Stealing the Dragon by Mell Eight

Title: Stealing the Dragon
Author: Mell Eight
Cover Artist: London Burden
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Publisher Buy Link Stealing the Dragon
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Length: 27k words

Stealing from a dragon's hoard is never a bright idea, but stealing from a baby dragon's hoard can lead to tears, sniffles, and smoke in the middle of a busy marketplace.

Jerney, a witch who does work for a well-known thieves' guild, knows exactly who's to blame for the brazen theft. With no other choice in the matter, he quickly becomes entangled in trying to help the baby dragon. What he doesn't expect is that his own heart might get stolen in the process.

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The promised baby dragon really is a baby—he might look like he’s a seventeen year old human (probably the author’s signal that “yes, I know he’s too young for a sexy story”) but in dragon years that makes him more like a bright four year old. Tori’s adorable, and part of his problem is that even people who know better treat him the way his human form looks, not in an age-appropriate manner.


Uncle Bast, for instance, (that’s Prince Bast to everyone else) thinks Tori’s mature enough to handle an investigation, but if it’s anything more complicated than “who ate the cookies?” he’s really, really wrong. Sending him to the market alone is a lot like sending him to play in traffic.

The traffic in this world is horse-drawn, with a medieval feeling level of technology and a developed magic system. Practitioners absolutely have to be literate and attain levels of skill as they can master them. That’s where we get Jerney, who has to teach himself as he can from others’ magic books. He’s valuable to his wicked uncle/stepfather because he can be sold, and once his mother is out of the way, he will be. Jerney’s an enterprising child and becomes an enterprising young man---he finds a way out of the horrid fate wicked uncle plans for him, his younger brother, and infant half-sister, and comes to prosper. We see enough of his childhood and youth to know his world and circumstances, and he’s in his mid-twenties before he meets the baby dragon. Jerney’s a likeable character, he’s moves in the reality of his world without being hardened by it, and his family feeling is very strong.

When an impetuous thief steals one of Tori’s treasures, we’re set off on a rollicking adventure where the theft must be sorted and wider plots revealed and solved. Both characters’ strengths and weakness contribute to the plot, and the resolution is very satisfactory. Good fun!

Both characters have POV scenes, and the voices are dramatically different, which I thought was good characterization and also part of my unease with this story. Jerney’s voice matures as he goes from a bright six year old to a competent young man, and Tori sounds like the kid he is. So far so good. Then mix the sexual element in here, and it gets a little squicky.

Let me emphasize that there is absolutely no contact between the characters aside from an over-exuberant kiss that Jerney shuts down immediately because it is inappropriate, the action of a child who is learning how to behave and has skipped ahead in his own timeline. Everybody’s clear on this, even Tori, eventually. But the issue has been raised, and the inescapable conclusion is that Jerney’s going to be celibate for the next thirty years, and I don’t even want these ideas floating around in a story where one of the characters comes across as four years old.

There are a couple of secondary relationships in the background. Tori’s much older brother Nyle has a male lover, and their story appears in another book in this series which I plan to read. Jerney’s younger brother is now a young man, and there’s a hint of someone’s interest in him. That was probably meant to be reassuring that the other party wouldn’t do something inappropriate with a child, but it’s actually sort of creepy in an “I’ve been waiting for you to grow up” way.

So where my problems lie with this story is that it’s trying to be everything to everyone. It doesn’t work as a romance, because Tori isn’t a romantic candidate—he’s a child, and not even saying there’s enough lag time to let him grow up will make this work for me. It does work on the adventure/fantasy level, which I enjoyed very much. A version of this story that had all sexual/romantic elements excised (except please leave Nyle and Leon as an established couple) I would put into any eleven year old’s hand. But Tori is just too child-like to make his actual age a consideration. YMMV. 3 marbles

The Party Boy's Guide to Dating a Geek by Piper Vaughn and Xara X. Xanakas

Title: The Party Boy’s Guide to Dating a Geek

Author: Piper Vaughn and Xara X. Xanakas

Cover Artist: Aisha Akeju

Publisher: Less Than Three Press

Genre: Contemporary

Length: 270 pages

Ashley Byrne only wants one thing in life: to finish his tattoo apprenticeship and fulfill his dream of owning his own shop. In the meantime, he spends his nights partying, flirting, and having sex. After all, what else is there for him to worry about? Aside from his hair and his clothes, not much. He’s hot, and rest assured no one knows it better than him. He’s also used to getting what he wants—until he meets Felipe Navarro.

Fee Navarro has everything he needs: a great IT job, a nice apartment, and all the high-tech toys his geeky heart could ever want. He doesn’t do casual, and he knows guys like Ash are nothing but. Ash may burn hot for Fee, but Fee isn’t willing to take a chance on a vain, little party boy with too many tats and an oversized ego. He wants someone to share his life with, and he won’t settle for anything less. Too bad Ash has never been the type to give up easily. He has a plan, and he’s not stopping until he proves he’s more than just a pretty face—he’s someone worthy of winning Fee’s heart.

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The Party Boy’s Guide is a charming story of opposites attracting, and more to the point, of one of the opposites understanding what’s attractive about the other and why the attraction is worth working for.

Ash and Fee come together while helping Ash’s brother and his girlfriend move in together, and things do not start well. If Ash isn’t putting his foot in his mouth or doing something careless that causes an injury, he’s coming across as flighty, only interested in a good time. Being seen like that stings, even if it’s true—Ash isn’t used to an attractive man not responding to him, and it makes him work triply hard to get Fee’s attention. Used to entertaining himself with any willing comer in the clubs leaves him unprepared to deal with someone more serious.

The gimmick of having a bit of dating manual heading the chapters is funny, but definitely sound as if the advice was ripped from the pages of Cosmopolitan, with some florid “geek references.” It’s cute but the tone really made me wonder about the intended target audience, even if the advice is good and pertinent to the contents of the chapter. The geek references persist in the software manual style table of contents and chapter headings. The joke sustains fairly well. The "cool guy" wandering into geek territory and coming off as the inept one was a comic, if slightly painful, turnaround of the more usual cool/not cool situations. That first book club meeting, oh ow!

Ash remains the POV character through the entire novel, which is unusual in something of this length, and it’s he who is changed most. Not because Fee is trying to change him, but because he recognizes the worth of Fee’s methods, including the go-slow-don’t-rush-into-sex-or-anything else important way Fee allows himself to engage with Ash. Any pushing from Ash makes Fee withdraw, but he will come closer if allowed to choose his pace.

As an apprentice tattoo artist, Ash has some vague plans for the future, but he’s drifting along, saying he wants something but not really working at it. It isn’t until Fee demonstrates what his own efforts have brought him and gets involved in small ways with Ash’s dreams, such as by configuring a computer for him, that Ash stops dreaming and starts making progress toward his goal.

In some ways I liked the leisurely approach the two men take, because Ash has the chance to rediscover that sex can be more important than the random assisted orgasm, but there were a few places I wanted to tap my toe and suggest they move a little faster. Now and then the slow unrolling was a little too slow. At least one side plot concerning Ty, Ash’s prospective tattoo parlor partner, seemed to wander off into nothingness after eating enough page time to seem important.

The story is as much about Ash’s maturing as it is about the relationship, and if he didn’t grow up, he would not have become a worthy partner for a man who actually has his act together aside from a bit of social ineptitude. Fee isn’t that big a geek—imagine him on The Big Bang Theory for one scene to see exactly how much being computer savvy isn’t geekhood personified. But he is the polar opposite of a frivolous party boy, and eventually, so is Ash.

We don’t see Fee’s POV in this story and he’s not terribly communicative, so Ash is left to flounder sometimes and Fee comes off as a little cold. Fee is Hispanic, but his ethnicity is an under-under-under current aside from some delectable food, and may show most strongly in a scene that is not actually on page. His level of “doesn’t get it” on relationships exceeds the believable in one or two places, but it’s very clear that he’s a worthwhile person to be involved with.

The writing is smooth and contains some excellent lines and observations on the human condition, although Ash utters them thinking of the smaller canvas of his life. It’s in keeping with the mostly light tone of the book. I enjoyed the story, even if I wished for a faster pace now and again.

4.25 marbles

Fairytales Slashed: Volume 3 (anthology)

Fairytales Slashed: Volume 3
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Genre: GLBT, Fantasy
Length: Word count: 143,000
Authors: Megan Derr, Mara Ismine, A.R. Jarvis, and Remington Ward.

In this third compilation of fairytales, see what happens when people and places are more than they seem...

Rasnake tells the tale of a man returning home after years away, only to find his home in shambles, his Princess missing, and his brother a stranger. It will take the help of his sworn brother, a battle bonded elf, to regain his blood brother and restore the fractured kingdom... Pretty tells the tale of a young man faced with a marriage he cannot bear to go through with, who runs away from home and finds himself stranded in a forest... He Shall Go to the Ball is the tale of a young man whose best chance at escaping his despicable stepfather is by making the most of the fact he teased relentlessly for his feminine beauty... Greenwood tells the story of a man who lost everything defending the man he loved, and who now spends his days as a mysterious figured in a dark hood, leading a band of thieves... and Moth to the Flame is the tale of a man sent on assignment to a castle where he meets and falls in love with a beautiful prince. But the prince later has no memory of their night together, and the young man determines to deduce the mystery and gain back his prince at any cost.

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Rasnake by Megan Derr

Told from the POV of Tallant, the elf and the outsider, we see a kingdom brought to its knees by the weaknesses of its ruler. Tallant’s sworn battle-mate, Milton, is returning home after an absence of years, to find that his younger brother Cecil is doing his best to hold the place together. By necessity, Cecil’s become a much harder man than the dreamy scholar he’d been as a boy. Beset by dragons coming through the crumbling wards, and now with mysterious kidnappings and deaths, the kingdom needs the strange skills and outside viewpoint Milton and Tallant bring home.


The source story wasn’t evident to me, which is fine: the story unfolded beautifully anyway, and the budding interest between Cecil and Tallant did not get in the way of the adventure. Certain words meant to establish setting were more an annoyance than world-building after the second repetition, and certain aspects of the physical setting didn’t make sense.

Pretty by Mara Ismine

While the story was a sweet and cute remix of Beauty and the Beast, and Sri’s problem a very real one, his attraction to Vin seems more of an escape from his problem than real love. Early in the story, Vin doesn’t come across with enough complexity to be a lover as much as a dearly beloved pet, and not just because of his speech difficulties. I wasn’t convinced that Sri really cared for Vin enough to effect the transformation, although what happened afterward certainly made me laugh. Watching Sri (Beast-Vin’s truncation of an umpteen-syllable elf name) twist in the wind once he discovers the change is funny, but jarring, given the attitudes he displayed earlier.

He Shall Go to the Ball by Mara Ismine

The original material leaps out here, but with the charming twist of cross-dressing and a helpful accomplice in Cyn’s sister, who adds another layer of romance in another direction. While we can guess at how they’re going to resolve issues, the story ends very abruptly. It really is a very large jump for the prince to go from kissing someone the prince believes is a girl at the ball, with every evidence of enjoyment, to discovering he’s kissing another man, which is better than fine, without boggling at the deception. This story feels unfinished in several directions.

Greenwood by Remington Ward

This story mixes the source material, magic, a quest, and an old love together with some imagination, but the tone of the story gets very much in the way of the adventure/fairy tale feel. There’s a lot of modern slang, which is very jarring, and a preachy tone in places that really detracts from the pleasure of the read, which is already suffering from repetition. Mix in some zombies, and we have a story that’s trying to ride a lot of trends. Had I not been reading for review, this would have been a DNF.

Moth to the Flame by A.R.Jarvis

This charming mixture of royalty and ninjas was my favorite of the collection. The matrimonial prospects of the heir to the throne are at stake, which plays havoc with the budding romance between the younger prince and the apprentice ninja he somehow captured on many levels. A little bit of magic to go with the famed ninja skills helps Moth uncover the skullduggery that has affected his lover Prince Aodh, and that threatens to take over the kingdom. There’s good balance between the external threats and the romance, and that all the sex scenes were fade to black was perfect for the story. Told with light touches of humor and the addition of some wonderful master ninjas as secondary characters, this story inspires me to find more of this new-to-me author’s work.

***

As with any anthology, some stories will be stronger than others, and what doesn’t charm me may be exactly what another reader is looking for. Unfortunately, the blurb and all stories except Moth to the Flame are plagued with enough proofing errors to intrude into the reading experience, and have content issues that are enough to bounce me out of the story. I’d be delighted to have Ms. Jarvis’ story as a standalone, but the rest could benefit from more authorial and editorial love. 3 marbles

Title: Zombie Wonderland
Author: Piper Vaughn
Cover Artist: Aisha Akeju
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Genre: paranormal
Length: 34 pages

Nothing says Christmas like droves of the undead…

All Emery wants for Christmas is someone to share it with. It looks like he might finally be getting his wish in Ross, the sexy customer he’s been crushing on for months. But neither of them counted on the zombies, or on being caught in the worst blizzard in half a century. Even with a plan for contending with the zombie hordes, surviving will take a miracle.

It’s not exactly how Emery dreamed of spending Christmas with Ross, but he can’t think of a better way to spend a zombie apocalypse.

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Emery’s just hanging around the empty diner on Christmas Eve, waiting for the moment he can lock up and go home. The holidays aren’t terribly cheery for him: he’s alone, and even the handsome customer hasn’t shown up. Ross has been in every day for three months to write, fortified with pie and coffee. When Christmas rolls around, they’ve barely gotten to the “what’s your name?” stage.


Everything happens very fast. Ross turns up, pursued by the very quick-shambling undead. Emery’s role seems to be in slow motion: while Ross has already figured out that something is dramatically wrong and he’s got to move if he wants to survive it, Emery’s stuck in “wait, what?” even after he watches a zombie nearly kill Ross on the diner floor.

The contrast between fast-reacting Ross and disbelieving Emery is pretty stark. Ross does what he must to win through to safety; Emery tries to process what he’s seeing and experiencing, then getting bogged down in asthma attacks and nausea. For two guys who barely know each other, all the danger has to fast-forward the relationship, which they’ll have plenty of time to explore if they can just reach the cabin out in the country.

No one knows how or why the zombies have appeared; the focus is on the two men who are trying to escape the hordes of flesh-eating undead. The zombies are pretty danged lively, too: they run, beat on windshields, snarl with rage and eat whoever they can catch. The horror of them is strong, because not only are they relentless and hungry; they are fast.

Emery would have had no chance at all without Ross, who takes care of him during and after their flight from the city, and refrains from exasperation when Emery does something really dumb; he just fixes the problem. A little too good to be true, and his odd collection of skills don’t quite match the bookish exterior. There are a lot of unanswered questions about him, and no place in the story to explore them, not while they’re running, and not in the collapse afterward.

While I could see the solidification of a budding relationship in the face of danger, I just wasn’t convinced by the great vault from a waiter serving a customer without any conversation to Ross’ wish for Emery to spend Christmas with him. That they’d do it accidentally because of the zombies would make sense, but they’d never had a first date or even a real conversation, so Ross’ plans of a holiday together before the zombies came along seemed really premature. That they’d draw together in the face of danger was sweet and almost inevitable.

It may be that there is a sequel planned, because this does have the feel of being only part of the story arc. What’s here is good, just unresolved. 3.5 marbles

The Dragon's Tamer by Megan Derr

Summoned to the royal palace by the King, Alaith spends his days either handling the dragons that plague the kingdom, or holed up in his lonely tower. Unusual in appearance, manner, and his method of taming dragons rather than slaying them, his only distractions from his painfully outcast state in caring for the tamed dragon who resides with him, and admiring the handsome Lord Trey—and arguing with the infuriating Prince Rythe.


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When the POV character starts out by scolding the dragon, you know this isn't going to be just any old story.

Alaith tames dragons, he doesn't slay them, though dragons are an almighty nuisance on this world. Opinions on dragons are all over the map, really, they might be useful or they might be pests, but only the Plainsmen are really capable of working with them, so Alaith has a post at this "soft, civilized" court to deal with them. He's an oddity, between his long blond hair, piercings, and refusal to give up his Plainsman ways; and he doesn't want to become like the courtiers. Some he almost likes, and one he'd like to strangle.

Prince Rythe, the fourth son of the king, is "lewd, rude, and in need of a beating" according to Alaith, though his opinion of Lord Trey, Rythe's companion, is much higher. The story goes on to demonstrate that Alaith's instincts are better on dragons than people.

But he can learn, and what he learns is that he doesn't know, and would do better to pay attention and not jump to conclusions.

The story is short and hard to review without spoilers, but the world building is lovely -- the author takes a few small details: dragons, magic, and courting customs, and manages to spend enough time on these few things to construct a world that lets the reader fill in the blanks on the rest. Some of the dragon details are contradictory, but a weed is any plant growing where we don't want it to, so it can make sense without being consistent, like a rose in a cornfield.

The love story is sweet and unconsummated on the page, but as with the world building, once you see where it's going, you can fill in the blanks for yourself...    4 marbles


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