From the Bookshelf of #DiverseRomanceBingo Reading Challenge…

[close] As solid and airy as a chain.

In 1995, the night before he is to be released from 8 years in prison, Tom (once the village oaf who joined the RA to police Northern Ireland in the 80's) is reading the diary of his boyhood friend. As Tom reads Will's thoughts, and reminisces the same era in his own life, Will overcomes every internal doubt, every external SLUR to become Billie, a woman. In an era with no capacity to comprehend, much less accept his transition, Tom must question the very definition of manhood. All the while, the reader is left to wonder why Tom is incarcerated, and what happened to Billie.

“The thing is this; love, and everything to do with love shouldn’t be a trap. Love is meant to set you free, not imprison you. If you feel trapped by love, then it isn’t love. It takes courage to give and even more courage to give away. You can give love, but you can’t expect to receive it and then trap it in return. You cannot chain a butterfly to you simply because you think it’s beautiful.”

In a gorgeously phrased, exquisitely conceived work, Debrah Martin presents the era's tribulations, real wars, gender wars, and the power of love to transcend pain. The manuscript is poignant, yet neither maudlin nor sensational, and whimsically poetic while never losing its focus on weighty issues: the definitions of masculinity and femininity, courage, humanity and self-respect.

Brava!