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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Book Review: Anterograde by Kallysten

Anterograde
by Kallysten
When Calden wakes up – every time he wakes up – the last thing he can recall is a debilitating headache that even his medical background failed to identify as anything more serious than a regular headache. He also remembers his decision to ignore the fact that his best friend Eli is married and to tell him about his long-standing feelings for him. He remembers June second.

But it is not June second anymore. The tattoos on his arm and chest prove it. They also tell him why he doesn’t remember anything past June second… and why Eli sleeps in his bed now.

When Calden wakes up – every time he wakes up – he gets to discover Eli is in love with him for the first time all over again.


"Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact." -wikipedia

I’ve put off writing this review because I was quite sure how to do it. The books we love are always the hardest to review. Let’s start with this is a gay romance. Now I know a lot of people don’t care for that, but this story is about so much more. There are a few sex scenes that can easily be skipped if you prefer not to read that.

There are two things that make this story stick out from the romance crowd. It is hyper focused on the two men, their relationship and dealing with Calden’s medical condition. A few other characters float in and out but they are peripheral. There are mentions of a complicated history for these two but it doesn’t go into that. I think this story is set in her “The Demon’s Age” series world and people live in a post-apocalyptic world where demons are trying to destroy the human race.

The most interesting element of the book and what makes it so unique is the way it was written. The chapters alternate between Calden and Eli in first person POV, but the time line of the events aren’t the same. Eli’s side of the story starts in the past on June 2 into the present, Calden’s is told from the present back to the past when he got sick on June 2. It doesn’t seem like it would work but it does! There is the option to read both POVs on the same timeline, but you will lose some of the emotional and disconcerting impact of the story that gives the reader a better understanding of what the characters are dealing with.

These two characters touched me and they are beautifully written. Kallysten is a talented author.

5 “stepping stone” Sheep





Sharon Stogner

About the Author:
Kallysten is a writer of romance novels and short stories, most of them with paranormal elements.

Her first eBooks were published by Linden Bay Romance in 2005. The defunct Venus Press subsequently published a few of her short stories. Because so many of her stories are linked as series and part of the same universe, she decided it would make sense to have them all in the same place, which is why she self-published, first with the co-op Alinar Publishing and now on her own. When she sees calls for submissions that speak to her muse, she sometimes tries for them, and was published this way by Samhain and Torquere.

4 comments:

  1. Oh this sounds interesting. Thanks for the review. Off to check it out.

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  2. Just wanted to add that I can't put this story down.

    ReplyDelete