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Trick or Treat
The memory of this party could haunt him forever ...
Dragged along to a haunted house by his mates, Sam’s at the Halloween party from hell -- the guy he fancied has turned out to be a bigot, and Sam has just outed himself to his whole football team.
Escaping to the garden, he meets James, an enigmatic stranger with a mischievous smile, and the evening soon takes a turn for the better. The night may be chilly but the heat between Sam and James is hotter than Hades.
But James has a role to play in the evening’s ghostly entertainment, and it’s a story with a deadly ending. Unless Sam can change the script and stop history repeating itself, “till death do us part” will come sooner than he thinks.
Dragged along to a haunted house by his mates, Sam’s at the Halloween party from hell -- the guy he fancied has turned out to be a bigot, and Sam has just outed himself to his whole football team.
Escaping to the garden, he meets James, an enigmatic stranger with a mischievous smile, and the evening soon takes a turn for the better. The night may be chilly but the heat between Sam and James is hotter than Hades.
But James has a role to play in the evening’s ghostly entertainment, and it’s a story with a deadly ending. Unless Sam can change the script and stop history repeating itself, “till death do us part” will come sooner than he thinks.
22 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2014
59 people want to read
About the author
J.L. Merrow
145 books1,324 followersJL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through was a 2013 EPIC Award finalist, and her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy. Her novel Relief Valve is a finalist in the 2015 EPIC Awards.
JL Merrow is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through was a 2013 EPIC Award finalist, and her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy. Her novel Relief Valve is a finalist in the 2015 EPIC Awards.
JL Merrow is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 26, 2014
~3.5 shivery stars~
Creepy and sweet, a very nice treat
With a twist and some flare
Read if you dare.
And THAT is why I don't write poetry.
But this short story is sly, sexy, and unexpected, a Halloween treat and trick rolled into one!
Creepy and sweet, a very nice treat
With a twist and some flare
Read if you dare.
And THAT is why I don't write poetry.
But this short story is sly, sexy, and unexpected, a Halloween treat and trick rolled into one!
October 21, 2014
What a great quickie spooky read!
December 27, 2015
A Halloween tale that used the best of the horror genre tropes and yet tosses in some elements that felt fresh and exciting. Sweet AND spooky!
May 4, 2016
Ok, yes, yes, I know–I missed Halloween by like two week, sue me. I didn’t see the book till it was the 31st, and I really love Merrow’s stories, so even though this one is a bit late I still wanted to read it. If it makes it any better, it was a very good story…
This story is short, but there is certainly a lot about it that I love. Sexing up ghosts, fights to the death, the inappropriate use of unsuspecting trees…it has so much going for it. And because it is J.L. Merrow writing it, you know it is going to be good and English-y.
(I may or may not have forgotten that braces can mean suspenders, and not just dental work in the UK…it made for a confusing few minutes while I tried to puzzle out the need for spectral dentists in the afterlife.)
And while I wish it was longer (something I say about almost all my favorite short stories) Merrow does a great job of telling a full story is so few pages. I didn’t leave feeling that I missed anything, even if there was so much more that I wanted to see. Plus the book has a bit of a dark, but nice, twist at the end that I liked.
Overall? Highly enjoyable even if read in the middle of November.
This book was provided free in exchange for a fair and honest review for Love Bytes. Go there to check out other reviews, author interviews, and all those awesome giveaways. Click below.
This story is short, but there is certainly a lot about it that I love. Sexing up ghosts, fights to the death, the inappropriate use of unsuspecting trees…it has so much going for it. And because it is J.L. Merrow writing it, you know it is going to be good and English-y.
(I may or may not have forgotten that braces can mean suspenders, and not just dental work in the UK…it made for a confusing few minutes while I tried to puzzle out the need for spectral dentists in the afterlife.)
And while I wish it was longer (something I say about almost all my favorite short stories) Merrow does a great job of telling a full story is so few pages. I didn’t leave feeling that I missed anything, even if there was so much more that I wanted to see. Plus the book has a bit of a dark, but nice, twist at the end that I liked.
Overall? Highly enjoyable even if read in the middle of November.
This book was provided free in exchange for a fair and honest review for Love Bytes. Go there to check out other reviews, author interviews, and all those awesome giveaways. Click below.
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October 20, 2014This is a re-issue of a spooky short story first published in one of Torquere’s Scared Stiff Taste Test mini-anthologies (now out of print), under the title "Through a Western Door".
It’s been fully revised and re-edited, and is around 15-20% longer than the previously published version (and, of course, it has a lovely new cover!)
It’s been fully revised and re-edited, and is around 15-20% longer than the previously published version (and, of course, it has a lovely new cover!)
Read
February 8, 2017*Kindle Unlimited
June 6, 2015
Got this as a free read. I wouldn't have read this otherwise, since it's WAY too pricy for so short a story.
It's a nice enough short story. Merrow writes really engaging stories. The short story was a bit unsatisfying because I wanted more. A delicious tidbit nonetheless.
But not worth the price. Okay as a free read or at a discount though.
It's a nice enough short story. Merrow writes really engaging stories. The short story was a bit unsatisfying because I wanted more. A delicious tidbit nonetheless.
But not worth the price. Okay as a free read or at a discount though.
March 30, 2015
Sexy and spooky Halloween short with an unexpected ending.
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November 16, 2014This book was read and reviewed by Carissa for Love Bytes Reviews.
July 18, 2016
3,5* Part of the A Flirty Dozen Anthology.
November 5, 2014
Nice short story about a haunted house. Loved the ending!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews