Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Their love will either inspire change in the world or tear it apart.
Former starship captain Jason Kim and his lover, Ferran, are starting a life together on Ferran’s native planet. The Perel matriarchs reluctantly allowed their marriage in the hopes of securing better diplomatic relations with humanity, even though the decision ignites anger from traditionalists. Ferran’s family accepts Jason and the love the two men have found, but other influential families are less accommodating and much less willing to welcome an outsider to their isolated, subterranean world. Some of their enemies are willing to go as far as eliminating Jason permanently. Tensions are quickly building toward a breaking point that might push Perelan into a bloody civil war.
If Jason and Ferran have any hope of surviving the coming conflict, they’ll have to rely on their devotion to each other more than ever before. But that won’t be easy when a figure from Jason’s past reappears to make them question everything.
First Edition of Opening Worlds published by Storm Moon Press, 2011.
First Edition of Changing Worlds published by Storm Moon Press, 2012.
First of all, the blurb is a bit misleading. The things mentioned in the blurb do happen, but it takes a while to get there. The book starts with Ferran and Jason meeting and falling in love, so they don’t start out as an established couple and Jason is still an active starship captain.
I’m always a bit wary of real aliens in my romance, because I’m so not into tentacles. But while Ferran is definitely an alien and definitely looks different than a human, there are no tentacles. So, yay for me!
Cari Z. got really creative with the Perelans and their world. A matriarchy is rare enough that I always find it interesting. “Changing Worlds” is a perfect example that world building and romance can and do work perfectly well together, without either part of the plot having to suffer. That’s something not a lot of romance authors seem to get and which always bothers me as a fantasy/sci-fi fan who also enjoys romance.
Ferran and Jason are both very likeable. They come from completely different backgrounds and yet compliment each other perfectly. Their romance felt pretty realistic. We got to see the bumps after the very fast falling in love. Although the two of them don’t spend a whole lot of time together before they decide to commit to each other, it never really felt like insta-love.
Reading about Jason’s very real struggles with finding his place in a world that’s so completely different from everything he’s used to was very interesting. We get to learn all sorts of things about Perel together with Jason.
There are lots of hints about Jason’s past in the military and yet we never get a full story of what actually happened. That’s a real shame because it sounds as if he led a very interesting life before meeting Ferran. Since there doesn’t seem to be a sequel (or prequel) planned, there’s no hope for a more thorough explanation. It’s the only reason why I ended up giving this book 4.5 instead of 5 stars.
Long story short: “Changing Worlds” has every chance of appealing to both science fiction fans AND romance fans. Neither part takes away from the other.
I’ll definitely go looking for more science fiction books by this author!
Cover art by Anne Cain: I quite like the cover by Anne Cain. It shows Jason and Ferran, who really fits the descriptions in the book.
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Book details:
ebook, 2nd Edition, 236 pages
Expected publication: October 24th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN139781634779081
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 