Day 20
Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: Under A New Star 
SERIES: Dreamspinner Advent Calendar 2014 Celebrate
AUTHOR: Leo d’Entremont
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 76 pages
BLURB:
In the 26th Century, mankind has breached the light speed barrier and begun to colonize other planets. They’ve also learned to Design human beings, known as Morphs, for specialized colony missions. Adrian is an Aerial Morph, on his way to colonize the low-gravity planet Eridani VI with his scientist Partner, Michael. In violation of the rules of the Morph Projects, they’ve been lovers for months. Michael cares more about his work than anything, while Adrian doesn’t take anything seriously except Michael. Before they arrive at their new home, they need to curtail their relationship before it destroys their professional Partnership.
The colony ship is scheduled to arrive at their destination on Christmas Eve. Some old holiday traditions persist, but when Adrian and Michael have differing ideas about what’s best for their relationship and their careers, holiday gifts and ideas for new beginnings lead to crossed signals.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package “Celebrate!”.
REVIEW:
This was a cute short story to read. I will say that it was very Christmas oriented, just used as a timeframe to me. So in this futuristic short, we meet Michael an original equipment human scientist, meaning one that has not been genetically altered, and his aerial morph partner Adrian, a genetically designed human. They have been lovers almost right from the start and it violates the parameters set for their partnership within the program. After Adrian being caught coming out of Michael’s room after a bout of sex, their commander Xiao approaches Michael about prioritizing his life. He reiterates that Michael should concentrate more about the mission and should treat Adrian as a partner. Adrian begins to feel guilty about always causing trouble for Michael and pulls away from him much to Michael’s dismay. This begins the journey of Michael trying to prove Adrian wrong, and Adrian trying to do what he thinks is best for Michael.
As I stated this is a very cute story. The futuristic vibe to it was pretty cool and I loved how the world was described on the ship. You could see the author’s idea of this new world clearly and it made the story easy to believe. Michael is your typical nerdy scientist. He doesn’t see his appeal, loves his work, and adores Adrian obviously more than he should. Adrian is Michael’s complete opposite. He is outgoing, attractive with his tawny gold skin, gorgeous wings, and beautiful body. He sees beyond Michaels somewhat antisocial approach to the world and loves him more than anything else in the world. As a morph he believes he is just like any other sentient being and is entitled to his life, rules be damned. But as the danger of exposing their relationship looms Adrian takes the cowardly way out and conforms. It is almost as if they did the reverse of their personalities with Michael wanting to be bold, and Adrian going into a shell. Of course we have our happy every after which I LOVE. So if you are looking for an adorable futuristic tale of love conquers all, I would definitely recommend this book for you. You will not be disappointed.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
This one sounds so intriguing!
Oh, this sounds like a interesting read.