Protagonists with Prosthetics... aka Prosthetic Attraction

Like "prophetic attraction" a la "fated mates".... but for protagonists with prosthetics... get it??

I love it when a roundup comes together with three extremely different kinds of books. We’ve got a historical, a contemporary, and a romantasy/sci-fi, all with one thing in common: one of the characters has (or is in the process of getting) a prosthetic limb.

The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne. Ok. I’m telling you right now you need to strap in. This book is a wild ride from start to finish, and comes from one of my favorite Kerrigan Byrne series, all about heroes that are a little rougher around the edges who regularly occupy the edges of society. This is not a series for you if you prefer your heroes to be golden retrievers (that’s Out on a Limb… see below). ESPECIALLY not this book.

We begin our journey a few years before the true start of the book. Cole Talmage is just recently the Duke of Trewyth after his entire family was killed in a railway accident, but before he knew he was gonna be an aristocrat he was simply a solider and… possibly… an assassin for the Crown. Before he leads his group of men back into war (don’t ask me which war, I could not tell you), they head to a bar/brothel/party spot for one last night of revelry. He pays for a night with a serving wench after a heated back and forth with the proprietor and agrees to the wildly high price. She goes with him and it’s a magical evening that quite possibly is the reason he survives the next few terrible years. He clings to the idea of this woman, who he knows as Ginny, to keep him sane amidst blood and betrayal.

Let’s back up before we get to the blood and betrayal, because Ginny isn’t real, and the reason a night with her was so expensive is because, slight spoiler I guess, he was buying her virginity. “Ginny”, aka Imogen, was truly merely a server at this spot and had it worked out with the proprietor that he wouldn’t force her to sell her body as well, but the price was too good considering the prize (though Cole didn’t realize she was a virgin). Imogen was working nights at the bar after shifts at a hospital as a nurse, but she can’t deny she’d felt a pull towards Cole despite the unfortunate, less than entirely consensual circumstances of his buying her time. She ultimately allows herself this one indulgence from what’s otherwise a workaholic’s life supporting her family. There’s some other stuff to that but it doesn’t really matter right now.

A few years later, Cole returns from war with one fewer hand than before and a lot of traumatic memories, and ends up in her very hospital. He doesn’t recognize her (she was wearing a wig when they were together, I think), but despite his behaving like a feral creature, she correctly diagnoses him with something the doctors missed and saves his life, even though going against the doctor gets her canned. But then another thing happens (truly I cannot get into all of it) and she ends up marrying a dying elderly patient who took a [platonic] shine to her and wants to help this woman out. So she becomes a countess in the eleventh hour of this man’s life, he passes, and she becomes a wealthy widow… and Cole’s neighbor.

Now Cole, with his prosthetic hand he resents and a brain full of memories that haunt him, HATES his new neighbor. She’s clearly a social schemer who preyed on his dying elderly neighbor back in the day, she’s clearly up to something, clearly not One Of Them ™, and besides, the only woman he’s ever cared about or ever WILL care about is Ginny. Surely that angel will excuse his bad behavior towards literally everyone else while he seeks her.

There’s also a serial killer up in the mix.

If you’re not reading Kerrigan Byrne but are a fan of historical romance… what are you DOING?

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Devi's Distraction by Ruby Dixon. Literally as soon as I met the hero of this book in an earlier book in the series, I knew who his heroine would be. They never really interacted before their book, but, like, the guy’s been in a depression spiral after part of his leg had to be amputated during a natural disaster, and Devi’s a scientist (who’s been kidnapped from Earth and is now on this ice plant… stop me if you’ve heard this one before). You do the math.

Have I recapped an Ice Planet Barbarians book before? I think this might be the first, though if you’re a Book Club subscriber (hint hint) I’ve definitely talked about the series in the past. For the uninitiated, though, this series is actually three separate series (so far) following the adventures of, mostly, human women who’ve been human trafficked from Earth and end up on an ice planet full of, mostly, well-endowed blue alien men in need of wives. They are ribbed for her pleasure, literally. One contrivance of this planet is that because of the atmosphere (or something), to survive all life forms must have what is essentially a parasite (which you can pull out of any native creature on the planet) implanted within you. The parasite, called a khui, not only allows to to live on the planet, but it also makes you heartier against cold and heals you more quickly than before from sickness and injury. Most importantly, though, the khui has a fated mates aspect- it will resonate (essentially vibrate) in your chest in synchronicity with another’s to alert you that your ideal biological mate. If you don’t get it on and get with child, it will continue to vibrate and suck all your energy away- you essentially go into heat until resonance is satisfied (aka the lady is pregnant).

As you might imagine, all the human women are lowkey horrified by this when they first encounter it, because it appears to take choice right out of the matter for falling in love… no matter than there have been like 35 books where they all end happily ever after. I’ll be honest- sometimes the “resist the khui to preserve my autonomy” plot gets a little old, so many books deep into this series. However, this is one of the later books that I think still manages to find new ways to incorporate and interpret the whole fated mates of it all.

There’s a plot contrivance early on that makes N'dek, our hero, think he’s likely going to resonate with another of the human women in their beach encampment. At this point in the series there’s speculation that you can TELL who you’ll resonate to even before you do, and even that you can control it to some degree. As a result, N'dek is determined to stop moping (he’s been moping a LOT since his accident) and start contributing to their society again, especially now that there are GIRLS again (this is another big part of the series- there’s a real lack of women on this planet so you have a bunch of eligible Ice Planet Lonely Boys who are delighted by the regular infusions of human women kidnapped and stranded, no matter what the ladies themselves think of the situation).

But on a hunter/gatherer planet, missing part of your leg is a liability in more ways than one, especially if you want to impress your future mate. So N'dek gets Devi, the strange scientist girl who’s always combing the beach for creature corpses to dissect, to help make him a prosthetic, and though she’s more of a dinosaur girl as far as her scientific specialty goes, she agrees. And keeps agreeing and helping him get back his strength and mobility, even as she falls harder for him while he continues trying to impress another girl. Because at the end of the day, resonance decides, right? Not them?

This is one of the few Ice Planet books where the heroine has a practical skill early on, which I always appreciate. Mostly these poor girls are simply young and fertile and only later find their place amongst society, but Devi is immediately stoked to be here and learn as much as she can, even prior to her prosthetic prowess. Love that for her.

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. The first accidental pregnancy book that I’ve given a five star rating to follows Winnifred "Win" McNulty, a woman with a limb difference who has a hot as hell one night stand on Halloween with a fellow limb difference costume party attendee, Bo, who himself has a prosthetic leg. They’re both dressed as pirates, using their limb differences as part of the look, and after their night together, they fully expect to never see the other again.

But then Win realizes she’s pregnant.

As far as plot goes, that’s kind of all you need to know? What makes this book special is the way these two expectant parents, with all their hang ups, prepare for this next phase of their life and realize quickly they both have a lot of personal things to resolve before they’re in charge of a newborn, together and apart. While Win was born with her limb difference, Bo’s a more recent member of the community after an aggressive cancer required amputation for his survival. They’ve also both got heart-shaped wounds, related and not to their limb differences, that they can’t quite move past in order to let the other person in.

This book was genuinely funny, heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, and just so excruciatingly HUMAN. I don’t know how else to put it, except that you absolutely need to read this story.

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

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Next week, I’ve got an interview with author Julie Olivia, so stay tuned!

What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!

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