family. Burton’s hold on Eustice at first works all too well. Outwardly, he is the rigid businessman to be but inwardly has longings and desires towards men which he is forced to suppress. However, it is this inward private life which allows Eustice to take some action and find a path separate from his family.

This call to action takes human form into that of Cyrus, a server that catches Eustice's eye at a masquerade party. Eustice has had previous affairs with men, but they were always clandestine, secret, a way of finding personal pleasure while denying his own emotional longings. 

Eustice's flirtation with Cyrus builds into something larger as they encounter each other at various social gatherings and exchange some witty saucy by play. Eustice fantasizes about this new presence in his life until those fantasies become reality and they engage in a physical ongoing relationship. 

What makes his relationship with Cyrus different from previous ones, is the emotional connection that grows through their encounters that reaches beyond sex and sees something more substantial. Cyrus becomes someone that challenges Eustice’s worldview and whom he can visualize spending a life with. 

Those secret fantasies end up becoming reality when Eustice discovers that his new boyfriend is a Communist. Instead of being appalled, Eustice finds a way out of the ornate but oppressive half life in which he is living. He understands Cyrus’s motives in an abstract sense, and has no personal love or loyalty towards his father. However, he is still caught between his old safe rich world and a new life that consists of unpredictability, potential poverty, and outright rebellion and activism. The answer is made for him in a heart stopping chapter in which Eustice says goodbye to his life as a Mercidale in the most definite, unpredictable, and violent way possible. 

It is the second half of the book that takes Eustice away from his creature comforts where he really comes to his own as a character. He and Cyrus move to another part of the country away from his wealth, connection, and resources and he discovers an inner strength that he didn't know that he had. 

He works in domestic and secretarial positions and for the first time really understands what it means to work hard and earn very little, how oppressive or simply thoughtless those in charge can be towards those that work for them, and what it means to go to bed hungry or to panic when he or Cyrus are sick or injured and can't afford a good doctor or medicine. He understands why people like Cyrus fight against their oppressors. Eustice now knows the reasons behind them, though he doesn't condone their more violent actions which ultimately becomes a deal breaker between him and Cyrus. 

 Unlike his previous life in which he and his family had material possessions but barely disguised revulsion for each other, Eustice and Cyrus have very few things but a stronger love. The hard times make them closer and smooth out their rough edges and previously conflicted views. They cling to, uphold, and support each other to keep the proverbial wolf at bay outside the door.

During his time with Cyrus, Eustice also openly embraces life as a gay man, as openly as he can in the 1920’s and ‘30’s. He and Cyrus live together but to most people, they are simply roommates or co-workers (because they are different races, they are unable to pass as brothers without creating an elaborate story). They meet other LGBT+ people in secret windowless clubs and arrange to exit them in small groups or with lesbian women so spectators don't get nosy. 

Many of the sexual encounters are hidden by people who have to otherwise pretend to be happily engaged or married as Eustice reveals to another man in an earlier chapter. They can live together in secret but can't openly talk about their lovers without using coded phrases such as nicknames, or gender neutral names. 

They never know if they will face arrest or murder, or the possibility that someone who might have been a supportive ally before would either turn against them voluntarily or reveal too much accidentally. It is a suffocating existence for people to identify a certain way or loving someone when straight cis gender people do without a second thought or concern whether they will face arrest, public scrutiny, ostracism, bullying, unemployment, or death.

Eustice and Cyrus do their part in helping their fellow LGBT+ community members. They take part in a series of elaborate vigilante actions that protect and defend others from potential arrest or ramification. Because society will not protect them, they have to protect themselves. That is the kind of life when one lives on the outer fringes of what is seen as acceptable society and is one which Eustice is willing to pay if it means being with the man that he loves.

Priceless Passion is very realistic in how it portrays the hateful atmosphere that surrounds Eustice and Cyrus and the courage that they have by not only living within it but defying it in their own way.

 

The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz; Phony Mediums, Egyptian Curses, and a Charming Gay Romance Makes a Chilling Historical Supernatural Horror

 The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz; Phony Mediums, Egyptian Curses, and  a Charming Gay Romance Makes a Chilling Historical Supernatural Horror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Megaera C. Lorenz’s The Shabti has a lot going for it: An engaging historical setting, an inside look at the Spiritualists movement and the tricks that frauds pulled, a genuinely creepy supernatural threat, and a charming romantic gay couple that encounters these problems.

In the 1930’s, Dashiel Quicke was once a noted Spiritualist that many would pay top dollar to get his psychic impressions or communicate with deceased loved ones. He now spends his time exposing the hucksters and grifters of the Spiritualist Movement, revealing how they actually accomplished their tricks. During one of his lectures, he captures the interest of Professor Herman Goschalk, an Egyptologist and museum curator. Herman tells Dashiel that his museum is the center of some strange activity: footsteps, whispers, missing items, stuff being thrown around, bleeding walls, the usual. At first the situation seems easily explained by science or an overactive imagination but as Dashiel gets to know Herman and experiences more of these strange events, it becomes clear that they are being haunted by a real ghostly apparition, a ghost from Ancient Egypt who inflicts great pain, curses, and suffering against all it comes near. All of the flimflam tricks aren't going to save them when they are faced with the real thing.

From beginning to end, this is a book brilliantly charged with a sense of Historical Horror. Instead of going for big shocks and scares, The Shabti leisurely builds its pace by taking a straight line from events that are odd but could be explained to the cosmic horror in which the barriers between time and space and life and death must fade before that horror can be encountered and possibly defeated.

One of the ways that it accomplishes this fear is by giving us a protagonist who has seen the supernatural world from the inside and knows how people bend and use it to their advantage.

The most interesting moments early on in the book occur when Dashiel tells how Spiritualists operate. He describes how they hire spies in the queue to gather information then sneak into the mark’s house to take a valuable object to look like the “spirits” used “relocation” to appear in the medium’s hands. Information gathered by the spies, cold readings, and early special effects added to the performance to sway the audience. It's a pretty clever grift and a sweet scam that is easy to see why many are fooled, especially those who have lost loved ones or want proof of life after death.

 That life also comes to weigh in on Dashiel as he admits to Herman that many former clients, particularly a sickly elderly woman, came to bad ends because of their trust in Dashiel and his former colleagues. His past also figuratively comes back to haunt him when a former partner and lover wants to reignite their relationship both on and off stage. It doesn't take much for the former Spiritualist to see the guilt and danger that a life of deceiving others would bring, and it is understandable why he would expose it. However, his skeptical nature and career of exposing the Spiritualist Movement is just as much a vulnerability as when he was an active participant in scamming others, when he faces real ghosts. He has to use the same procedures seriously to save Herman and himself that he once used deceptively to gain money.

The fraudulent style of Spiritualism puts Dashiel in a false sense of confidence when he is faced with the Egyptian Ghost. He could assume that bleeding walls are rust, creaking walls are a house settling, footsteps and whispers are signs of an overactive imagination. But after a while, those scientific rationales and previous charlatan history becomes moot when those small signs become large unrecognizable monsters and the whispers become shouts of the undead.

It's enough to make one doubt their beliefs and particularly their minds. There are many chapters where the supernatural encounters cause tremendous physical and psychological pain to Dashiel and Herman. They are shaken, disturbed, and quite often bedridden after facing the remnants of the Egyptian Ghost’s curse. It is a terrifying experience because of how it affects their bodies and minds and the only healing balm they have is each other.

Speaking of Dashiel and Herman, their relationship is a bright spot in this Horror Show of Ancient Terror. It is one of those relationships that begin organically with the two beginning to understand and relate to one another. Herman is confused and fascinated by Dashiel’s career as a Spiritualist and is on the fence between skepticism and belief. Dashiel gets arcane knowledge from Herman’s studies and while he explains Spiritualism and gives possibilities to Herman's encounters, he never ridicules him and likes talking with him.

 A friendship grows between the two protagonists that in other works could have remained platonic but fortunately for them, it does not. Their romance begins  unexpectedly just as  the Reader might think, “Hmm, they would make a nice couple” a few pages before they actually kiss. Their love strengthens each other as Herman’s knowledge of Egyptology and Dashiel’s Spiritualism experience counter the Ghost's wrath.

This book is set in the 1930’s and it doesn't go into the legal and prejudicial ramifications and potential hardship that could occur if a romance between two men is made public. On the one hand, it does a mighty historical disservice in showing how courageous the two characters are just by being together. But on the other hand, it also proves to be a source of light and brightness in this dark disturbing supernatural world. 

When the two men work together to fight the Egyptian Ghost alongside friends and Dashiel’s former colleagues, their love is the truest and most honest thing that counters the terror of the otherworldly darkness but also the deception and mind games that Dashiel was once proud to be a part of.

Weekly Reader: Cloud Cover by Jeffrey Sotto; Deeply Realistic and Emotionally Challenging Novel of a Gay Man's Struggle with Bulimia and Search for Love

 

Weekly Reader: Cloud Cover by Jeffrey Sotto; Deeply Realistic and Emotionally Challenging Novel of a Gay Man's Struggle with Bulimia and Search for Love 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: According to the National Institute of Health, about one in three people struggling with eating disorders are male. However, there isn't as much focus on how the disorders affect men and boys. In the almost six years that I have reviewed this blog, I have only encountered two books featuring male characters with disorders. The first Lost Boy by Rawiri James featured a boy trying to overcome his mother's death by retreating into Anorexia Nervosa. However, it becomes misguidedly tied into a superhero subplot as a way to almost create a barrier between the Reader and the more serious subjects.

Cloud Cover by Jeffrey Sotto is the second book. It's a very realistic and deeply thought and felt novel about a gay man's struggles with bulimia as he pursues love for others and his own self-worth.

Tony is a 29 year old office worker/creative writing teacher who just broke up with his boyfriend. While giving writing advice to his students at a community college, listening to his favorite classical music pieces, trying to interpret his boss' "business"-ese, and clubbing with his friends, Tony is becoming dangerously concerned about his appearance and weight. 

He constantly counts calories on every bite. He runs straight to the bathroom after eating. He is obsessed with how he looks to other men and is afraid of being judged.

However, despite his insecurity, he actually does find a potential partner. Antonio is a painting instructor and drag performer. He astounds Tony with his charisma, charm, and outgoing fearless personality. But the more Tony starts to get to know Antonio, the more he continues to question his self-image and heads down destructive patterns. 

There is a lot of humor throughout but it is rooted in sarcasm and bitterness from Tony about his situation. While looking at potential dates, he sees an overwhelming amount of "guppies" gay yuppies who wear "suits like spandex." "They look like Ken dolls," Tony says warily, amazed that many of them are younger than him.

He also has a seriocomic conversation with his therapist in which he weighs the different types of men who turn off other men. Tony mentions that many of his acquaintances don't like other men who are too effeminate, overweight, or "too Asian" which Tony feels particularly singled out thinking that he checks all of those boxes.

One of the funniest running gags involves Tony and his boss, Jell-O. Jell-O is a veritable cornucopia of office cliches like "synergy," "outside the box thinking," and his favorite "quantify and cut." Tony's job appears to be translating Jell-O's requests and turning them into something useful. While these moments are hilarious, they also show that Tony is concerned about his employment situation and tries to be a good worker to make his life meaningful and useful.

He has stronger exchanges with his students showing that he has a skill for education but does not have the financial opportunity to do something that he is good at. He has to settle for an office job which does not make use of his best talents.

Like many do, Tony tries to overcome his loneliness with self-deprecating humor but the humor reveals more about his insecurities and inner thoughts than if he said them out loud. In taking a funny approach to sizing up himself to other gay men and revealing his disenchantment with his job, he reveals how harsh that he can be with his own self-criticism.

These insecurities of comparing himself to other men and discontent with work are part of what compels him to become bulimic. He can't always control what his boss tells him or how others feel about him, but he can control his weight. 

Tony's bulimia is he believes hidden from others but it is a central point in his life. Many nights out are filled with anguish as he debates how much he can eat before he rushes to a toilet. It's wrenching to read about his conflicting emotions between sitting and eating something without worrying how many calories it is and counting the seconds until he can go home to purge. The conflict between obsession and self-love is very real.

Tony and Antonio embark on a loving relationship which could be a healing factor and it is for a time. Tony is drawn to and maybe somewhat envious of Antonio's self confidence and daring. Antonio can wear drag and turn life into a performance. He can even participate in a pageant and put himself forward. Tony loves that about him, but is also wary of it too. 

Antonio is a supportive boyfriend. When he discovers Tony's illness, he tries to get him help. But the kinder Antonio is, the more self-conscious Tony feels. He feels that someone like him doesn't deserve love.

Even the end is painted with reality. It's not a complete downer but it suggests that more work needs to be done. As much as Tony grows to love Antonio, this relationship is not the cure. Antonio is not the cure for ending Tony's bulimia. Tony is the cure for ending Tony's bulimia. To do that, he needs to look at, accept, and love himself first.

New Book Alert: Shaare Emeth The Gates of Truth (The Love of the Tayamni Book 3) by T.A. McLaughlin; Gender Identity, Sexuality, and St. Louis Setting Play A Large Part In Latest Tayamni Outing

 

New Book Alert: Shaare Emeth The Gates of Truth (The Love of the Tayamni Book 3) by T.A. McLaughlin; Gender Identity, Sexuality, and St. Louis Setting Play A Large Part In Latest Tayamni Outing

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Now we come the to latest volume of T.A. McLaughlin's The Love of The Tayamni series, a complex science fiction saga which covers ancient aliens, time travel, intergalactic warfare, racism, sexuality, gender roles, and everything else in between.

The first book, Love of the Tayamni, introduces the concept that the pagan polytheistic gods were an ancient alien race. They mixed their DNA with that of the humans on Earth and created hybrids that were half Earthling and half Tayamni. They possessed several abilities such as traveling through time which proved useful in their intergalactic war against the cruel and manipulative Potacas and Tlaloc species.

The first book centered mostly on Batresh, the daughter of the Matriarch, head of the Tayamni. Batresh is sent forward in time to 1960's Mississippi to protect Denny Shields, a young boy who is the reincarnation of the Matriarch and is destined to accept that role in the future. Many complex themes are introduced, but the main storyline is pretty simple. It concerns Batresh's struggles protecting Denny from the prejudices and racism of the era of which the Potacas and Tlalocs feed off.

The second book, The Judgement of Seth, expands and opens up the concepts explored by the previous book. This book concerns Namazu, Batresh's sister, who travels to other planets to protect the Tayamni and recruit other alien species to take part in the conflicts against the Potacas and Tlalocs.

Book #3, Shaare Emeth The Gates of Truth, is similar to The Love of The Tayamni. The plot is mostly set on Earth and ignores the intergalactic largeness for another story of prejudice and hatred, this time towards the LGBT+ community. Also similar to the first book, most of the action centers on a few characters in one setting. This time the main character that receives the most attention is Denny Shields, who is now a young adult living in 1977 St. Louis.

From the moment during the end of The Judgement of Seth, that Batresh asks the haunting question "What's a gay bashing?" it becomes apparent that the themes of sexuality and gender identity that were in the background in the first two volumes have come forward in this one.

Denny has fled his abusive Tupelo home and his hateful racist father to start a new life in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, he had been abused by his father, who dismissed his interest in dolls and girl's clothing as "evil." It took until the second book when he is still a child to believe that he is not evil, his father is. 

The third book is set during Denny's adulthood where he has removed himself from his toxic upbringing but is still uncertain about himself and who he really is. Coming to terms with his sexuality, he breaks up with a female friend after realizing that he can no longer live a lie. Denny gets accepted into the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and makes some new friends, a few whom he finds very attractive. Meanwhile, Batresh, now in a new form, has caught up to the young man and hopes to guide him to his destiny. Denny also catches the ire of a young homophobe who has intergalactic influences helping him unleash his more violent tendencies.

This is my favorite book in the series for many reasons. One  reason is deeply personal. My family moved to the St. Louis area in 1992 and of all places, this area feels like home to me. So I am filled with childish glee whenever I read something with a St. Louis setting. It's fun and personal when you recognize the place names in which the author describes. 

I know about Powell Symphony Hall with its red hallways, walls, and seats. I have been to Forest Park with its free Art Museum, History Museum, Science Center, and Zoo (in keeping with the time period the Art Museum, in the book, hosts the famous King Tut exhibit.) I visited the Jefferson Expansion Memorial AKA The Arch though fear of heights and crowds with closed in spaces have kept me from taking the elevator. (Unfortunately, I haven't yet been to the new improved downtown area and would love to see what they have done with it.)

I recognize streets like Grand, areas like Soulard, and places like the St. Louis Central Public  Library and Washington University.

The shoutouts to the area are brilliant and allow Readers who aren't familiar to picture it in their heads and experience it vicariously. Readers who have lived there will have fun reliving a place in which they are familiar that is now inhabited by intergalactic aliens.

The other reason that this book is the best in the series so far is McLaughlin's treatment towards the characters by overlapping their personal journies with the larger science fiction aspects that go into play.

Most of this book's plot is something that can be found in any genre: the search for identity, discovering who a person is and where they fit in their world. We, the Readers, know  where Denny's future is headed as do the Tayamni, but he doesn't. He has dreams, flash backs, and maybe flash forwards of being the Matriarch, but he doesn't understand them. Even if he did, right now, he is more concerned about the current issues of being an adult: finding his own path, getting a job and earning money, and forging new friendships and romantic relationships. This is where Denny is right now and McLaughlin is in no hurry to push him forward. In fact, it becomes clear that what Denny perceives as typical experiences could turn out to be important lessons that he will learn and put into practice one day as the Matriarch. After all, his experiences in Mississippi and Missouri teach him a lot about equality, understanding, acceptance, and unity, traits which will be very useful one day.

Denny is on a journey of self discovery and part of that is learning about his sexuality and gender identity. He explains to a friend, Bob, that he was kicked out of his home at 16 years old after his father tricked him into reading a book by a gay author. On his own, Denny read works by authors like Oscar Wilde to realize that his feelings are perfectly normal and innate. It is the heteronormative society that is flawed in their lack of acceptance of different facets of sexual experiences and gender identities.

While in St. Louis, Denny befriends various men like Bob and David, who introduce him to the night life like Llewellyn's and Herbie's, the latter of which boasts that it's one of the few gay clubs with clear and open windows. (Since homosexuality was considered illegal until the late '60's to early 70's, many gay themed bars and nightclubs had covered or blackened windows so no passerby could peek inside and see who was hanging out there.) 

One of the most powerful symbols in the book is Shaare Emeth, The Gates of Truth. Denny sees this sign when his friend, Naomi takes him to a synagogue shabbat and he sees the gates for the first time. He sees it right before the congregation erupts into a hateful rhetoric against Southern Baptists and anyone else who isn't like them (not unlike the church services of Denny's youth which he gladly left). Observing the Gates of Truth, Denny finds his own gateway. He realizes that he must live his own truth and live honestly as an out and proud gay person.

While Denny is going on this personal journey towards truth and self discovery, the science fiction aspects are also apparent in the book. Batresh, assuming the form of Miriam, a fellow Chorus member, has an extended conversation with her late mother's spirit. She reminds her of her task to watch Denny, the vessel which houses her essence. Batresh also discovers things aren't always as they seem as a nunnery near Fontainebleau College is revealed to be a secret organization of female Tayamni who use the convent as a front for their real mission and deity worship.

Of course, the Tlalocs rear their ugly hateful heads when one is bound to Charles, whose homophobic tendencies lead to violence.. This book implies many of mankind's hatreds and prejudices are inspired, egged on, and fed off by the Potacas and Tlalocs. The sad truth is, in reality, humanity doesn't need such outside influences from outer space. We are more than capable of being cruel, divisive, hateful, and violent on our own.

Shaare Emeth is the next step in an involved and fascinating series. It is clear that another volume is on its way and judging by a conversation with McLaughlin, there will be others. If the attention to character, theme, and detail in setting is as brilliant as the first three books, it should be a great, exciting, and well written experience.

New Book Alert: It's A Gay Gay World by Tatiana Kolesnikov; Parallel World Reverses Gay and Straight Statuses Has An Interesting Premise But Also Raises Some Questions

 New Book Alert: It's A Gay Gay World by Tatiana Kolesnikov; Parallel World Reverses Gay and Straight Statuses Has An Interesting Premise But Also Raises Some Questions

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Tatiana Kolesnikov's YA novel, It's A Gay Gay World is the type of book that invites the characters and Readers to "see how the other half lives." To see what happens when the majority becomes the minority, when the LGBT and the straight communities switch places. Heterosexual people have to suffer the legal ramifications when they want to have rights that others take for granted. They have to be mocked with stereotypes and derisive comments from entertainment and even from friends and acquaintances. They could face ostracism from family, isolation, sentencing to conversion camps, and could be potentially injured or killed by people so driven by centuries of religious and social hatred towards others who aren't like them.

It's A Gay Gay World takes that premise and brings it up to eleven when two straight teens travel to a parallel dimension where 

homosexuality is the majority and heterosexuality is the minority. It is an interesting idea that Kolesnikov brilliantly explores in her novel. However, the book does leave some questions in terms of plot and character.

High schooler, Katherine Borovsky and her boyfriend, Michael Morrow, wake up from a severe traffic collision to find a different world around them. Instead of her religious mother and father and kid sister, Katherine is greeted by her sister and two religious mothers. Instead of his bickering parents, Michael is welcomed by two loving fathers. 

In what Katherine and Michael dub "The G World" (Gay as compared to the "S World" where they came from), sexes are completely segregated. Boys are raised by men and girls by women. Since homosexuality is the norm, what they dub  "mixing" is forbidden even illegal. (In G World, even the terms gay and straight are reversed but to simplify things for this review, I will use the traditional meanings for both terms.) 

Kolesnikov went into great detail about the history and current structure that would occur in such a world. At a church service, Katherine hears this parallel dimension's version of the Adam and Eve story. This world's interpretation is that the sin that Adam and Eve committed was not in disobedience but in having sexual intercourse. Pretty flimsy, but is it any flimsier than the actual excuses that centuries of people have used citing the Bible as justifications for their prejudices in this world?

While procreation is not ignored, that is the sole reason that G World authorities allow men and women to have sexual relations or it used to be. Now with IVF and surrogacy, there is no reason for that. Straight couples get sent to internment camps like Camp Stork where they are separated from the rest of society and are subjected to inhumane treatments. It's Camp Stork that eventually becomes the source of investigations when Anna, one of Katherine's mothers, Rick, an investigative reporter, and Daniel, a BFI (G World's version of the FBI) agent and Rick's husband, discover a potential conspiracy involving the camp and immigrant straight couples.

The details aren't just found in the main plot.

When Katherine and Michael compare notes with their friends (and in G World, Michael's boyfriend and Katherine's girlfriend), Travis and Sydney, they find that G World's population is much smaller than the overpopulated world in which they came from. 

They also discover other clever facts about this parallel dimension such as that Sydney and Travis have never heard of Facebook, but MySpace is still the most important social media site. The current President in G World is Belinda Floyd, a woman who was a former movie star and is known for her progressive policies. Hurricanes only go up to Category Three. Many of these details aren't really important to the overall narrative, but they show how seriously Kolesnikov took the different aspects between dimensions.

 

This conspiracy develops many of the characters such as Elizabeth, Katherine's mother, who was at first appalled by her daughter being straight but then goes into full Defcon 1 Protective Mom mode when Katherine is threatened. Katherine's discomfort towards Anna thaws as before she refused to acknowledge her because Katherine missed her S World father. However, after Anna not only infiltrates Camp Stork but defends Katherine from attack, the teen lovingly refers to her as Mom like she does Elizabeth.

Besides the teen protagonists, many of the other characters are developed as well. Rick and Daniel are a loving couple who are good at their careers. They use those careers to help others such as investigating murders connected to Camp Stork and helping Nadia and Marek, an immigrant couple, who are kidnapped and sent there.

One of the best characters is Dominique Sullivan, a physics professor who provides details to Katherine, Michael, Sydney, and Travis about travel from parallel universes, something that he experienced first hand. Like Katherine and Michael, Sullivan came from S World decades ago. However, as an African-American gay man, he found love and acceptance in G World, particularly with his husband, David, so he decided to stay. However, Sullivan is not blind to the problems in his adopted home dimension so he also takes part in infiltrating Camp Stork.

It's A Gay Gay World is a great book but it offers some intriguing questions, perhaps for Kolesnikov to explore in a sequel, particularly since this book's conclusion is open ended. This book only refers to heterosexuality and homosexuality. Since gender and sexuality are constructs and are more fluid than that, it would be interesting to see how It's A Gay Gay World explores that possibility in G World. How are bisexuals treated in G World? (There are some indications that one of the characters is bisexual, but it is never outright stated.) What about transgenders, especially with how rigid cis males and females are segregated in this reality? These are other possibilities that could be explored in the future.

Katherine and Michael are aware that they are being discrimated against in this world to the point that Katherine makes a public plea for acceptance but they don't seem to make any comparisons towards their behavior in S World. There are some subtle implications that the two teens weren't exactly paragons of understanding and tolerance towards LGBT people in S World. Michael mentions that he felt uncomfortable towards a male friend who came out of the closet and began to phase him out. Katherine's first scene in G World shows her at a church service and she makes plenty of comments about her family's Christian background in both worlds. Their evolving feelings towards LGBT people could be illustrated in Katherine's growing acceptance towards Anna in her lives and their easy friendship towards many of the other G World citizens, but it would be interesting to see how this trip changes their beliefs once they return to S World.

Speaking of Katherine and Michael in S World, we learn that both worlds have the same people. While the teen couple are wandering around another dimension that isn't theirs, so are an alternate version of Michael and Katherine, both of whom are gay and are just as out of place as their counterparts. They will no doubt be subjected to homophobia and hate crimes. 

One of the most unfortunate implications concerns G World's Michael and his parents. That Michael left a world with two happily married fathers who loved their son and he clearly reciprocated that love. The S World's Michael lives with constantly fighting parents who give their son a toxic home environment. Since this volume involved a lot of Katherine's family, if Kolesnikov writes another volume set in S World, Michael's family should receive a stronger look that focuses on that conflict.

It's A Gay Gay World is an interesting premise that hopefully will be explored more on a future date. It presents an interesting look at both worlds.

New Book Alert: The Artist and His Billionaire by CJ Turner; Sweet and Sexy M/M Romance

 

New Book Alert: The Artist and His Billionaire by CJ Turner; Sweet and Sexy M/M Romance

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The covers of many Romance novels often promise us a sexy time. They feature shirtless men with muscles and great pecs and beautiful women with long gowns that barely cover their breasts. Sometimes, the couple are in modem clothes but their smoldering exprssions reveal that they would rather have them off. Whether the models are alone or draped in each other's arms, the images practically steam with lust and passion. 

Male-Male romances are no different only instead of a man and a woman, the covers feature one or two hunky shirtless muscular men, often from the neck down. That's the way they are, sex sells and all that. The sexy covers are part of the window dressing and wish fulfilment that Romances provide. However, they often conceal that the cover is only part of the story. If done right, a Romance novel can transcend the sexy promise of wish fulfilment and give us an engaging character driven story of a couple who are perfect for each other, but have obstacles that prevent them from seeing that. 

CJ Turner's book, The Artist and His Billionaire, is the right kind of romance between two completely different men. It is both sweet and sexy featuring these two characters who are a perfect match.

Lennox Sewell is an artist working for Ms. Pearson, a florist, to pay the bills. One day, a handsome man in a clearly fancy business suit walks into the shop with a beautiful woman wearing a big shiny diamond engagement ring. The man, Theo Collins, plunks down a huge sum for a large bouquet for an upcoming wedding. Despite Lennox's initial assumptions, Theo is not the groom. He is the best friend of the bride to be, Livvy (the woman with the ring). Instead Theo is gay and very available, as is Lennox.

Theo and Lennox have the usual class differences that define these type of romances: Theo is from an uppeclass family. Lennox from a working class one. Theo is a businessman while Lennox longs to leave the flower shop to become a recognized artist. However, their similarities emerge when they recognize an altruistic need to help others. Theo wants to use recycled plastic to create cost alternatives for building materials. Lennox not only draws suggestions for potential kitchen cabinets, but he also suggests that cargo containers can be used to create recycled external outer shells for affordable housing. The two recognize the interests of providing affordable housing and the need they fill for each other: Theo with the money and big ideas, Lennox with the experience of living paycheck to paycheck and the artistic eye. They are drawn to each other because of their attraction, but also by their intelligence and commitment to higher purposes. 

Moments like these are what makes them a good couple.

There are many stumbling blocks that get in the way of them being together like a clingy ex of Theo's, Theo's snobbish friends and colleagues, and Lennox's pride and suspicions that Theo is only "slumming" when he goes out with a lower class man like him. Of course they get in the way of their union and of course each one is challenged. There are some moments of fringy dialogue ("I'm an artist." "No, you're a magician because you cast a spell over me.") But these are minor flaws in this charming book.

When Lennox and Theo have sex, and they do, it is a winning chapter. This is because they have certainly earned the right to be together. We have seen them together and separate. They had angst and worried whether their love is the real thing or a one night stand. They have been hurt by previous lovers and are concerned whether their differences are too much. (Lennox is particularly concerned about this.) Their union becomes an inevitable but welcome release.

The Artist and His Billionaire is an effective romance. When it is sweet, it is very sweet. When it is sexy, well, it is very sexy indeed.