Jack Harvey (8)

Transformed POTUS by Suzanne Falter
Charley is getting married to Electra and he can't believe he is so lucky to have found her.
They are in Las Vegas and he works as a protector for the President.
She is a new agent and knows how to drive the car defensively. She works at the farm in VA so it's a bit difficult for them to get together.
President is just a kid and lives with his mother at the White House. The biscuit is crucial. It holds codes that deal with nuclear things.
Charley has to also find girls for the president after they are interrogated...
Story is also following Electra as she gambles and wins big...
Lots of secrets and they come at you from all angles as people know one another from their previous lifes. Everything and ten some of things you can just about imagine: mafia, drugs, prostitutes, trans gender relations, homosexual relations...It's all so believable also.
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest review.… (mer)

Charley is a transsexual CIA informant. Frankie is a lesbian police sergeant. Pamela is a Manhattan socialite tuned high-profile Dominatrix. Randy is an evangelical Christian fundamentalist. All four are experiencing something of a crisis in their lives, leading them to question their identities. Precisely how and where those lives intersect will leave them Transformed.

Suzanne Falter & Jack Harvey have crafted an intriguing novel that is both funny and disturbing, thrilling and romantic. It is origins are rather dark - a “Kill the Fags” campaign has birthed a terrorist plot to destroy the ‘hedonists’ of San Francisco - but the characters serve to bring some light (and even some romance) into it. It is a very emotional story, as you might expect, but be prepared for those emotions to shift over the course of the story.

While the terrorist campaign and overlapping CIA/SFPD investigations serve to propel the plot forward, it is the characters who make it worth following. Charley is brilliantly portrayed, capturing the fears and the doubts of a man still on the edge of his final transition, while Pamela is a warm, engaging, sympathetic woman who is slowly reclaiming her freedom and her sexuality. Frankie was a little too hard-boiled for me, but still a solid character, while Randy has enough depth to overcome our initial hatred as his own identity crisis comes to a height.

The cover blurb calls this a "funny thriller", but I would expand that somewhat to call it a "funny thriller with a lot of heart." Transformed could have played it straight (no pun intended), but the humor and the romance put the darker hatreds in context, and help guide the reader through to hopes of a happily ever after.


As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf… (mer)

Just as with the first one in the series, this was so different from any other book that I've read (well, other than the first in the series. Transformed: San Francisco). In this one Charley and Electra go to Paris. Charley on an assignment for his agency, and Electra to supposedly learn French and such. But, soon enough Charley is finding that he can't find his assignment, and Electra simply stumbles into a plot to expose much of Paris to nuclear material of a sort.

Of course, as with the previous book there is also quite a bit of romantic angst between Charley and Electra. This time Charley has floated the idea of opening up their relationship because he's polyamorous, and Electra isn't exactly electrified by the idea.

I will say that the one thing that made me a little sad was that I didn't totally feel like I was in Paris. Like the novel could have taken place in quite a few bigger cities and I couldn't have noticed the difference too much.

Still, it was a wild and crazy ride, and I do hope that there's a #3 at some point as well. It was enjoyable and reading it was fast and awesome!!

I received this galley through Netgalley on behalf of New Heights Publishing… (mer)