reviews_and_ramblings | One Good Hand by Rowan McBride

I read this book not a long ago, but when I saw the new cover by Anne Cain, wow I have to buy it again! Yes I know, I'm a covers whore (after books whore...).

Ace is a professional gambler. He plays for the sake of play and also for money. But one night he win not money but a man. A man without name, a man that his previous master holds like a pet, not a man. He calls him Spade.

After some day of acquitance, Ace and Spade slip in a quite and happy life, but something strange is happening: Spade is changing phisically, and he step by step is becoming the dream lover of Ace. So finally Ace has to admit that Spade is not human, he is a Senai, a genetically engineered servant. He is a manufact by an alien planet, Kaznian, and he crashed on Earth fourteen years before. He changes to satisfy his master's desires and he only wants what his master wants. Plus he depends from his master to live, if he remains without a master, he will die.

Ace is shocked, he thinks that all Space has said is a lie, all the love and the care, only lie. He can't feel something for someone who is not even human. But love has strange form and you can't choose who love; but Spade yes, he can: he can't choose whom obey to, but he can choose whom love. And he has choose to love Ace, and so Ace will be the... Ace of Spade.

Spade is a particular character: even if he is not the "master" in the relationship, he is the stronger character. He is the strenght of Ace. Ace is quite naive and fragile: he is 26 year old, but he seems a lot younger; he needs a paternal figure in his life, he needs love and caring.

The initial idea is quite similar to True, always by Rowan McBride: but while in True the weak character was the alien being, here it is the human. This is a little longer and maybe less tender. But it is still a good story.

http://www.loose-id.net/prod-One_Good_Hand-628.aspx

Amazon Kindle: One Good Hand
Publisher: Loose Id LLC (December 25, 2007)

Waiting Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting+reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Cover Art by Anne Cain