Melting Wax and Burning Feathers

Title: Melting Wax and Burning Feathers
Author: Jennifer Cierra
Cover Artist: Dmytro Konstantynov
Publisher: JMS Books
Buy Link:Melting Wax and Burning Feathers
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 10,200 words

Gregory Daniels is a man who has given up. Once he dreamed of going to L.A. and “making it big,” but those dreams exploded, leaving his lover dead and Gregory disillusioned. Now he works 9-to-5 as a tax attorney in Long Beach, California, trying to convince himself a weekly paycheck is enough to make up for a job he hates and dinner alone every night.

Then Gregory notices a talented, beautiful young guitarist playing on the museum steps on his way to work, and he begins to wonder whether he hasn’t sacrificed more than he’s gained in favor of predictability and routine. An opportunity beckons; the only question is whether Gregory trusts himself enough to reach out and take it.
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This short piece packs a wallop, mixing as it does broken dreams and dreams yet to be realized. Gregory, who has put aside aspirations of stardom for safety and dullness, encounters a musician playing for tips who stirs up many longings. Gregory is a tax attorney with broken dreams. Paul has come to California to find his own stardom, he’s ready to fly up and touch the sun. Gregory flew at the sun once, with Carl, his lover, who had his own dreams of flight that died in an overdose.


Gregory’s not ready for a relationship, he will never be until he reconnects with the part of himself that can hope and plan and even fasten on the wings that might take him on a level journey, or let him soar to the clouds. Paul’s great gift to him is knowing that feathers and wax are there if he’ll reach out to take them, and the journey after that is up to him. He might fall, and it might be a long way down, but he would have soared to get there.

The author has mixed these two with the legend of Icarus and Daedelus of Greek myth, who made wings to escape their prison; one flew to safety, the other to the sun and his death. It’s nicely done, with the men being together casually as a couple, and what is nurtured most is Gregory’s sense of possibility. And then the author gives us a wonderful epilog, where we can see that the two men might fly together.

The style is quite lyrical and very enjoyable, getting a lot of hints of backstory into a few words, like this:

The free ocean breeze reminded Gregory of concerts on the beach, of expensive cheese and cheap wine and Carl’s honey-smoke voice in his ear, but it was better not to reminisce about what he couldn’t have.

I enjoyed the flow of story very well, but where I ran into problems was with the timeline—Gregory is pushing thirty and is a tax attorney—one doesn’t become a tax attorney by accident or without years of preparation and tuition money, so this was some unpleasant overkill that made me think too much about logistics and timeline and not enough about Gregory’s mental evolution, which is where the meat of the story lies.

But when Gregory manages to find his spirit and his wings, and put aside some of his worst baggage, there is the glorious prospect of what he and Paul could be together. The author hasn’t pushed for too much here, and it’s lovely. 4.5 marbles

All Shook Up by JM Snyder

All Shook Up by J.M. Snyder
Publisher: JMS Books, LLC
Genre: Historical, Interracial Romance, Erotica, GLBT, M/M
Length: 25,349 words

The year is 1883. Eduard van De Lier is a Dutchman overseeing a spice plantation on the island of Java, in the South Pacific. His obsessive attraction to dark-skinned men is just one of his many secrets. His wife Marien knows of his indiscretions, but as she's content with their Colonial lifestyle, she stays silent.

Until a former lover of Eduard's shows up in their parlor with thoughts of blackmail.

Reza was a crewman on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java. During the passage, Eduard spent many a night in the younger man's arms. Two years have passed, and the last person Eduard expects to find in his drawing room is Reza, a letter in hand that could destroy the life he and Marien lead.

Seeing him again ignites Eduard's lust for his first dark lover. He hopes to retrieve the letter, either through seduction or subterfuge, and the longer Reza eludes him, the more his desire grows. But they're on shaky ground, and before things can heat up between them, their world explodes -- literally -- when the unstable island of Krakatoa erupts.


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Volcanic eruptions tend to happen in bed in romances – JM Snyder has turned the tables slightly. All Shook Up has eruptions both in bed and out, because the greatest volcanic action of modern times blows Eduard and Reza around. Disaster brings out the best and worst in people, so Krakatoa would show what a man is really made of.

Unfortunately, Eduard van De Lier has a lot of reprehensible qualities even before the ground starts shaking. He's fine with lying, stealing, and laziness. Thoughts beyond keeping his comforts intact and his next seduction barely enter his head. He's managed to insinuate himself and his wife, Marien, into wealth and society, and while Marien works tirelessly to keep them in the good times, Eduard's more interested in finding a pliable servant. For one heart-stopping moment, the initial sex scene demonstrating this looked like it would turn into a rape.

When Reza turns up in the drawing room, Eduard at first doesn't recognize him, and then immediately assumes the worst, whether it's his greatest fear or because that's what he'd do in Reza's place is hard to say. Being completely led by his cock, Eduard decides that another seduction will clear all the troubles away, but wily Reza doesn't give in quickly a second time.

Formerly crew on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java, Reza remains a mystery; he speaks little and withdraws strategically. Somehow he transforms from a handy bedmate on shipboard to the great love of Eduard's life, apparently for being dark-skinned, well hung, calm in a crisis, and liking the unlikeable. Equally mysterious is what he sees in Eduard, aside from a bottom who can accommodate his enormous cock. The line

"the thick cock whose base Eduard could barely encircle with both hands"

left me holding my coffee cup that way and staring in pained disbelief.

Disaster actually does bring out the best in Eduard: in his case, hiding in the one firm sanctuary available and failing to assist a frantic mother in finding her child is an improvement on his previous history of looting the bodies. It just doesn't make me like him any better.

The eruption of the volcano shone, watching Reza and Eduard fight their way through ashfall and survive a tsunami were the best parts of the story for me. If anything, Ms. Snyder downplayed the horror of what happened, and it was still tense, dangerous, and gripping. Eduard still managed to fall asleep for a while during it.

A seriously flawed character needs some kind of redemption. Eduard does do something honorable at the end regarding Marien, but it's very little and so late as to not make much difference. They've reached their accommodations as a couple, and now one more lie makes it all better. That Eduard is married but pursues other partners wasn't a problem for me, Marien was aware from the start that she was a beard, and had her own reasons for accepting Eduard. She was the most sympathetic person in the book.

Unfortunately, the wonderful backdrop of the Krakatoa eruption was wasted on characters whose survival I couldn't particularly care about; Reza remained unknowable and Eduard was only too exposed. All Shook Up did not move me much. 2.5 Marbles

Tea and Crumpet, edited by Josephine Myles

Tea and Crumpet ed. Josephine Myles
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Genre: Anthology, Contemporary, Erotica, Historical, GLBT
Length: 193 pages



Raise your rainbow umbrellas high and celebrate!

Enjoy this enchanting, entertaining and thought-provoking collection, a heartfelt expression of what it means to be queer in Britain, past and present. All these stories reflect the iconic sights and national character of the British Isles: a taste of our idiosyncrasies and eccentricities, but also an unashamed representation of the love, loyalty and laughter of our people.

Including a wide range of style and subject, this is the perfect way to sample different authors and to find both existing and new favourites. Follow the British way of life from historic villages to modern cities, from the countryside to the sea, through history and with a fantasy twist, in gardens, churches, campus and the familiar, much-loved local pub.

The stories cover universal themes of romance, desire, remembrance and reconciliation. The authors range from multi-published to up-and-coming, and they all share a passion for their characters, whether through great drama, erotic excitement, humour -- or a combination of all three!

Contributors include: Alex Beecroft, Jennie Caldwell, Stevie Carroll, Charlie Cochrane, Lucy Felthouse, Elin Gregory, Mara Ismine, Clare London, Anna Marie May, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles, Zahra Owens, Jay Rookwood, Chris Smith, Stevie Woods, Lisa Worrall, and Serena Yates. Edited by: UK MAT (UK Meet Acquisitions Team).

This anthology is a souvenir of the 2011 UK Meet, an occasion for GLBTQ supporters to get together in a relaxed setting to celebrate and chat about the fiction community they love. Funds from the sale of this anthology will go towards future UK Meets, to which all are welcome.
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Oh, my, this is what happens when the constraints of American publishers, American-speak, and standard romance conventions are released. Tea and Crumpet is a charming collection of short stories from British authors in all their native glory.

More than half of the authors here are new to me, with a wide variety of style and voice. There are eighteen stories that span most of the social spectrum, though if I wasn't quite sure what a "chav" is, I could glean a lot from context. And from Google – who wouldn't want to know more about something called "Insanely Bad Elf"*? Most are m/m, a few f/f – and while the f/f stories did not stand out as distinctly in voice, the diversity was welcome.

With this many stories, I'm not going to go into each in detail or we'll be here for 100 pages, so I'll mention a few of the standouts, though please understand, the entire collection is worth the read, particularly if you yearn for a gay story that doesn't adhere completely to the HEA/HFN model.

JL Merrow provides another one of her humorous shorts with Good Breeding. Giles finds himself confronting all his snobbery when he discovers that his own antecedents aren't as posh as he could wish when he tracks down his birth mother. Between his even snobbier boyfriend Hugh and his level-headed roommate Oz, Giles gets an attitude adjustment and a lesson in priorities. Funny, with a little sting.

The Utterly True History of Guy Alien and the Rise and Fall of His Band, X-Wing is one of the non-standard-romance stories, though Stevie Carroll reveals the relationships and the caring. Part is a magazine exposé, part the reactions of the readers, it lets the identities of the readers unveil slowly, and by the end, you'll be utterly content with the lovers.

A follow-up to another story I now feel compelled to track down, We’ll Always Have Brighton #2 from Zahra Owens stands alone, both as narrative and in voice. Told from "I" to "you", you being the other member of the couple, this is a structure I've seen only once before. It works well in this tale of recovery from a terrible incident. Names are neither given nor needed; the whole universe is this couple and a place that means a great deal to them.

Not to slight any of the other fine authors who have contributed to this anthology, but after these three I'm going to suggest that you get the collection and read for yourself. 4.5 marbles




*Insanely Bad Elf is an imperial red ale with an ethanol content designed to remove paint.  But I will not tell you how it fits into the story.