Star Search by J.S. Morbius

Star Search is a book I've been anxious to read for a while now, ever since Julez started teasing it over on his Crypt of Morbius blog. The synopsis was great, but it was the single-sentence tagline he teased that really excited me:

It is time to bring love and romance to the Third Sex.


I am delighted to say that, with the exception of one awkward flaw, the novel more than lives up to its promise. It's both romantic and erotic, thrilling, and intriguing. There were some really nice twists to the tale that I wasn't expecting (such as the transsexual gangbang escape), and some real depth to the characters that gave them life well beyond the page.

Basically, this is the tale of a gay man named Joe who hires a transsexual escort to accompany him to an office party. They head back to Joe's place after the party, and indulge in a night of passion that rivals any other transsexual encounter he's ever had. Joe wakes up determined to make her a regular part of his life, only to find her gone . . . and to meet with a rather violent reception when he tries to get any information out of the escort service. Both a good man and a good lover, Joe is not willing to accept their refusal, and sets about trying to track down the glorious Star.

Here is where the flaw comes in. With the help of some girlfriends, Joe - who has never entertained a crossdressing thought in his life - becomes a 100% passable woman overnight. Not only that, but he learns the language and mannerisms so quickly, he's able to convince the very same escort agency to hire him on a day later. As a gurl who knows just how hard it is to be truly convincing, the ease with which Joe presents comes across as embarrassingly false, but know that his heart is in the right place makes acceptance come quickly.

From there, the story gets darker (even as it gets sexier), with some great scenes of reluctant threesomes and foursomes, some transsexual-on-transsexual choreographed porn, and the transsexual gangbang I mention earlier that proves to be the climax of the novel . . . in more ways than one.

As much fun as all that is, though, it's what Julez does with the last few chapters that really sells his original tagline. He takes us beyond the rescue, beyond the happily-ever-after, and lets us indulge in Star and her fellow escorts finding new life outside the sex trade. We get to see justice served, wrongs put right, and true love blossom. An altogether remarkable story, I can't recommend Star Search highly enough.

♂↔♀