Variation by Toni V. Sweeney

Summary:

What happens when the girl of your dreams is also the man from your waking life?

Federation agent Gabriel Marsh finds himself asking just that question when he’s teamed with Aleksandr Karanov. Lexei’s pretty as a picture and deadly as a cobra; he’s also a variant, a mutant who can change sex at will, something which just may come in handy on their new assignment. Marsh, however, has some adjusting to do where his new partner’s concerned—both morally and emotionally. His association with Lexei is ambivalent at best, prejudicial at worst, and the way he’s beginning to feel about Deirdre, Lexei’s female Other Self doesn’t even bear thinking about.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
The first meeting between Gabriel Marsh and Aleksandr Karanov, Lexei, is explosive and I enjoyed it as it was very well written. Gabriel doesn’t want a partner who looks like Lexei: slight and with a feminine beauty. Gabriel describes Lexei as

delicately but perfectly formed, like one of those antique Cybis figurines he’d seen in that museum when he’d been stationed on Antilla.

But Lexei was supposed to be a Third Classification student of Jai-Kin...and an expert on weapons, including ancient ones such as the crossbow and the automatic revolver, and the latest like the finger-laser.

However, the next day he discovers that Lexei was a Variant, a human who could not only change physical appearance at will, but sex as well; that comes as a shock to Gabriel… he is an Angelus, and they all share a high moral standards and rigid ethics.

What Gabriel starts to find out about his new partner is against of all his family taught him. Lexei has used all the women in his life, including his Other… the women he turns into... Deirdre Karanov. She is a real woman, with desires and hopes, the little time Lexei allows her to take control. I loved this contrast between the two partners: one behaving as an angel and the other as a jerk. And I must say I loved how Ms. Toni V. Sweeney slowly adds the attraction between Gabriel and Deirdre to the story.

However, the wicked wasn’t as wicked and the good as good as when Lexei dies on a mission, Ms. Toni V. Sweeney takes us beyond any imagination, to an end no one could possibly conceive. Praise for her, she leaves me thinking about a lot of “what if…?”

I recommend this book for all the people who want something different, something special. In a world where too many book's storylines are similar, this is a pleasant surprise to read something so unique. 5 stars.

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders