Rainbow Reading is our weekly series focusing on book reviews with a geeky/sci-fi/fantasty/supernatural flair with LGBTQ characters. Today I review Shift In Time by Mercy Celeste.
I’ll say upfront, I’m a big fan of Mercy Celeste. I've read all of her m/m books. I love her contemporary novels – she interweaves plots, twists and turns, secrets and lies like a master. I tend to do an initial read through a Mercy book very quickly. I always come back to re-read later and find new twists and turns that I missed the first time around. I didn't think I was going to get that with this book. I thought to myself “Oh, look Mercy wrote a cute story about a shifter who turned from a house cat into a human”. I should have known better. This book is quintessential Mercy with all the plot twists that her fans love.
Morgan is a normal among his family of powerful witches. He comes off as almost boring initially. He primarily looks after the family home on an island. He has signed a blood oath when he was young to never lay with a man. He doesn’t remember doing it, and it seems his parents knew nothing about this.
| Enter Fane. Fane is chaos. He is the Siamese cat that has been around the family for years although that is not realized until later in the story. Fane was once a soldier in the civil war, and was cursed to live in this form for 150 years. The curse is broken when Morgan kisses Fane. | Fane "My purr is broke" |
I though you might bark at me for a second. Don't like to be barked at. And I miss my tail. I liked my tail. | The first third of the book deals with Fane trying to figure out how to be human again. He has an obsession with tuna, a fascination with watching the toilet flush and loves chasing the birds on the beach. He seems to want to go back to being a cat as he starts to remember his old human life and comes to the realization that all the people he once knew are dead. Or are they? |
Enter Falyn - Fanes younger brother. Fane and Falyn reconnect just in time. It seems the witch council is coming after Morgan for breaking his blood oath to never have sex with a man (yes, the man is Fane). Falyn is able to wisk all of Morgan’s family off to Falyn’s home. We learn that Falyn is the Alpha to werewolves. Turns out that Fane was supposed to be the Alpha, but he left to go fight in the civil war. There are definite issues to be worked out between the brothers.
I don’t want to give everything away, but the remainder of the story reveals the secrets and lies that have been going on for over a century. There is a reconciliation of family, an evil witch that gets her just desserts and a happily ever after.
You will laugh, curse, and cheer. Buy this book - you will not be sorry. Let me know in the comments below what you thought about the book
