In a Heartbeat

by Markus Harwood-Jones

Set in a small town, this is not a typical LGBTQ+ romance. Seventeen-year-old Lucien has a supportive family and community in Toronto but wants to make a new start somewhere nobody knows him. Going to stay with his aunt in Vernon presents challenges to fitting in ― he is not comfortable with his hockey-watching, hard-partying cousins or the other kids at school. Eventually, Lucien finds a community of creative teens and meets the mysterious Alder. As Lucien finds out who Alder really is, he is able to find what is worthy of love in himself. Focusing on romance and speaking one’s truth rather than issues of gender identity, this story is a tender, light-hearted tale of finding love in unexpected places.

Genres: LGBT

168 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Markus Harwood-Jones (he/they) is a proudly queer and trans space-case who has been writing since he can remember. Markus specializes in writing young-adult fiction and has a soft-spot for sappy love stories. He lives in downtown Toronto with his husband, their platonic co-parent, and their extra-cute kiddo. Markus is an aspiring TikTokker with 125k+ followers. He and can be found on social media under the handle @MarkusBones.

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucien is a transboy that recently came out and moved to a new school, though the reason he moves isn't because of transphobia, more of people being fake about caring. The new environment he moves into is more hectic than he is used to, and I like this, especially when he goes into his first problem immediately at dinner since he's vegan and his aunt was never told about this. However, it's solved immediately by him eating chicken, and it's never brought up again. It's a short story, so I understand, but it's brought up how queasy he is about eating meat since Lucien has been vegan since the age of 8, so it was a bit jarring. Other things in the story have the same issue, something significant happening that should affect a person more than it should but it is glossed over quickly. A big example is when Lucien meets his two... "friends". I really dislike Lucien's "friends" Pippa and Maggie. So annoying and I would have dropped them as soon as they got Lucien in trouble in class and ruined his first date, but no, they stick around. Also, I saw no chemistry between Alder and Lucien, but that's just me, it felt rushed but then again it was a short story, but I felt if the two "friends" were cut then we could have more time with Alder and Lucien, especially since most of the time their communication are cute moments then misunderstanding. Also, there was a moment when Lucien's cousins are going to a party, but they don't like the fact their mom wants Lucien to come, and one of them says something similar along the lines of "it's boys only" and his mom replies "that's why he [Lucien] needs to go. Lucien never comments on this low-brow comment that questions his masculinity nor does anyone else. I thought that was weird. Other than that, this is the first m/transm story where both guys are trans. Would I recommend this as your first exposure to this type of romance? No.

[Ray]

Whew first review!