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Something About Him #5.5
With this Ring: a Winter Wedding
A short story of a last minute winter wedding for Ryker and Gavin as a storm rolls in.
41 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2022
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
A.D. Ellis
92 books741 followersEscape into addictive, sexy, emotional queer M/M romance.
A.D. Ellis is an Indiana girl, born and raised. She spends much of her time in central Indiana as an instructional coach/teacher in the inner city of Indianapolis, being a mom to two amazing teens, and wondering how she and her husband of over two decades haven't driven each other insane yet. A lot of her time is also devoted to phone call avoidance and her hatred of cooking.
She loves chocolate, hot tea, sweet wine with friends, pizza, and naps along with reading and writing romance. These loves don’t leave much time for housework. Who would pick cleaning the house over a nap or a good book? She uses any extra time to increase her fluency in sarcasm.
A.D. uses she/they pronouns.
Sign up at http://www.subscribepage.com/ADEllisN... for a FREE male/male romance book.
A.D. Ellis does not use generative AI to create books or covers.
A.D. Ellis is an Indiana girl, born and raised. She spends much of her time in central Indiana as an instructional coach/teacher in the inner city of Indianapolis, being a mom to two amazing teens, and wondering how she and her husband of over two decades haven't driven each other insane yet. A lot of her time is also devoted to phone call avoidance and her hatred of cooking.
She loves chocolate, hot tea, sweet wine with friends, pizza, and naps along with reading and writing romance. These loves don’t leave much time for housework. Who would pick cleaning the house over a nap or a good book? She uses any extra time to increase her fluency in sarcasm.
A.D. uses she/they pronouns.
Sign up at http://www.subscribepage.com/ADEllisN... for a FREE male/male romance book.
A.D. Ellis does not use generative AI to create books or covers.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 17, 2023
SO MANY BOGUS THINGS MADE THIS HARD TO LIKE
Okay, I posted a review of this before I shelved it in "back-burnered" for a while because I could not bring myself to keep reading, let alone finish this. However, I do have a (somewhat masochistic) self-imposed policy that the more I dislike something, the more I need to understand why; so I do my very best to try and finish books (or shows, movies, etc.) I can't stand, simply because I don't like not being well-acquainted with stuff that trigger or annoy me; I don't like hating anything for no good reason.
I'll admit, short as this was, it was still very hard to get through. I was sorely tempted to quit so many times near the end, yes, it was that torturous. But now that I have finished it, I can safely say that my reasons for disliking it are not unfounded. Said reasons are as follows:
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
1. The biggest problem I have with this is Ryker. He has a name that somehow sounds more like a dog's (sorry to all the "Ryker"s out there, just saying; though never in my life have I ever met nor encountered any human or dog with this name), and even worse than his cringey name is his narrative voice. It is oozing FEMALE vibes. His thoughts, his speech, even down to his body language, it is purely "GIRL". No matter what miraculous mental gymnastics I summon to strive to maintain picturing him as a guy (and believe me, I did try with everything I've got), everytime he speaks, thinks, and does something—every tiny mannerism (e.g. covering his mouth while gasping. Ugh. *FACEPALM*), my brain just reverts right back to: Yup, that's a girly-girl girl! No doubt about it, baby! The 1st person POV did not help attenuate this at all. Clearly, he was written from a female's perspective through and through. So this doesn't even read as an MM at all, but an MF. Given that, I stand by my earlier impassioned rant: I feel tricked into something I did not sign up for. This is a bait-and-switch book that masquerades as MM when it's really MF, and yes, I don't appreciate the deception, whether intentional or not, it's still insulting to one's intelligence. The irony? I think I actually could have liked this book, IF ONLY it delivered what it promised: MM. But navigating the entire story from a very girly character's shoes changes EVERYTHING. There's a reason I pick MM romance. And it certainly is not because I want to get duped into a poorly disguised MF.
2. The second biggest problem with this is the plot itself. Let's see: It's framed as something extremely romantic here that Ryker realises that he's actually okay with marrying his boyfriend whom he is supposedly madly in love with only after watching a news report that really has nothing to do with love (or fate) but more to do with poor planning and not taking the bad weather into consideration. I don't know how anyone on the other end of that in their right mind could possibly find that flattering. His boyfriend has been on the fence about marrying him for no apparent reason, and instead of finally coming to terms with the idea because he loves him, no, what really does it is a news report about a dumb couple and bad weather? This is romantic? HOW?? I dunno about Gavin, but if I were him, I’m not sure I’d feel great years later reminiscing about how my married status only came about not because of undying devotion and unconditional love, but because of some bogus (plot device) news report about inclement weather. It's kind of a red flag, actually, haha. Because, really??
3. Another glaring issue with this story (perhaps the biggest, most forced contrivance of all) is that very news report. It's about a couple whose wedding gets waylaid due to the snow storm. (God knows why anyone would even bother reporting about some random couple caught in their own stupidity in the first place.) The plain and simple takeaway from it is that "weddings (or any important event for that matter) should not be scheduled in bad weather". PERIOD. Yet, for some bizarre, totally off-tangent reason, every single person in the story decides that the only message to be gleaned from that is "couples who wait to get married will be punished by bad weather—aka 'fate'—and never get to marry again ever because—heaven forbid!—should anyone ever decide to ignore or decline a marriage proposal (and fight 'fate'), it will forever be "too late" and you're doomed to a lifetime of regret. …Huh? ……Like, double 'huh'?? Let's process that for a moment. How much more railroaded can this whole scene get? It's like we're being forced to see that the very obvious answer all along to 2 + 2 is not 4, hell no! but actually really 100,000,000, disbelieving ninnies! That, folks, is the foundation of this book’s entire premise and that’s why everything about this already makes so little sense from the start. Unless of course, you decide to just go with it because sure, why not. I'll buy whatever is being sold. Thinking is overrated anyways. (I'm not sure if this is intended as some kind of pun or satirical punchline to some reference I am completely missing, since I just found out later on that this is the second instalment of a first book; but either way, as someone who's never read the other part of their story, the whole opening scene was just utterly weird and forced.)
4. From there, it only gets weirder. As I mentioned, the real moral lesson of that news report is to be wise about planning your wedding and making sure not to schedule it in the middle of a bloody snow storm, and of course, Ryker (hypnotised by the plot device) then proceeds to do exactly just that which he was supposed NOT to do, and (because there would be no "plot" otherwise) imitates the dumb couple's mistake and forces a last-minute wedding in the middle of a bloody snow storm, because OMG it's a sign from fate that he can't possibly ignore and it's so à la Romeo-and-Juliet romantic to endanger everyone near and dear to you by making them brave terrible weather and disrupt their daily lives without consideration for the sake of your irrational thought processes, so… yeah, I'm not really following any of this strangeness. Unless maybe, yeah, this is a satire of sorts about HOW NOT TO GET MARRIED after all.
5. The biggest mockery of all is how they keep saying that they don't need to get married to affirm their love for each other, but then the entire book proceeds to pretty much glorify the idea of marriage with the primary message it is screaming in our faces being: Sure, love is love and marriage isn't necessary for couples who truly love each other, but hey, "married love" is STILL more VALID than "unmarried love" will ever be, it will always be BETTER and more "ROMANTIC" because well, socially-imposed tradition is EVERYTHING. (Besides, you'll be making things much much easier for yourselves if you JUST CONFORM!) Ahh, yes. How can I not love this story with its hypocritical messages and all its mind-controlled characters, right?
6. Lastly…… "Rance"? REALLY?? Is it short for "Rancid"? (Again, I am truly sorry—I really am—to anyone out there who may be named "Rance", though I have never-ever met nor even ever-ever encountered such a name in my entire not-short life, but… SIGH.)
To be honest, I feel bad for the characters because they seem like they would have been really cool and lovable if only they didn't feel like puppets on strings the entire time…
Aaaand there you have it. Clearly, these are more-or-less my subjective opinions on the story, and if you disagree and this kind of thing is your jam, then great. You are definitely the target audience, not me.
Okay, I posted a review of this before I shelved it in "back-burnered" for a while because I could not bring myself to keep reading, let alone finish this. However, I do have a (somewhat masochistic) self-imposed policy that the more I dislike something, the more I need to understand why; so I do my very best to try and finish books (or shows, movies, etc.) I can't stand, simply because I don't like not being well-acquainted with stuff that trigger or annoy me; I don't like hating anything for no good reason.
I'll admit, short as this was, it was still very hard to get through. I was sorely tempted to quit so many times near the end, yes, it was that torturous. But now that I have finished it, I can safely say that my reasons for disliking it are not unfounded. Said reasons are as follows:
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
1. The biggest problem I have with this is Ryker. He has a name that somehow sounds more like a dog's (sorry to all the "Ryker"s out there, just saying; though never in my life have I ever met nor encountered any human or dog with this name), and even worse than his cringey name is his narrative voice. It is oozing FEMALE vibes. His thoughts, his speech, even down to his body language, it is purely "GIRL". No matter what miraculous mental gymnastics I summon to strive to maintain picturing him as a guy (and believe me, I did try with everything I've got), everytime he speaks, thinks, and does something—every tiny mannerism (e.g. covering his mouth while gasping. Ugh. *FACEPALM*), my brain just reverts right back to: Yup, that's a girly-girl girl! No doubt about it, baby! The 1st person POV did not help attenuate this at all. Clearly, he was written from a female's perspective through and through. So this doesn't even read as an MM at all, but an MF. Given that, I stand by my earlier impassioned rant: I feel tricked into something I did not sign up for. This is a bait-and-switch book that masquerades as MM when it's really MF, and yes, I don't appreciate the deception, whether intentional or not, it's still insulting to one's intelligence. The irony? I think I actually could have liked this book, IF ONLY it delivered what it promised: MM. But navigating the entire story from a very girly character's shoes changes EVERYTHING. There's a reason I pick MM romance. And it certainly is not because I want to get duped into a poorly disguised MF.
2. The second biggest problem with this is the plot itself. Let's see: It's framed as something extremely romantic here that Ryker realises that he's actually okay with marrying his boyfriend whom he is supposedly madly in love with only after watching a news report that really has nothing to do with love (or fate) but more to do with poor planning and not taking the bad weather into consideration. I don't know how anyone on the other end of that in their right mind could possibly find that flattering. His boyfriend has been on the fence about marrying him for no apparent reason, and instead of finally coming to terms with the idea because he loves him, no, what really does it is a news report about a dumb couple and bad weather? This is romantic? HOW?? I dunno about Gavin, but if I were him, I’m not sure I’d feel great years later reminiscing about how my married status only came about not because of undying devotion and unconditional love, but because of some bogus (plot device) news report about inclement weather. It's kind of a red flag, actually, haha. Because, really??
3. Another glaring issue with this story (perhaps the biggest, most forced contrivance of all) is that very news report. It's about a couple whose wedding gets waylaid due to the snow storm. (God knows why anyone would even bother reporting about some random couple caught in their own stupidity in the first place.) The plain and simple takeaway from it is that "weddings (or any important event for that matter) should not be scheduled in bad weather". PERIOD. Yet, for some bizarre, totally off-tangent reason, every single person in the story decides that the only message to be gleaned from that is "couples who wait to get married will be punished by bad weather—aka 'fate'—and never get to marry again ever because—heaven forbid!—should anyone ever decide to ignore or decline a marriage proposal (and fight 'fate'), it will forever be "too late" and you're doomed to a lifetime of regret. …Huh? ……Like, double 'huh'?? Let's process that for a moment. How much more railroaded can this whole scene get? It's like we're being forced to see that the very obvious answer all along to 2 + 2 is not 4, hell no! but actually really 100,000,000, disbelieving ninnies! That, folks, is the foundation of this book’s entire premise and that’s why everything about this already makes so little sense from the start. Unless of course, you decide to just go with it because sure, why not. I'll buy whatever is being sold. Thinking is overrated anyways. (I'm not sure if this is intended as some kind of pun or satirical punchline to some reference I am completely missing, since I just found out later on that this is the second instalment of a first book; but either way, as someone who's never read the other part of their story, the whole opening scene was just utterly weird and forced.)
4. From there, it only gets weirder. As I mentioned, the real moral lesson of that news report is to be wise about planning your wedding and making sure not to schedule it in the middle of a bloody snow storm, and of course, Ryker (hypnotised by the plot device) then proceeds to do exactly just that which he was supposed NOT to do, and (because there would be no "plot" otherwise) imitates the dumb couple's mistake and forces a last-minute wedding in the middle of a bloody snow storm, because OMG it's a sign from fate that he can't possibly ignore and it's so à la Romeo-and-Juliet romantic to endanger everyone near and dear to you by making them brave terrible weather and disrupt their daily lives without consideration for the sake of your irrational thought processes, so… yeah, I'm not really following any of this strangeness. Unless maybe, yeah, this is a satire of sorts about HOW NOT TO GET MARRIED after all.
5. The biggest mockery of all is how they keep saying that they don't need to get married to affirm their love for each other, but then the entire book proceeds to pretty much glorify the idea of marriage with the primary message it is screaming in our faces being: Sure, love is love and marriage isn't necessary for couples who truly love each other, but hey, "married love" is STILL more VALID than "unmarried love" will ever be, it will always be BETTER and more "ROMANTIC" because well, socially-imposed tradition is EVERYTHING. (Besides, you'll be making things much much easier for yourselves if you JUST CONFORM!) Ahh, yes. How can I not love this story with its hypocritical messages and all its mind-controlled characters, right?
6. Lastly…… "Rance"? REALLY?? Is it short for "Rancid"? (Again, I am truly sorry—I really am—to anyone out there who may be named "Rance", though I have never-ever met nor even ever-ever encountered such a name in my entire not-short life, but… SIGH.)
To be honest, I feel bad for the characters because they seem like they would have been really cool and lovable if only they didn't feel like puppets on strings the entire time…
Aaaand there you have it. Clearly, these are more-or-less my subjective opinions on the story, and if you disagree and this kind of thing is your jam, then great. You are definitely the target audience, not me.
November 4, 2023
A lovely follow up to the author 's book, Ryker and Gavin. It was nice to see where the guys are at, still madly in love. The wedding organised by Gavin for Ryker made for an entertaining read, the whole event demonstrating how truly he loves and adores his soon to be husband. It's a joyous affair, only improved by Asher, Ryker 's best friend, officiating. I adored the epilogue, it was great to see that everyone lives happily ever after. 3.5 stars.
July 7, 2024
This novella fits between books five and six of this series but was not included in the box set. It details the wedding of the two main characters from the fifth volume. Planning a wedding in the winter in the midwest would not be my first choice but it works.
July 10, 2024
I got this book via a free monthly funnelbook books, and I should have come here before reading it so I would have known it's a short story within a series. It is not indicated in the book.... besides that it's an easy and fun short story.
January 1, 2024
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews