In D. G. Novak’s Prince of Gemen, Princess Calli’s capture and treatment by her people’s blood enemies prompt her to question her father’s tales about them.

Princess Calli is raised to believe that the Shadrani are sexually perverted and will kill city-dwellers after sexually using them. When she is captured by the Shadrani Princess, she encounters an egalitarian society that uses same-sex relationships as a way of life and for birth control. Still, Calli is drawn to Erone, Prince of Gemen, even though she knows he is forbidden to her.

Erone hates Calli and all city-dwellers because of her father’s attitude and treatment of any Shadrani he captures. In his anger and bitterness, he almost kills Calli. His mother and Queen commands that he and Calli go to the mating chamber in hopes that a second son will heal his broken heart. Though he does not want to do this, he discovers in Calli an unfamiliar passion that leads to forbidden desire.

D. G. Novak deftly depicts two societies that have developed dissimilar ways of handling overpopulation and the trepidation and loathing that arises between them. Calli and Erone’s tale of forbidden passion is woven within Erone’s hatred and grief. Prince of Gemen is an evocative and engaging saga of two societies’ abhorrence and dread of each other, and the strength of two people to fight for a future together.

D. G. Novak’s characters are engaging and easy to relate to. I wanted Erone and Calli to be together; however, I did not want it to upset his society’s way of life. The beauty and joy of Shadrani life is woven throughout Prince of Gemen. I enjoyed reading Calli and Erone’s tale.

Reviewed by: Dena