Book Reviews

Book Blurb

In a future where man’s ability to reproduce is severely compromised, humanity has adapted to survive. Breeders—male and female—have become precious commodities, and they are strictly guarded and subject to limitations.

Luca Walker is a breeder. Though he knows what’s expected of him as the youngest son of the Northern Confederacy’s vice president, he’s held out against the pressures of an arranged marriage because he longs to marry for love, not duty. But he’s been promised to Colonel Liam Smith and there’s little he can do about it, no matter that Luca is secretly in love with his bodyguard, Marcus Gray.

When Luca finds himself pregnant with Marcus’s baby, Smith is furious and vows to take what is his—by force, if necessary. Now Luca must fight for his life and the life of his unborn child… as well as the love of Marcus and the happily ever after he’s always dreamed of.

Book Review

A future in which humankind has almost destroyed itself using chemical and biological warfare is, unfortunately, not all that difficult to imagine. In ‘Mending the Rift’, author Chris T. Kat has taken this scenario a step further, assuming that almost complete sterility is one of the consequences of World War Three, leaving only a small group of humans able to reproduce – the so-called “breeders”. In line with the advanced genetic engineering capabilities of this future, there are now both women and men able to carry children, and they are the only ones able to repopulate the planet. The bigger political picture (reminiscent of the American Civil War in both attitude and behavior of these two factions) has Earth split up into a Northern Confederacy, where breeders have at least some rights, and the Southern Union, where breeders have no rights, are experimented upon, and genetic engineering is used to create “perfect soldiers”. This story is set two hundred years after that war between North and South.

The political and social consequences of the war are severe and are seen through the eyes of one such breeder: Luca, the son of the Northern Confederacy’s vice president. Luca is somewhat of a rebel since he has decided he wants to marry for love, like his father and dad. He knows he will have to bear at least five children, such is the law, but at the very least he wants to be tied to someone who means more to him than a man selected for genetic compatibility. Luca has already refused a whole list of potential matches, and he knows he can only do that because his father is the vice president. But time is running out for Luca – he has been ordered to marry one Liam Smith despite the fact that Luca has fallen in love with his bodyguard, Marcus. Marcus is not high enough in the hierarchy to make the list of men who are “entitled” to a breeder match, so the situation looks pretty hopeless. But then Luca finds himself pregnant with Marcus’s baby, and all hell breaks loose.

What follows is a combination of an action/adventure and a coming of age story, with a major touch of what it’s like for Luca to live through his first pregnancy. Liam Smith is livid about Luca refusing to marry him and will do anything to get his hands on Luca – baby or no baby. Luca has to begin dealing with the reality of life and political issues he really wasn’t very aware of due to the pretty sheltered life he has led. And through it all weaves the constant happiness and worry of being pregnant and having to find a way to protect his unborn baby. Mistakes are made by all sides in this conflict, a few revelations boggled my mind, and a whole cast of secondary characters make this an intense but touching thriller-like novel that held my attention from beginning to end.

If you like stories that make your imagination get some serious exercise, if you want to find out more about two men who live in a world where their love is forbidden but not because they are gay, and if you’re looking for a suspenseful read that is as thought-provoking as it is intense, then you will probably like this novel as much as I did, I think it’s an interesting way of looking at the age-old issue of human survival and what we are wiling to do/tolerate to make it happen.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 214 pages/67913 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	14-March-2016
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $14.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/mending-the-rift-by-chris-t-kat-3924-b