This is the first book I read by Nica Berry, even if I read good things about the previous two (that I have both and probably will read). One of the thing that prevented me to read her before, was that I have always had the feeling that her stories have an high level of angst, that angst that leave you with the feeling that it will not an easy life for your heroes. I'm happy to say that, in the end, Northern Love is more romantic than expected and so for me was easier to read, even if one thing it's confirmed of Nica Berry, the women in her books are not exactly 'nice' characters (at least in this book Atka gives to my gender some hope).

There are quite few things that were challenging for me in this book: the fantasy setting (a genre I'm not really fond of), the menages a trois (but truth be told is an all male menages, so not many problem here) and the non consensual sex (rape is till something that I hardly find erotic). But the author dribbles among all this issues in a way that in the end, make me overcome all my preconceptions. Emmanuel and Jerek are two orphan boys in a fantasy kingdom who find in each other a reason to live; Emmanuel is the body, the force for both of them, and Jerek is the mind, the cleverness that serve to both of them to survive. Jerek has a dream, to find a mythical citadel in the north, a place where they will be never starving or in danger, and to find that citadel they both embark in a privateer ship. Obviously two young boys in the hands of unscrupulous men have no easy life on board, and Emmanuel, with his beautiful body, but maybe with a not so clever mind, is the first to fall prey of the captain. He is convinced that he is doing what he is doing to not harm Jerek, that if he takes all the 'punishment' upon himself, he will save Jerek from the same destiny.

Emmanuel is young, and even if he experimented with Jerek, he is also innocent, and along the way the torture becomes almost a pleasure, and this, instead of soothe him, makes him even more guilty at his eyes. If he was not enjoying the torture, he was not betraying Jerek, but if he finds pleasure in the torture, then he is a traitor. And so when Jerek speaks aloud the words, calling him a traitor, Emmanuel is unable to defend himself, and Jerek goes away believing Emmanuel guilty.

Jerek finds solace in the arms of another man, the shapeshifter seal Piaktok, and he also fulfills his dream to find the citadel, but without Emmanuel his joy is not complete. He says to himself that he is searching vengeance, but instead he is missing a part of his heart, only that, when he finds again that missing piece, his heart is shielded in ice, and he is blind to love, as his past lover is became blind for real. There is a strange parallelism in the story, both Jerek's lovers have a physical disability, Piaktok is mute and Emmanuel is blind, and in a way they represent the inability of Jerek to see the true and to speak his true feelings; on the other hand, Piaktok and Emmanuel, even if mute and blind, are able to understand each other and to recognize the love around them.

There is a bit of squirming feelings in the story, when the author ventures to describe Piaktok's physical attribute in shifted form, but she never goes farther on, there is no sex in shifted form, and instead she always dissolves that feelings adding a bit of humor, Piaktok is quite a 'funny' lover, always with a smile on his face. And maybe also for this reason, when the nastiness falls upon Piaktok it's even more sad, since of all the characters, Piaktok is the more innocent soul.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HE1JL6/?tag=elimyrevandra-20