Of One Mind

Title: Of One Mind
Author: Elizabeth L. Brooks
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M futuristic romance
Length: 109 pages
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

Summary Review
An interesting futuristic romance slightly spoiled by a weak ending.

THE BLURB

Has telepathy ruined romance? Jereth Collier has always thought so, but after years of fruitless searching, he’s finally driven by loneliness and an inexpressible hunger to the mysterious priests of the Goddess to find his destined mate and one true love. Unfortunately, Jereth’s mate is not the woman of his dreams — in fact, Jereth’s mate isn’t a woman at all!

Caris Meghlin is trapped in a net of poverty, fear, and abuse by his violent and criminal half-brother, but he yearns desperately for escape. Just as he thinks his wildest dreams are coming true, his long-awaited soulmate Jereth rejects him, crushing his last hopes of rescue and breaking his heart. Jereth must learn to master his fears and open his heart and mind to Caris before Caris’ brutish brother can complete his destruction and Jereth himself is left forever alone.

THE BLURB

I’ve not read anything by this author before but the blurb sounded interesting and I like futuristic SF stories. Whilst the characters were a little too much toward ‘types’, I still enjoyed the book right up until a rather disappointing ending.

Of One Mind is set in the future where people have evolved so that they are able to communicate telepathically. One downside to this is that society realised that there is just one true love out there for you and that having a relationship with anyone else grates on the mind so much that people can snap and become insane should they stay together for too long. The easiest way to find the person who is meant for you, is to go to the priests who can identify the person for you. 35 year old Jereth doesn’t want the easy way. He’s a romantic who wants to find his love the old-fashioned way, something that hasn’t happened yet. He finally goes to the priests and is horrified to discover that his true love is a young man, Caris.

As I said earlier the characters in this story do tend to run to types. Jereth is the older man who has a strong protective streak to him. After he learns of Caris and the situation he is in, he does all that he can to help him, whilst also trying to protect himself from being hurt. Despite being told that Caris is his true love, and even being shown evidence, he flatly refuses to open his mind to Caris and connect mentally with him. I must admit, I found this a little annoying at times, but could also understand why he wanted to try and get to know Caris first. Caris is young, and has an innocence about him which belies his rough upbringing. He’s a classic victim who need rescuing, and I enjoyed seeing Jereth stepping into that role as rescuer.

One part of the book which I liked a great deal was in the futuristic world-building. I was impressed by all the incidental details we get of how society works now that everyone has the ability to read the thoughts of others. This meant that the setting was well rounded, with only a few things, such as how the priests carry out their duties, glossed over. The way that we are also shown how telepathy develops during childhood, through the character of Jereth’s nephew, Eremy, was another strong element to the world-building.

The only part of the book that didn’t sit to well with me was the slightly contrived ending. After all the build-up between the characters and delightful sexual tension, the book ends with a forced conclusion to the romance brought on by a ‘crisis’. The villain of the piece who forces himself into the end of the book was so over-the-top that he was unrealistic and this made the ending rather weak. It’s a shame really because up to that point I’d liked the story a great deal.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read containing familiar character types but in an interesting and intriguing setting. If you like SF and futuristic stories, and want to read a story which is well written but undemanding then I would recommend Of One Mind. I certainly enjoyed it enough that I would read more books by this author.