I really liked this paranormal story in a sci-fi setting.

Jereth is one of the few people who refuses to let the priests (professional telepaths and matchmakers in this futuristic world) find his one true love. He's like a "throwback" to the Blind Ages, when people looked for their partners without the help of telepathy, and never knew whether they'd found the right one. He thinks it's more romantic to look for a life partner "the old fashioned way". Until loneliness takes over and he seeks professional help.

To his shock the partner the priests find for him isn't a woman. It takes Jereth a while to adapt to the thought, but Caris quickly starts to work his way into Jereth's heart. Unfortunately, there are a few more obstacles to overcome, and I thoroughly liked the exploration of this futuristic society and its workings through Jereth's and Caris's eyes.

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This is an odd but nice novella; in a futuristic, and apocalyptic world, nothing is changed and everything is. Your ordinary life is the same, school, work, cars, homes, friends only that, for once, the riches are richer and the poors are poorer and there is no more free will at love. Better to explain: at some point, at the end of what is called Blind Ages (that basically are the current times), people realized they were able to read the mind of other people; the bond was even stronger if the person in front of you was your mate, and so people stopped to marry for all the wrong reason, but they stopped also to marry for true love. If you mated with someone who was not your chosen soulmate, after sometime you simply snapped, basically your mind was lost. So people had two choice: or be lucky enough to find their soulmate, or living chaste for the rest of their life (or having meaningless sex, that could be an option).

Of course, if you had money, you could pay the priests, special talented human who were able to find your mate, wherever he/she was. Being a priest was quite a lucrative job since everyone was willing to pay them, other the few men or women that still believe in true love and the power of it. Jereth is one of them, he wanted to find his mate trough the slow search, that is basically the old way, without telepathic help from the priests. But he spent the last 15 years trying and now he is almost at the end of his patience limit. When he finally decides that yes, he will pay a priest, the answer is not satysfying: his mate is a man (and he has never thought about that possibility) and he is living in the worst part of the city, almost a ghetto where neither police wants to enter.

This is basically a Prince Charming theme in futuristic setting: Caris, the cinderfella of the story, is sweet and cute, and very young, or at least younger than Jereth; he is waiting like a sleeping beauty for her Prince to come to his rescue, but in the meantime, he had a lover. In a old fashioned world, probably Ramie, Caris’ lover, would have been also his mate, he is kind and generous, even if maybe a little too old for Caris (he is even older than Jereth). But in this situation he will play the role of the martyr, handing down Caris to Jereth, more, almost imploring Jereth to take Caris with him. It’s strange, I like so and so Caris and Jereth, but I really like Ramie, and was pretty upset to not have an happily ever after for him.

That this probably what prevented this story to be too much sugary: in a normal situation, all the soulmate finds pretty and young soulmate in need of protector and he rescues him like a knight in shining armor, is at risk of being labelled as “too romance like”; but the setting of the story is cold, detached, all this you have to find your mate otherwise you will unhappy forever or you will risk to go mad, you will live only as long as your mate will live, it was really a stop to the sugar flow. Even when Jereth brings Caris in his world, in his safe and clean world, it felt sterile and unwelcoming, and it didn’t surprise me that Caris was not so happy at the beginning.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00457XJ4S/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Reread in preparation for reading the sequel. ( )