When Damon arrives at his girlfriend's house, he is surprised when a man answers Alex's door. This is the woman he wants to marry--why would she be cheating on him now? But when the man invites him in and asks him to sit down, he realizes he's way off and never would have guessed the truth. The man sitting across from Damon is Alex. Alex is a shifter with the ability to change between being male and female. Or at least Alex used to have that ability. The device in Alex's spine that family implanted without consent is blocking the shift, leaving Alex in male form. There's a lot for Alex to work through--can the implant be removed, should criminal charges be filed, what if the ability to shift is gone forever, how to go into work where everyone knows Alex as female and has no knowledge of the shift--but Damon has some issues of his own, the biggest being that he's not gay and has never been with a man. But Alex is still Alex, right? And you fall in love with the person and who they are, not what they have on the outside, yeah? At least that's what Damon is telling himself, and sometimes it's easier to say than do.

I've had this on my shelf for some time now, and I'm glad I finally had the occasion to pull it down and give it a read. It was so easy to fall into the world of this story. The characters are well-written (even the side characters that just pop up here or there), and readers are dropped right into the action and the conflict right away. I found it hard to put this one down, always wanting to keep reading to see what happened next. I definitely recommend this for someone looking for a book that ventures off the path of the tried-and-true formula that combines elements of science fiction, social justice, and true love. ( )

This was an interesting premise. I cared about Alex and Damon a lot, I found the concept worthwhile and I thought the author did a decent job of exploring what reality would be like for people with the socially-marginalized ability to shift their sex at will. The protagonist, Alex, has been a shifter in secret living as a woman for years, but an unwanted surprise surgical implant from Alex's family and religious leader force Alex into being stuck in male form, forcing a lot of turmoil in Alex's professional and personal lives. The main question of htis novel is acceptance--will Alex's partner Damon get over the shock of learning the secret this way? Will Alex be stuck in static form forever and if so will that be tenable? Should Alex try to get a potentially life-threatening surgery to reverse the effects of the implants? I liked the way the characters worked through some of these questions together. Some of the worldbuilding felt a bit strange/not terribly well-developed to me, but I was prepared to go along for the ride. I liked that one of Alex's best friends was a static trans woman/that the trans experience was not erased by the magic of the plot gimmick. On the whole, though, I thought the writing was pedestrian and the culture around shifting felt strangely binary in a lot of ways. I think I would have liked this book better if it were about gender fluidity instead of genders and sex and physical presentation being so, well, static. ( )

I doubt I'll ever get a chance to read this, but the premise is so intriguing that I have to at least put it on this shelf.

This was an interesting and thought-provoking story, but I felt it was less character-driven and more about (metaphorically) preaching. To me, the only actual character is Alex, gender-shifter and victim of parental and societal bigotry. Alex has emotions, pressures, family issues, etc. and surrounding people who provide insights into the character and make a three-dimensional person. The boyfriend seems to exist only as a satellite to Alex; everything that he does is focused on Alex's issues with seemingly very few outside concerns of his own that would make his internal monologues more realistic if he was actually struggling with other conflicts. A couple of the supporting characters (like Alex's bar-owning boss) have as much or more personality as the boyfriend.

While the story made me think a lot about perception of gender in society, I felt the problems arising in the story were solved too cleanly, too simply, and was disappointed there weren't any negative repercussions at all. As a gender-switching romance, this falls a little flat. If you're interested in the concept, I would also recommend the story "Christmas Noir" by Barbara Karmazin. ( )

I have never read a novel with a transgender character before now. Perhaps to soften what can be a controversial topic, the author used science fiction to craft the story. The story takes place in our world, but with a new element. Shifters exist - people who can shift between being a man or a woman. Alex is a shifter who has been hiding her dual nature from her boyfriend, Damon. Until the night her parents drug her and have a surgical implant inserted that prevents her from shifting in order to make her “normal.” There are many heavy issues tackled here: sexual/gender identity, society’s oppressive need for conformity, how her parents violated her and the consequences of being “outed”.

Alex and Damon are strong characters. They come across as real people, and I liked them. Supporting characters, though less developed, serve the story. This is not a typical romance with the typical angst. Damon and Alex have serious issues to contend with, and it takes most of the novel. The story is alternately narrated by Damon and Alex, in first person POV. A few times, this became problematic as they are both men, with a heavy use of the pronoun “he,” so that I forgot who was talking. Yet readers need to see the story from both of their sides. I like how the author addressed gender and sexual identity. There is explicit and very steamy sex. The author handled it exceptionally well; in particular, addressing the “gay for you” issue. Alex and Damon had to work through a lot, so the sex happened late in the story. Damon is not gay, he fell in love with Alex as a woman and that is how he is sexually attracted to Alex. But, Alex as a male is still the person Damon loves and would desire intimacy with. Alex is attracted to men – in both her forms, because that is who she is.

The novel has a major downside, however. Many times, it was downright depressing. The author labored over the tortured emotions Alex and Damon were going through with pages and pages of very gloomy internal dialog. I’m not downplaying the importance of Alex’s identity crisis, or the pain of enduring society’s scorn/rejection for being different. But, it went so far to the point where I almost set the book aside. I read fiction for escapism, and this book severely pushed the limit. Overall, it was a gripping story with a good HEA. Recommended. ( )