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It's All Geek to Me by JL Merrow

Title: It’s All Geek to Me
Author: JL Merrow
Purchase at Riptide
Purchase at All Romance eBooks
Cover Artist: LC Chase
Genre: contemporary, humor
Length: 57 pages
Formats: epub, mobi, pdf,

Jez is on a mission of mercy: to replace a tragically deceased comic book for his injured best mate, Tel. Venturing into the Hidden Asteroid bookstore in London—the temple of geekdom itself—Jez is bowled over by the guy behind the counter.

Rhys is the poster boy for hot geeks: tall, gorgeous, and totally cool. Jez is desperate to impress him, so he bluffs his way through comic book jargon . . . and then dashes back to the hospital to beg Tel to teach him how to speak Geek.

Tel’s happy to oblige, and Jez is over the moon when Rhys asks him out. He’s even more thrilled when they discover a shared love of rugby, something he won’t have to fake for Rhys. The question is, how long can Jez keep up the deception, and what will happen when Rhys realizes he’s going out with a Fake Geek Guy?

Review:

JL Merrow’s been accused of humor, and I’m happy to give her that particular shaky finger again. She’s plopped us into the head of Jez, whose cheerful blithering is the soundtrack to his pursuit of the hunk he’s found selling comic books. Jez has little or no governor on his mouth; what he thinks is internal dialog comes flying out into the open air, so he’s in dread fear of the truth popping up.


In a maneuver every insecure paddler in the dating pool will recognize, Jez decides that the best way to attract this vision is to be completely enamoured of Rhys’ interests. We get to watch him, flailing away, inserting his foot in his mouth every few minutes, and also being on a collision course with every stationary bit of memorabilia in the vicinity. Jez is loveable in his anxiety, which a bad ex helped kick into high gear.

A sly bit of wordplay got in—Jez really is a geek, in a different sense of the word, being an industrial chemist searching for “noncarcinogenic ways to take nasty niffs out of carpet.” He’s critical of a comic book character’s lab practices, a plot point most of the “readers” wouldn’t have considered. The twisted pop references bring out the reader’s inner geek: who wouldn’t start thinking about Plants VS Zombies or giggle at a radioactive mongoose? The British flavor of the slang hasn’t been Americanized out, thank you thank you, though I did have to figure out what scrumpy is.

The story is light on plot, which is fine, what’s there is cute, and long on humorous angsting, which carries the story but does get a little wearing. The secondary characters, Tel, whose damaged book started the adventure, and Angharad, Rhys’ formidable sister, lighten the non-stop buzz of Jez’ thoughts. And of course, the sex is fun and hot.

This is a sweet creampuff of a story, light and sure to leave you with a smile. 4 marbles

Stories from The Real Story Safe Sex Project from Ty Nolan and Eden Winters

The Real Story Safe Sex Project, spearheaded by Brent Hartinger, is gathering up stories and blog posts promoting condom use. Many talented authors have contributed stories to this worthy project. If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, said Oscar Wilde, and Brent also knows that if you want to reach and teach, it helps a lot to entertain.

To do my small part in boosting the signal, I’m going to spotlight these stories rather than review them. Every author has a different take on this message, and everyone has something valuable to add. Please read and forward the stories, which are free, and thank you, authors, to anyone and everyone you know who needs to protect themselves, male and female alike. Because that old ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure, or a ton of battle.


Our two highlighted stories for this week:

From the 2014 BP Readers Choice Award Winning Author--
The uniquely sexy Native American Two-Spirit hero from Memoir of a Reluctant Shaman is back in a standalone tale. He's in the Big City to visit his old friend Otter as they continue to explore sexuality. Otter has discovered attending a monthly safe-sex workshop is the best place to find a date who is already interested in "love with a glove."

They'll have a chance to hear new legends—like the Dancing Deer Woman and more about Coyote than our Reluctant Shaman would ever want to know—from the workshop leader, Professor Comesflying. He's enjoying the experience—until Coyote himself walks into the workshop.

Warning: this story uses explicit language and is sexually graphic. But it also might tell you a few things you didn't know.

*************

Thank you to Ty Nolan for reminding us that the delivery has to be in terms the audience can hear. Coyote is just the one to whisper, “Just this once it won’t matter.” We can all benefit from knowing how to ignore that seductive voice.

Find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.

~*~*~*~

Two teenaged boys, an unlimited supply of condoms, and too much time on their hands. What could possibly go wrong?

******************

Eden Winters found a way to leave us rolling in the aisles while imparting an ultimately serious message. A lot of folks crab about two young guys who have no history with anyone else don’t really need condoms, but good habits have to start somewhere. Here’s a great place.

Find it at Amazon and  All Romance eBooks.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Find these and all the stories in the Safe Sex Project here. Enjoy, be happy, be safe.

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The rest of us will try not to drool on the leather. But maybe not very hard.

The Moon's Dirty Light by H.L. Holston and Eleanor Bruce

Title:The Moon's Dirty Light
Author:H.L. Holston and Eleanor Bruce
Purchase at Exstasy Books
Purchase at All Romance eBooks
Cover Artist: Carmen Waters
Genre: paranormal, shifters
Length: 114 pages, 27,700 words
Formats: epub, mobi, pdf, more

Is there ever a good time to tell the man with whom you just had mind blowing sex that you're a werewolf and, chances are, come the next full moon, he'll be sporting fur and fangs too?

Police Officer Logan Robinson isn't sure. Logan's been in lust with his partner and best friend Dylan Reed for as long as he can remember. But Logan is a werewolf and after accidentally giving his partner the mating bite during sex Dylan will become one too.

Dylan is royally pissed when he finds out because Logan conveniently forgot to mention his little affliction until after they'd spent the night humping each other's brains out. As if turning into a creature of the night wasn’t enough, Logan and he are investigating murders that look suspiciously like dog-attacks, but they're not.

Finding a killer is tricky enough. Now it will be almost impossible with their personal issues clouding the investigation. And if Dylan does turn into a four-legged freak at the next full moon, the fur will fly.

Review

I really liked the premise of the story: oopsie, you’re going to be a wolf. Played for humor, this could be funny, and I’ve seen it done well. Played seriously, it can be quite moving. The story didn’t quite fall on the side of humor, because Dylan, the bitten partner, reacted very seriously before he got into the spirit of the thing, and the police work had the promise of real police work before it fell apart.


Though this story didn’t quite hit the mark for me, others may like it better. The blend of the over-the-top werewolfisms and the dead bodies, even considering the choice of victims, took itself just seriously enough that the whole came across as heavy handed rather than parody or even happy excess.

For those who are amused, some inconsistencies become chuckleworthy, absent development is an in-joke, and getting smoochy in the middle of carnage is just that old loveable trope where Captain Kirk nails Yeoman Rand (or Spock) while the Klingons are bearing down on them.

Proofreading was sufficiently inadequate as to draw attention to itself.

The ending did actually get me to smile, and could have been played a little harder even.

Perhaps I’m not the right audience for the piece, because it reminded me of my old fandom. 3 marbles

The Forester II: Lost and Found by Blaine D. Arden

Title: The Forester II: Lost and Found
Author: Blaine D. Arden
Purchase at Storm Moon Press
Purchase at All Romance eBooks
Cover Artist: Nathie
Genre: paranormal, elves
Length: 36k words, novella
Formats: epub, mobi, pdf,

Blurb:

"The Guide mentioned puddles, but I envisioned lakes, deep treacherous lakes, and I was drowning."

One turn has passed, another Solstice is just around the corner, and having an illicit affair with not one but two lovers—smith Ianys and shunned Forester Taruif—is taking its toll on Truth Seeker Kelnaht.

If it isn't sneaking around to find some quality time with his lovers, it's heavy rainfall hiding traces of a missing stripling, or waiting for the elders to decide whether or not to set Taruif free.

And if that's not enough, Kelnaht fears that in gaining one lover, he might be losing another, as Ianys seems to be pulling away from them, and it looks like someone is, once again, trying to frame Taruif.


Review:

Well, after that blurb there’s just not a whole hell of a lot I can do to spoil it.

Lost and Found is the follow-up story to The Forester, reviewed here. This second stands alone reasonably well, since all pertinent relationships are explained within the text. That means a certain amount of repeating from the first book, but it’s kept brief and to the point. Some aspects are explained more fully, and I’m afraid those explanations cost at least one character some sympathy points.


A year after the events of the first story, Truth Seeker Kelnacht, our first person POV character and the only voice we hear, is seeking a youngster who’s lost in the forest. This quest took roughly half the book, but would have been wrapped much faster had Kelnacht stayed on task or used the capabilities outlined in the first book. His endless returns home to have sex and check with someone or other, in that order of importance, plus a negative retcon of the elves’ abilities, stretched the search out longer than I could maintain interest.

Taruif is a problematic partner because of his past: he’s been outcast from society for a crime that seemed tragically romantic in the first story. Here he explains more fully, and if I can find a way to word my reaction more gracefully than WTF I will edit it in. Sometimes the right word to use is No and to say anything else is either evil or stupid. The first time around it came across as an act of omission, here as an act of volition, and I actually yelled at my Kindle.

The interplay beween Ianys, Taruif, and Kelnacht is the best part of the story, but the world itself has been retconned to accept gay relationships and triads, so part of the sense of forbiddenness has disappeared. Not that it’s bad for elven society, only for story continuity.

The story arc is such that it remains for Ianys to reconcile his honor and his future with his past, so I anticipate a third section to wrap that up. Whether it will use the world building of book 1 or book 2, or some further changed society remains to be seen. Why the complete story arc wasn’t done in one book, given the lengths of the sections and the possibility for more consistent society building if it was all together is a mystery.

The first story by itself was fine, this one taken alone is okay, but the author broke her own rules. 2.5 marbles

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