Michaela Blake has lived with a secret her whole life. Born an intersex, she’s hidden in plain sight from Earth’s religious tyranny, posing as a male to avoid being discovered and executed. Now that she’s escaped to Plasius, she is free to explore the other side of the intersex coin and be the woman she’s always felt she is. Being both genders has left its scars on Michaela, however. She cannot imagine any man loving her ... never mind a Kalquorian clan made up of three men. Yet joining a clan is her only hope for salvation, her only sure way to escape Earth’s judgment. Korkla, Govi, and Raxstad can’t believe their luck. They’ve been given the opportunity to court the rarest being in the known universe by the Crown Princes of Kalquor. However, to win the captivating Michaela, they must first get past her despair and self-doubt ... not to mention a jealous ex-girlfriend and murderous kidnappers. Still, saving the intersex Earther from others is not half as daunting as saving her from herself. Please note: this story contains graphic depictions of men loving men and men loving an intersex (male/female) individual. Elements of BDSM, including discipline and bondage, are included. This is a companion story to Clans of Kalquor 2: Alien Rule.
Born in a small town on the coast of North Carolina to strict parents, Tracy St. John started out as a quiet, shy child. She was typical for her small town: studying hard for good grades, fishing with her dad on Saturdays and attending church on Sundays.
When adolescence kicked in, so did full-on rebellion. School, family and church fell by the wayside as Tracy partied too hard with the wrong people. Somehow surviving her wild-child phase, she pursued several careers before finally settling on video production and writing.
A string of failed relationships prompted her to give up on love…which of course meant fate immediately tossed Mr. Right her way. After only 4 months of dating, she eloped with the love of her life. They just celebrated 14 years of wedded bliss.
Prior to penning her first erotic novel ‘Alien Embrace’, Tracy wrote commercials, television and radio promos, and training films for various government entities.
Tracy St. John now lives in coastal Georgia with her husband and son. She still enjoys fishing, and you’ll often find her haunting train museums with her locomotive-loving son. Besides writing, she also works in video production both in front of and behind the camera. She’s usually cast as the gun-toting bad gal, getting handcuffed in the end. She has no complaints.
Good action story and world-building. It's basically a continuation of Jessica's story (see Alien Rule, Book 2), told from Michaela's POV. If I had it to do over, I could have skipped buying this one.
If 'spanking' (beating) and other sexual violence bothers you, no matter what they 'call' it, maybe this is one to skip.
Way better than what I was expecting. Originally I did not want to read it because I thought she was going to be super whiny because of how she was I. The other books but this one really filled the gaps and explained why she acting the way she did in certain situations. I am glad I closed the loop on this.
I’m disappointed with this one. There is so much repeat from Jessica’s story in Alien Rule that there wasn’t much left. Even the dangers were revisited from Alien Rule. I’ve enjoyed all the other books but this one fell short for me.
It wasn't much different than book two in the series. Not sure why she reiterated the second book, instead of giving us a book about Michelea and her clan. As they worked on her esteem issues and maybe them starting a family. I don't know, but I love these books.
Overall I enjoyed the book, and I really liked Michaela and her journey. However, I really didn't like some of the words used to describe Michaela and that lessened my enjoyment of the story.
I loved to read about an intersex character learning to love themselves as they are and the way her lovers adore every part of her but the sexism was just too much...
I've finally been able to read this book and holy hell was it HAWTT. Fast-burn reverse-harem. The FMC is intersex and everything about this book is sexy as hell. So worth the read.
This book was too long in my opinion it was just too much of nothing really Michaela got on my nerves with her insecurities why did it have to go to the very end it just dragged for me and I started skipping at the end but whatever I’m glad I got to see the clan again.. which is the only reason why I read the book I just got done reading clan beginnings book 8.. Which of course I gave ..five stars
Michael has a big sectret, a truth about himself he is hiding his whole life.That's because if earth government finds out what he is, he would be killed straight away. His sectret is revealed in planet Placius. There he/she is finally relieved he/she can be the girl he/she always wanted. Thus, Michaela is born and she is trying to find love and acceptance, but she has a low self esteem. The fact that she feels more monster that she feels woman is destroying any chance she has in happiness. Clan Korkla becomes her saviours and her anchor. They teach her to be herself, to enjoy her body and to let loose for the first time. In the second part of the book, clan Korkla and their new matara Michaela are moving to planet Kalquor. There, they try to establish their new life together. Great things that change the empire are taking place and influence their life. At the same time an ex girlfriend of clan Korkla appears trying to belittle poor Michaela. Yes, matara Feyom is steering things up again in this book.
Although it was hard for me to connect with the main character of the book (it is obviously rare to impossible to find/meet an intersex in literature and/or real life), the book is well written and the Sci Fi elements are great. Read it together with book two Alien Rule which includes the same events from Jessica's point of view (Michaela's best friend).
I have the feeling that this book will be enjoyable for the hardcore fans of Kalquorian empire books. Someone who will pick this book randomly and without knowing the background will not fully appreciate it.
Every time I read one of these Clans of Kalquor books I just can't put it down! Michaela is one of the spin off Kalquor stories and I was so happy to finally get to see everything that went on with her and her Clan. You were introduced to her in Alien Rule (Clans of Kalquor #2) when her friend Jessica clanned the imperial princes. I always thought she was a very interesting character and was curious as to how the author was going to write a book about an 'intersex' as this books deems Michaela.
I liked Michaela as a character and could relate a lot to her personality which made me love her. Korkla, Raxstad, and Govi were also characters that any girl/guy could fall for. I really liked Raxstad's sense of humor and how for a badass Nobek he was was a goof. Go job on the character's in this book Tracy!!
I would totally recommend this book (as well as the whole Kalquor series!) to those looking for sexy and emotional books. I had to have cried like 10 times while I was reading this one! I LOVED IT!!
This book makes me very conflicted. On one hand, I haven't found many authors that include a main character who is intersex in thier book. On the other hand, Michaela is a very weird character. She doesn't really have a stable gender identity, and behaves in a very immature way, which can't be easily explained, since she was raised as a man in a male-dominated society, where only women were really crapped on to any large extent. It seems like the author thought that intersex individuals are just more unstable than conventional people for some weird reason.
Michaela also seems to have issues with understanding bisexuality/homoflexible people. The whole planet is filled with men who have male lovers and want the chance to have a female partner of thier own. Of course they will be fighting over the chance to get her! They get both genders in one person.
Also, you shouldn't refer to an intersex person as "the intersex."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Michaela and Clan Korkla, Dramok Korkla, Nobek Raxstad and Imdiko Govi are living in exciting times. I've been waiting for Michaela's story since I read Jessica's. It was worth the wait. I also liked that this story shows more of the interactions between the men.
The short story about Michaela that is in Tracy's anthology, is my favorite in that book. I was kinda hoping this book would span that length of time, but then it would probably have been twice as long. Ah well, I'm just glad to have Michaela's story told.
I loved how supportive and understanding the men were with her although I think Govi did err on the side of caution a bit much. Raxstad is just deliciously scarily sexy. Korkla was so strong to hold all these people together and keep them all moving towards becoming a happy clan. Loved it!
Let me just start out by saying that I am a true fan of this series, that being said, this one just didn't do much for me. It was an enjoyable addition to the series, but it fell far short of the rest of the series for me. I think there are two main reasons that seem to be the cause of my cooler feeling toward this novel in the series. First would be a lack on my behalf of fully identifying with the heroine and the second would be that it was so late in the series to go so far back in the series to discover what happened to Jessica's friend (and that's how I thought of this character from the beginning of the series). Overall, I wouldn't say that the author's writing is less for this book, but that perhaps I, as the reader, was not as invested in this story. Still, being the fan of the series that I am, I still had to go for it! -zittern
Tracy St. John's 'Micheala' is a well written and delightful book. She expands the story of how Micheala became a part of Korkla, Raxstad and Govi's clan. She doesn't think anyone will want, let alone love her because she was born a hermaphrodite. The clan wants to show her how unique a person she is and how fortunate they found her.
This book is a great addition to the world of Kolquor and the universe in which it occupies.
A battles with one's self esteem is a hard thing but Michaela must overcome the fear and self hatred to find love and happiness with her clan a beautiful story filled with love and adventure will she see the beautiful person she is? Will she have a happy ending I loved this book it was worth every penny 5 gold stars I can't wait to find out what happens next
The story of Michaela really rounded out the series. It helped fill in all the questions about Michaela and her clan. As always the story line was full of action, characters were well written, and it was fun to read.
A very long story but a good one. I really appreciated the effort Korkla, Govi and Raxstad go to to ensure Michaela knows she is not a freak, and loved the growth she goes through throughout the book.