Love is an Open Road #5
Back to Eden by Marc Green: It’s tagged as “mmmmm,” and I would put up with a lot of absurdity for something like that, but this was full of horrible pop-culture references and had an annoying first-person narrator, so I don’t really care how many men he might sleep with at once, I DNF.
Inkling by Alice Archer: This one…I’m not quite sure what to make of it. It was decently written, but the characters gave nearly the same emotional weight to who was the top as they did to the fact that Character A’s brother had just killed Character B’s sister. And sometimes that seemed really off, but other times it seemed to work okay. So it was just weird.
Dreams Do Come True by Aimee Brissay: A business man believes his younger lover is slipping away from him, and tries to make it right. Short, or else I probably wouldn’t have reached the end.
Help! My Lover’s an Alien by Carol Pedroso: A clever sci-fi tale with a few twists. I enjoyed it, but the relationship dynamics are very stereotypical man/woman (I WILL PROTECT YOU/teehee, I love that you do!), and doesn’t try hard enough to get beyond that, even though both the MCs are strong fighters who can take care of themselves. It’s still fun and amusing, so unless you’re making a silent protest of uninspired gender roles in gay fic, you should check it out.
The Grand Palace by S. Allen: A businessman who hates his job, and a waiter who likes his meet, turn out to be old flames, and then rekindle that. I’ll be honest and say that I barely remember reading this, even though it was just last week. I vaguely recall enjoying it, so I guess I have to say that it’s “good, but forgettable.”
Char by M. Caspian: This is a fall of innocence story, which is not my favorite type. It was really dark and violent, and awful. But…well written. I read the whole thing, and was on the edge of my seat for much of it, but it was really dark and violent and awful.
Catalina Blues by Marlo York: A sweet and twisty WWII tale with some great UST. A nice heartwarming historical piece.
In Darkness Burning by Bailey Queen: A fantastic fantasy piece with many classical elements, a slow-building but important-to-the-plot romance, and a wonderfully unpredictable plot. Oh, AND it was dark and violent and evil without using rape, which is nearly unheard of, you know?
Metamorphic Heart by Alexis Woods and KC Faelan: If you removed all the sex, the lust, the kisses, the flirting, and the general desiring, the story would be at least 50% shorter. It started out as some hot, smexy UST, and then…just continued like that forever. Even after they …uh…resolved the ST, it was still just “LET ME JUMP YOUR BONES…oh, and mumbleresearchmumble.” It did get better towards the end, where the plot became clear and needed to be resolved and dealt with, but even that felt a bit grudging. So it was okay, if you like lots of smut, and really obvious plot-twists.
