I wish I had a twin. If I had a twin I often think the world would be a much better place. And not just because it would mean my lovely face appeared in twice as many places.

If you’ve got a twin, and you go shopping with them, you can get them to try on clothes and see how the clothes would look on you, without you having to look like a poseur in front of the mirror. Or dress up in silly stuff that looks crap.

That would be brilliant.

Or, if you’re a twin, and your twin (the one who’s not you) gets married to a really attractive person, you can steal their wedding photos and pretend you’re the one that’s got the very attractive bride.

That would be even brillianter! The possibilities are truly endless.

In Portia Da Costa’s Gemini Heat, the games that twins can play, are fully exploited. Deana and Delia are twins. They’re already playing “The Gemini Game” at the start of the story. This is a game where they exploit their physical similarity by one of them pretending to be the other.

Delia can’t make her company’s invitation to an art show, so she asks Deana to take her place. Because Deana looks exactly like her, both sisters assume that no one will ever know. And the deception at the exhibition might have gone unnoticed if Deana hadn’t made the mistake of having sex with Delia’s boss.

The premise for this story sounds fantastic and few authors could have tackled this subject without making the narrative seem implausible. But Portia Da Costa brings her characteristic wit and trademark sexiness to the tale and, from page one and onwards, the characters live and breathe. Their antics throughout the story are sensational and sizzling hot.

One of the key ways Portia Da Costa manages this realism is by giving her characters voices and dialogue that sound 100% convincing. At the end of the first chapter, after Deana has enjoyed an experience at the exhibition (that is probably not advertised in the promotional brochures) she discovers that her mysterious partner has disappeared.

The bastard, she thought, hating him as passionately as she’d enjoyed his hard dark body. He’s gone… He’s had me and now he’s buggered off and left me!

But it’s not just in the incredibly credible dialogue where Portia Da Costa wins over her readers. When describing the inevitable intimacy between her main characters she shows deft skill in making every detail explicit and arousing.

She didn’t dare look down, knowing that the thin silk crotch of her cami-knickers was twisted and lodged between her labia. She could feel the empty air warm against her exposed pubic floss and the long bare expanse of her thighs – and only a narrow sliver of sheer yellow fabric kept her sex from his compelling blue gaze.

Gemini Heat is typical Portia Da Costa, with gloriously written erotic scenes and characters who are wonderfully believable. This tale of two sisters is a must read for anyone who has ever enjoyed Portia’s previous titles, and a have-to-have introduction for anyone who hasn’t yet encountered her marvellous fiction.

Gemini Heat by Portia Da Costa
(Virgin Black Lace; May 27, 2008; ISBN-10: 0352341874)
Available at: Amazon.com / Amazon UK /Powell’s Books

© 2008 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.