KL Richardsson

In this second adventure Mikael and Katjin go to the Highlands, in the land where is whispered that demons live, to learn how to live and use their blood bond. They are only young boys, 16 years old, too young to bring on their bond into a physical one, but maybe they are approaching the time when the bond will be no more like a child play (touch me, don't touch me) and more something that involves desire and jealousy.

In the Highlands, Kat has to face the fact that Mik is no more only his, he is no more a secret, he is no more an helpless boy he has to help and treat has a new toy. Mik is someone like him, and he can be also stronger than him. Kat starts to feel new emotions, jealousy toward Mik and his new powers, and jealousy toward Aidan, the Highlander who has an unsettling interest in Mik, an interest that Kat doesn't like.

As you can understand, both Mik than Kat are growing and with them is growing their relationship, even if, for now, it still remains the bud of a possible future real relationship. For now, it's still something new, something to explore and understand. The setting is a fantasy land, the bond they have is a magical thing, but all in all, the problems Mik and Kat have to face are the same an everyday teenager has to face: the strange feelings he feels for the boy that till yesterday was only his best friend, the possessive urges he has to keep him apart from the world, to make him his own possession, even if he still doesn't know how to do so.

In this second book there is more insight in Mikael's past and family, and in this way we can understand better him and his fears; in the previous book, Mikael was in someway the weaker one, he was not in his habit and so he needs more protection; even if Kat was his same age, he was more self-conscious and able to face the world. Now, both Kat and Mik are strangers in a stranger land, and both of them have to learn new ways and custom; and probably, since for Mik is not the first time, he is more ready to mend than Kat, and so he gains force and arises to almost a pair level to Kat, causing the insecurity in the other boy.

Again it's not a conclusive book in Kat and Mik's story, the boys are not yet fully grown, their life journey is not ended, probably it will end only when they will become adult.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/160370552X/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (meer)

In a fantasy world Katjin is a fifteen years old guy who travels the country with his Apa, his father. But suddenly Apa needs to go in the Higlands, a place not safe for a boy like Katjin, no more a child but not yet a man. So Katjin remains with his grandparents, and it's not bad, until the day he finds a lost boy, Mikael. Mik is clearly a stranger and a runaway; somehow he manages to reach the territory where Kat's people have their camp and he sings the ailing song to Kat, a song who grants him protection. Mik is now Kat's responsibility, even more when, trying to claim a blood bond, they are literally stuck together.

I was uncertain when I decided to read this one. Fantasy is not up my alley, usually since, sorry to the genre's lovers, the stories are always very long and slow, and if you are not fond for the setting, you get lost in all the details. Heart Sense instead starts from the first with a very easy and smooth style; 200 pages of book flows without problem in few time and the world it builds, even if original, it's not boring.

Kat and Mik have obviously a relationship that, in the future, could be of sexual nature, but in this moment, Kat at fifteen and Mik at sixteen years old, can only recognize the symptoms of desire and be conscious that something is awaiting for them. Even if Kat is the younger, he is the first to acknowledge his desire for Mik, maybe since he has just started to admit that he is more interesting in guys than in girls. Mik instead needs to come to term with this relationship, above all since he is an Heart Sense and human contacts make him sick; and so he needs to learn to be at comfort with having a human body near him, and after that, with the fact that the human body is a male.

The story of Kat and Mik is an adventure, a coming of age journey, but not yet toward romance. In this book they learn that they need to be together, probably in the future (another book?) they will learn that being together means also something else.

Again my compliments to the author for having manage to write a book very easy to read and entertaining without being too complex.

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