And this is the book that did it for me Recent Read

Transcendence by Shay Savage

Genre: I'm not quite sure how to put it - but - prehistoric

Steam Level:  Oh very nice.


My Thoughts:  This is the book that really kicked me into my Book Restelessness.  It's going to be a while I think, before a book affects me this deeply.

It was a long weekend here in Canada so I had a chance to read a number of books. One of them was Transcendence. I found this one when I was ‘playing’ on Good Reads and noticed it was on the list of a Good Reads friend with a 5 star review. I checked a few other friends reviews and they had given it similar raves. The story sounded very different so I thought I would give it a try. I think I can honestly say this is the most unique romance I’ve ever read. The setting is in prehistoric times though we’ve no idea where. As if that isn’t different enough, the story is told entirely from the hero’s POV and he has no real ability to communicate. He doesn’t have the talking function in his brain; at best he can grunt in slightly different tones.

Edh as he thinks of himself, is all alone. He did have a tribe but they were all killed in a fire many years before the opening of the book. He is very lonely but doesn’t really have the comprehension to realize that is what he is. He is getting weaker and weaker due to lack of food and real motivation to find some. But the human spirit in him refuses to give up altogether and he sets a trap by digging a pit to trap an animal. But it’s not an animal he trap’s, it’s a young woman from modern times.

Honestly it’s tough to get across how distinctive this book is. While Edh doesn’t talk, he has inner thinking and he’s delighted to have found a mate that he can ‘put a baby in’. That’s the adorable way he thinks having sex, making love. The mate, on the other hand doesn’t see things quite the same way. We learn that her name is Elizabeth but Edh can’t say that so he refers to her as Beh – the closest he can say to Beth. He also learns the word No, as Beh says it to him quite often when he’s all set to ‘make a baby’. Considering he’s prehistoric male though, he’s quite philosophical about the whole thing and is willing to wait until Beh is ready to ‘make a baby’. Most of what he knows or comes to understand, he picked up from watching his family before they lost. Despite not being able to communicate with Beh in any kind of language; she talks – a lot – but all he hears is a buzzing, they do manage to communicate slowly through their unusual communication, over time they fall in love.

I don’t want to say too much, but I will say that at the end of this very beautiful, very unusual love story, I cried. And I’m talking sore throat from trying not to break out into sobbing, crying. That hardly EVER happens when I read a book, but despite their being no real spoken language between Edh and Beh, I connected with them that much.

This book gets my highest recommendation for both its uniqueness and the fact it made me cry. Cry people! I don't normally do that when reading a book.


Grade: 5 out of 5