Dreaming of You by Addison Albright (28 pages)
This is a continuation of the story Another Dream. Trevor was the ex who "tattled" that Larry was kissing someone else. He's feeling down following the fiasco and reassessing his life a bit when Quinn (the kisser) approaches him to discuss what happened. Trevor is totally bitchy but Quinn perseveres and sees something in Trevor that isn't so superficial. Trevor's friends treat Quinn like crap because he's not "cool" but Trevor likes how he makes him feel and figures at 36 he has to decide how he wants to live his life. He ends up spending time with Quinn and realizing that the superficial junk is just that and maybe they can have something more. A cute story about reassessing your life and people seeing you as you are, not just as the facade you put out there.
Dropping Quarters by Addison Albright (13 pages)
See the review at Wave's. It says it all. I think Addison really does some appealing short stories. I know making it interesting in less than 15 pages is a skill.
Flipped Fables by various authors (138 pages)
These are all takes on traditional fables/fairy tales. As usual, some I really liked and some I had no clue what was really going on. LOL There were some using fables/tales I'd never heard of and still don't see the parallels but the ones I got, I really enjoyed. Some of my faves:
The Man Who Cried Werewolf by Kiernan Kelly - Dylan works for a tabloid and is the resident werewolf "expert". He gets a call from a farmer who claims his hired hand is a werewolf. He flies out and finds out the old guy is dead but is drawn to the hand and they have smoking sex in the hay loft (that stuff hurts) and the guy reveals he really is a werewolf. Dylan freaks and flies home determined to report the truth but no one will believe him because of his rep. Once he calms down he figures maybe the guy wasn't so bad and goes back to find him. My only issue was it says clearly he ran down from the hayloft naked but by the time he gets to his truck he reaches in his pocket for the keys. Umm. Skin pocket? LOL
Bad Hair Day by Clare London - My fave. It's a take on Rapunzel where the prince goes to rescue the princess. She's not there but he starts talking with her servant who after days he eventually figures out is a guy and they become good friends and the Prince admits his attraction to guys. The best part for me was the voice used. Sort of modern language set in an ancient time. A bit of sarcasm and contrasting the Prince's innocence with the servant's worldliness and seeing the prince go from clueless royal to self-aware young man who knows what he wants. On the whole a very enjoyable tale.
Shifter 2.0 by Winnie Jerome - I have mixed feelings about this. It's set in the not too distant future where shifters can live openly. Daniel doesn't hide he's a shifter and is "out and proud" and doesn't have a regular job, sleeps around, a good-time guy. He gets kicked out of his apartment and goes to stay with his brother. He finds a mouse which he determines is a pet and tracks it down to the hot guy down the hall. Alex is a vegetarian chef (Daniel is a vegetarian lion) and they hit if off even though Daniel doesn't do boyfriends. He more or less moves in and things are going well until Alex's ex shows up and attacks Daniel who is rescued by Alex. Which fable? No freaking clue. (Duh, as I read what I typed I get it, the lion/mouse fable thingy, but loosely based I think.) Anyway, I liked Daniel and Alex and their relationship even if I thought it was a bit weird that Daniel always had sex in half shifted form, but suddenly at the end, Daniel is attacked and it's obvious that the ex has some kind of supernatural power and so does Alex and the damn mouse actually talks, the end. Ummm. Hello? What the hell were Alex and his ex? What about the talking mouse? It needed another 10 pages to explain what happened and I would have loved it.
Seeds of Time 2: Bread on the Waters by G.S. Wiley (22 pages)
Following his return from the 40's Simon and Adrian get back together dealing with weekend visitation and Adrian going to London for a job. Simon still feels the pull to go back and see James though so goes and they have sex. When he comes back he tells Adrian it's no good and break up and he goes to find the woman who gave him the potion but she's gone. Meanwhile Adrian marries the mother of his child and Simon is stuck with no potion and no boyfriend. I read the first book in this series then lost interest. I had this one open to page 7 for 3 days but thought I would finish it before I post this and then had to quickly finish book 3.
Seeds of Time 3: Final Curtains by G.S. Wiley
It's been over a year since Adrian got married and there is no sign of the gypsy. Adrian comes back and he and Simon spend a night with the kid in the country and seem to be back together. Adrian has grown up and Simon is ready to start over when he gets a call that James showed up at his place with his daughter. (Seems the gypsy existed in his time too.) He's thrilled and they sleep together (the night after he slept with Adrian - tsk tsk). The next day Simon's mother (weird woman) tales James to a big store where they lose his daughter. James totally freaks and says he can't stay in modern time and Simon can't go back to the 40's. They part and even though Simon had dumped Adrian AGAIN.
At first I was peeved at Adrian for sleeping with a woman and ending up with a baby, but jeezuz, I felt sorry for him dealing with Simon's "I want you" "We need to break up" "I want you" "There's someone else". Crap man, make a freaking decision. So I thought he got way more second chances that was justified but it kept me reading even if I wasn't sure that Adrian wasn't the only one who grew up and matured during their time apart.
3 comments:
Hello Tam! Thank you for including two of my stories in your roundup. I'm glad you enjoyed them! :-)
How sick of a puppy am I? I look at the cover for dropping quarters and think to myself why are they dropping quarters down his pants? I know - I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. *sigh* The story sounds good though. :)
he ran down from the hayloft naked but by the time he gets to his truck he reaches in his pocket for the keys. Umm. Skin pocket?
Um, maybe they were in his balls? lolol that is VERY strange.
Shifter 2.0 just ended with no explanation? How frustrating.
Thanks Addision for stopping by.
Tracy: Quarters in his pants. Sheesh. LOL I actually saw a comedy skit not that long about about skin pockets, where they were taking skin off the butt and grafting it on a pockets. LOL Weird but it was the first thing that popped in my head when I realized he was naked.
It was frustrating because I wanted to know more about Alex and what he was. They did give one line about the mouse being able to talk but it didn't explain it. Oh well, the joy of anthologies with story limits I guess.
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