Daily Dose Short Story
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Blurb
First a soldier and then a diplomat, Juberi now spends his solitary days on a single ambition: trying to resurrect the phoenix, which has been extinct for centuries. He’s not pleased when he is obligated to attend a public ceremony in memory of an elderly friend and former colleague. But at the ceremony, Juberi meets the friend’s beguiling son, Desen. Despite being from a markedly different culture, Desen has much to offer. But after decades of denying his own desires, Juberi fears there is no alchemy that will reopen him to love.
Review
Juberi has a passion for the Phoenix, an extinct bird that he believes he can resurrect. He’s devoted his life to studying the magic to do such a thing almost to the exclusion of all else.
In his past, he’s also been an ambassador to a country with far different rules than his homeland. There he was able to have his male lover and to drink alcohol and sleep on feather beds. When he’s called home from his service, his lover essentially breaks his heart and Juberi has never loved again.
We find Juberi at the funeral of an old friend from that time and we meet that friend’s son. The son, Desen, has heard all about Juberi and has had a virtual crush on the man for years. When they meet there is instant attraction but Juberi feels he’s too set in his ways and that to act on that attraction would be wrong.
It is Desen’s persistence and Juberi’s work on with the Phoenix that proves Juberi wrong.
**
Kim Fielding is an amazing writer and always manages to tell a great story – whether short or long. I love her ability to world build and to make the reader invested with a minimum of words.
Though I found this to be an engaging and wonderful story, it was not my favorite of hers. I loved the ending and was hopeful for the lovers, but I wish we’d seen just a bit more of the relationship between them. I didn’t feel that wonderful connection she usually shows us between the lovers nearly as strongly as I have in the past.
4 of 5 hearts
