ŷ������

Ice on Fire (The Test of our Lives)
By Dan Stone
Lethe Press, 2015
Four stars

The follow-up to Dan Stone’s 2009 “The Rest of our Lives,�� we drop into the life of Colm McKenna and Aidan Gallagher two years on, in the midst of a highly successful book tour for their collaborative effort using Aidan’s writing and Colm’s photographs. The two young men, elemental witches of fire and ice, tease their unknowing audiences with suggestive stories of the places in which their many interrelated past lives were lived, from ancient Roman Palestine to more modern venues.

The premise that triggered the plot of the first book was that this time they’re finally going to get their happy ending. Imagine their surprise when Aidan’s aunt Lucinda calls them home from their book-selling travels to reveal some news that just might change the course of their life together. Whether it’s good or bad remains to be seen, and the book becomes a semi-comic road trip to Las Vegas of all places, Aiden and Colm accompanied by Aunt Lu and Hank, the teenage witch from Colm’s southern home town.

The book is clever and funny, not to mention literate. What Stone is doing is exploring the issues of any long-term gay relationship, while placing those issues in the context of destiny versus free will. How does one choose to live one’s life? Whose expectations and wishes are to be honored? How do you deal with the inevitable compromises and pitfalls of sharing a life with someone else?

I was a little let down by the ending, only because I’m impatient. I hope I can go find the next book in this series right away, and not have to wait for Stone to figure out where Aidan and Colm’s story will take us