Review: Once in a Lifetime

Title: Once in a Lifetime
Author: Ariel Tachna
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: 8 July 2011
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 193 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review: Shane can't pass up the opportunity to study in France for a year as a medical researcher before starting graduate school. As a still-mostly-closeted gay man, France is also an opportunity to explore his homosexuality without the judgment of his fundamentalist college and family. It's the perfect chance to find himself--and just perhaps the man he wants to spend his life with.

Shane is a young man (22 for most of the story) who knows what he wants. Although he's inexperienced, he's not willing to settle or let others make his decisions for him, and he's not afraid to stand up for himself. It makes him an honest, appealing character. The strength of his Christian faith and how he comes to integrate it with his homosexuality is inspiring, whether you share his faith or not. (As an agnostic, I had some difficulty appreciating his conflict, but his point of view was conveyed so well that it wasn't necessary in order to feel his resolve.)

Discussing his love interest strikes me as a bit of a spoiler, so I'll mention only that I adored him, rooting for him even when he wasn't a love interest at all. I would have been crushed if they hadn't gotten together in the end.

The supporting cast is nice, fairly vast without being overwhelming. They are all conveyed through Shane's viewpoint and thus flavored by Shane's perceptions, but they're still strongly-developed enough to be mostly memorable. (I still mix up some of Jean-Mathias's friends, but they're more an exception than a rule.)

The regard Shane and his ultimate love interest have for each other is adorable and although they move slow once their relationship is established it's impossible to miss the sexual tension between them. The sex itself is never graphic, given the story format, and the disconnect somehow makes it that much hotter.

Speaking of story format, the story is told as a series of journal entries. This limits it to first-person point-of-view, but has the advantage of limiting the voice--my huge complaint lately has been with omniscient-narration stories where the POV changes erratically. The journal entry format makes it easy to get to know Shane and, through him, the rest of his world.

There was never a point at which this story lagged for me; once I started it, I devoured it in a sitting. It was tight and well-done, with charming characters and a well-realized setting. I loved the more unusual aspects of Shane's character explored in this story, and certainly look forward to revisiting it.