The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Changes Going On (Changes 2)
By Kaje Harper
Beaten Track Publishing, 2020
Five stars

I liked the first book in this series; but I liked this one even more. It’s not just Kaje Harper’s fine writing, it’s the fact that she took what I teased about being an m/m plotline overload (closeted cop, closeted hockey player, lonely rancher) and spun it into action-filled romantic gold.

First, I need to acknowledge, again, that only in the world of LGBTQ people does the idea of “coming out” still merit book-length study. I’ve been coming out for 46 years and it’s a process that has never ended. Even now, with the same man all this time, I get a shiver of anxiety every time I use the world “husband” in “mixed” company. Of course, that’s nothing to what Scott, Casey and Will face after Scott’s rather powerful coming-out interview as a new star in the NHL firmament. What a way to kick-start a high-tension romantic mystery thriller. If just being gay isn’t quite enough, being gay and in a throuple surely pushes things to the edge of comfort—even for other gay people.

What Harper also does is to explore varying degrees of discomfort on the part of people having to deal with Scott’s public coming out and refusal to back down about “his men.” I realized that, right from the start in book 1, I was comfortable with this idea of a loving triad—because she makes these three men so appealing as people. In this book I felt a little worried about Will—the rancher, whose dark back story is so at odds with those of his two boyfriends. Will is the add-on to this relationship, sought out by Scott and Casey together as a solution to Scott’s long absences on the road playing hockey. It’s also made clear that, for this kind of gay family, marriage really isn’t an option, since it would inevitably leave one of them as a third wheel.

Significantly, all of this is not the point of the book. What is are two supposed suicides, one of which only comes to Casey’s attention by accident. These two deaths become increasingly central to the story, not just drawing Casey into the fray as a deputized detective working for his former sheriff’s office; but also drags both Scott and Will into the increasingly uncomfortable mystery. I give Harper chops for writing some great, nail-biting action stuff in here.

Now, I’m one of these annoying people who almost always feels there’s too much sex in these m/m novels, and that is the case here (for me, I repeat). But I like very much one purpose Harper has with this literary intimacy: to show how a gay triad works, emotionally and physically. The idea of loving two people enough to commit to them together doesn’t puzzle me at all. Harper handles the inevitable juggling act of three men each trying to hold onto their identity while loving the other two.
All in all, a very satisfying book. No reason a book can’t make your heart flutter and your brain work at the same time.