Well, Jessica Inclán, a very dear author that has several books already published internationally (both mass market and indie), sent me a copy of her book Intimate Beings, that is the sequel of Being With Him (review here). Except that she sent me both a copy of her original book and the one that was published in Brazil.
As I mentioned on my Being With Him review, the brazilian version is 100 pages shorter and I was really afraid they ruined the book. But it wasn't as bad as I thought.
I'll start with the diferences between the two of them to get it over with and be able to talk about the book as a whole. On "De Corpo e Alma" (that's the brazilian version and it means "with body and soul"), everything seems a bit rushes - it seems like things happen without a second thought, not considering, without noticing things like "hey we're on a different planet", "hey, they're not trying to kill us anymore" and things like that, because several paragraphs were left out - specially those where the characters were thinking about their lives, about how much they changed, etc. Some little things weren't really clear on De Corpo e Alma, I believe small sentences were cut off that didn't seem to make much difference but they did and you ended up not really knowing who's part of a group, who came, who's leaving. These things don't ruin the book as a whole, the portuguese version is actually quite satisfactory - if you read the first one, something the publisher completelly ignored by not publishing Being With Him here.
Now, about the story and the book itself. Intimate Beings starts a little after the time where Being With Him leaves us. The "Abandoned Ones" were rescued from Upsilia and Mila and Edan are on the Safehouse.
We start by meeting Claire, who is, as we soon find out but it's a bit obvious, Sophie, Mila and Edan's sister and Darl's twin/double. Actually that was something they lost on the translation: Darl is short for Darling, so the guy is named Darling, which is cute, but in Portuguese they just cut off the reference to that, since they couldn't traslate it, aparently, or thought it wasn't important.
Claire can go anywhere in the world she wants, just by wanting it, Darl can go back home just by wanting it, anytime, and, of coure, they're both Cygirians.
Right at the beggining, Darl meets Claire and they get together, after all, the attraction between doubles is irresistible... The story is very similar to the first book (and almost any book, if you think about it) "they meet, something sets them apart, they struggle to be together, they get together again, fight against something and win", but, of course, all books, some a bit more, some a bit less, follow this script, so you can't hold that against it.
I really liked seeing again some of the characters from Being With Him, with more lines and scenes than on the first one, I really enjoyed some more explanations about The Source and some descriptions of how the doubles "magic" works, specially Claire's thing, near the ending.
Something I really missed was more explanations about the Cygirians themselves, after all, if they were on the Source, they could've looked for their families there, ask about what happened, how was their civilization, among other things. I'm looking forward to reading the third book, The Beautiful Being and find out more about Edan, because he seems so sacred, so perfect that I think it will be REALLY interesting to see him meeting his twin and melting all over her and with her.
We FINALLY see Cygirians acting as a group and we understand the huge amout of lost cygirians around - thousands! - what, now, really gives an idea of size and that they really need a place to stay and can't just be around there, they are many and need to get together.
Well, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll stop at this, but I really recommend this book! I know I'm eager to read The Beautiful Being and I plan on ordering it soon, as soon as I have my Book Depository "annual buy" planned.
You can read an Excerpt of Intimate Beings HERE
You can buy them on the Book Depository with free shipping worldwide! Being With Him (Book #1), Intimate Beings, (Book #2) and The Beautiful Being (Book #3)
