Cat's Books: Romance

Given the chance to feel touch for the first time, she sacrifices her body for eternity in the arms of an immortal.

Gala suffered from lack of nerve response and had lived her life numb. Her lifetime was spent looking for damage to her body or avoiding it. When you can’t feel your limbs, anything can happen.
Given the chance to gain a sense of touch by giving her body to a planet for occupation, she becomes the Avatar of Rekfa without hesitation.
Rekfa shares her body and convinces her that she needs to seek out her own sense memories in whatever form they come.
Arez has been waiting for a mate of his own, and the Avatar is as close as he can come in this lifetime. He offers himself to her and is amazed when she takes him up on his offer to teach her what seduction can feel like when both parties are focused on the outcome.

Review

This quiet Science Fiction Romance does a lot of lovely things in just a few pages. It explores the condition of s congenital analgesia- the inablity to feel pain or sensation from birth.

The heroine trades her body to be an Avatar for a planet in exchange for the feeling of touch.

I think that gaining sensation might be more overwhelming than what is portrayed (the mind of planet likely protects her) but the emotionial and physical journey of the heroine is compellling as is the worldvuilding a love story.

A goodread!