Darragha Foster

Chief Tamanass "Big Tom" Tyee cannot claim either one of his lives. He cannot be the Orca King and swim with the whales, nor can he totally be a man and walk among his people. Not until his true love returns to him. As she stands by her broken-down car on a lonely night, a native-american man comes to the rescue of Marian Wines. Is it happenstance or is it fate?

I picked up this audio book on a whim because it sounded like an interesting folklore story. In many respects it was, but the author was definitely playing to an adult audience. I have nothing against a little “hot and heavy” in a book. In this book it seemed not only forced but also totally extraneous, out of place and thrown in only to titillate or maybe shock the reader. In my opinion, it’s too bad. A little subtlety could have made this a much more enjoyable story.
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This book is really strange. It's a mix of myth, paranormal and erotica. Big Tom is the Orca King, a shape-shifter whale of the Native American mythology. In his human form, Big Tom is a big Native American man of middle age. He lives in the Orcas Island, beloved by the residents who know him as the old Orca King. But Big Tom cannot shift no more; apparently he has misused his sexual prowess: Big Tom could heal through sex and at the same time gain energy to shift, and shifting he heals also the nature around him. Only that Big Tom loved too much his particularly power, and he has "healed" too much women. Now he is castigated, and he can't reach orgasm with a woman, and so he can't shift. Due to his incapacity to shift, the Orcas Island are suffering, and tourism and local business are in trouble.

Then Big Tom meets Devon de la Cruz, an mixed blood of Jamaican, Spanish, French and probably some other heritage. Devon is openly gay and openly attracted by Big Tom. And Big Tom "reacts" to Devon in a way he only has for a woman in the past. Big Tom has not so many problem to accept his feelings, better urges, toward Devon, I believe that for him, women, men, are all the same, if he can scratch his itch... But a cosmic justice is upon him, and Big Tom has to suffer its punishment.

There is a bit of chaos in this novel, a mix of horny middle age men with young studs almost in season, melting together with mythological matings... Truth be told, I didn't like very much the brief male/female sex scene I had to read, for me it was superfluous, not since I didn't like the scene in itself, but since I really don't understand what was the meaning of that. And then also Big Tom's reason to love Devon are quite obscure. I understood very well the first part of the book, in a way I understood also Big Tom's reason to be attracted by Devon (why not? he is young, handsome, and available), but then the book descends on a paranormal level that left me a bit disconcerted... Probably for me it would be better if the novel remained to a most "ordinary" level, with some hint of paranormal events. One or two good sex scene between two male who feel attraction, even maybe one in semi-shifted form if you like.

On the other hand, maybe the novel has more power and originality in this way, since if it remained only contemporary M/M romance with a switch it would be like a lot of other books around. I don't know... maybe you need to read by yourself and make your own judgment.

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