The Hunt for Red Fluffy

Another good book in an enjoyable series.

In Potato Surprise, a prequel to this series, Shax has a romance with a human, Julian. The rest of the books are about Shax and his love interest Ness. Other major characters feature prominently in some of the books, too. But Julian returned in the last book, and Ness was extremely jealous of his former relationship with Shax. This book resolves that conflict by having Julian and Ness develop feelings for each other. The two of them, along with Shax, become a throuple.

I was hoping the situation would resolve this way, and I'm satisfied with the details. The romance between Julian and Ness is pretty simple, with a hurt/comfort plot, but it's very good. I liked how normal everything seemed, since polyamory is an uncommon concept in romance novels. I also liked that Ness had different boundaries than the other two. That feels realistic to me.

I've recommended this series to several trans men who were looking for books with trans characters that were not about self-acceptance, because Julian's being trans is a only minor aspect of his character. So, I'm relieved that the author did not change her approach to that topic in this book. Julian has a brief bad dream in which he is deadnamed, but that's the only negative trans-related thing that happens. He does suffer a lot in this book, but it's nothing to do with being trans.

The non-romance plot is a little weak, to be honest, but I read these books for the characters and their romances, and for the cool sci-fi concepts, so I don't mind that.

I don't know if this is the ending of the series. I hope not, because I really like these books!