Feature book: Aphrodite Calling

Aphrodite Calling by Jennifer Lynne

(Gods of Love book 2)

Himeros, one of the erotes, is called to Gina at her 15-year high school reunion. When Gina was at school, she was Gerry. She has since had sexual reassignment surgery. Gina is struggling to feel desirable as a woman and is obviously pretty uncomfortable with all the stares and whispers at the reunion. It was a very brave thing for her to attend, particularly as she went alone. Himeros appears and very soon he whisks her off to take her ‘virginity’—the first time she has had sex since her surgery. Her previous boyfriend (pre-surgery) liked having sex with her but it seemed he was a closeted gay man rather than in love with her and when she had the surgery, he rabbited. The story is about 36 pages long, so too short to fully explore all of the issues Gina was facing. This was my first trans* story. My impression was that some of it was unrealistic but I feel singularly unqualified to comment further on this aspect of the story. Himeros becomes enamoured of Gina and they head off into HFN territory after some raunchy, sexy times, including some exhibitionism and some pain play (involving a stiletto heel and no lube). I never doubted that Gina was a woman but I would have loved her story to be more fully developed. I’m sure her journey was difficult and her path to self-acceptance must surely have taken more than one night. Again, even though there is a happy ending, I think this story is better viewed as erotica rather than romance.

reviewed by Kaetrin

A review copy of this book was provided by the author.