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I really loved this book... the characters are fleshed out wonderfully, Astrid is especially memorable. DiStephan was without a doubt my favorite character, from the first moment he appeared on the page he was so vibrant and full of life! I loved how the author worked the dragons into the plot as well as the distinction used between them and the lizards. The one very tiny complaint that I have is that once glaringly and one other time minimally, the author made a jarring jump from one chapter to the next which threw me for a loop till I figured out what had happened. Over all this was a incredibly enjoyable read and I plan to continue on to book 2 the Iron Maiden in the series.

The theme of this issue based on the 4 stories is post-apocalyptic dystopian.

PENITENTS by Rich Larson 4.5 stars

This cautionary tale about abusing and destroying one's planet gave me goosebumps. Sadly, except for the tiniest thread of hope it is too late for the inhabitants of the destroyed world in the story. The author painted a detailed picture of the planet and it's remaining people which I could easily visualize and almost feel the desolation. Really liked it even though reading it was quite disquieting!

RED DREAMS by R.Z. Held 4 stars

This story was pretty awesome! Loved the character development as well as the unique take on the whole supposed "blood-craving" thing. Also the relationship between Tarn and Sol was incredible. Lastly love the ending with this quote, "She'd take it, without accounting, and consider lucky to be one of her personal words."

THE LAST HUMAN CHILD by Milo James Fowler 4.5 stars

OK... this one got to me big time... lots of tears at the end. it is definitely the one with the most hopeful end of the 3 I have read thus far. Also the characters really got to me, they were so well-crafted that they quickly felt very real. So much evil had been perpetuated by so many... yet there were still a few who resisted labeling whole groups as good or evil and looked realistically at each individual for who they were and not what group they belonged to.

SUCH WERE THE FACES OF THE LIVING CREATURES by Josh Pearce 4 stars

This story is fascinating, bizarre, creepy and disturbing for me on a lot of levels. To those I can add a bit confusing as well. The writing is exquisite and something I had to finish despite all the previous. Still trying to wrap my head around it.

A sweet romantic short love story involving cupid and a baby!

A sweet valentine's short about a couple reuniting!

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4
A very hot and sexy intro to the Something About Him series... Nicely well-developed for such a short piece!

Overall rating 4.5 rounded up to 5 Stars

The Magician and the Mortician 5 Stars
A.E. Wasp is one of my favorite authors and in this story she once again hits a grand slam!

The Professional Gamer and the Paranormal Photographer by Allison Hendricks 4.5 Stars
Coincidentally the book I just finished before this one was my first Allison Hendricks read. I really loved that one and feel the same way about this short story. Have to admit at the beginning I was kinda wondering how this pairing would work... but it did and very well!

The Assassin and the Dog Walker by Charlie Cochet 4.75 Stars
Prior to this story the only ones by Ms. Cochet that I had read were her North Pole City Tales, which I loved to death. This story is very different theme wise however it still has the amazing heart and incredible story-telling the other had. She had me by my heart and balls throughout this short story and the payoff at the end was awesome!

The Criminal and the Sommelier by Chris Owen 3 Stars
This is my least favorite story thus far... I thought that the chemistry between the 2 MCs was great and the story itself was very interesting. The deal breaker for me was how quickly Phillipe tossed out his issues with Angelo breaking the law so easily and quickly as if just becausae Angelo was sweet and charming that made him being a thief ok.

The Superhero and the NSA Agent by Hailey Turner 5 Stars
First time read of this author... gonna read a lot more of her work! This story was awesome! The verbal banter between the 2 MCs when they meet in the Emergency Room at Harbor/UCLA was so hot it was practically a sex scene. What they got up to after going back to Shane's condo makes this story the hottest thus far in this collection!

The Tattoo Artist and the Writer by Lily Morton 5 Stars
Another new author for me and another reallly awesome story. This one definitely had it scorching moments, but it gets the 5 stars for being the sweetest, most tender and most tear-inducing story. Noah and Sage are incredible!

The Uber Driver and The Phone Sex Operator by Lucy Lennox 4.5 Stars
Lucy Lennox is one of my top 5 fav gay romance authors so I had high expectations for this story. She certainly met and exceeded them! Travis and Azrael were so awesome and so very real. The sweetness and tenderness of this story made me feel all snuggley. And the hot parts... I'll just say they worked just as well!

The Baker and The Seal by May Archer 4.5 Stars
First time reading something by this author... not the last. This was likely the shortest work in the anthology but have to give kudos to her because it was also one of the best. Good things definitely can come in small packages!

The Event Planner and the Electrician by Poppy Dennison 4 Stars
First time to read something by Ms. Dennison, this was good as far as it went but I think it really needed to be just a bit longer to truely feel like a complete story. I liked the 2 MC's a lot, especially Harvey.

The Lawyer and the Lobsterman by Ruthie Luhnow 4 Stars
Sexy and sweet, but too short. So much potential here for exploration. I loved what there was of it. I am confused a bit cuz I would have thought that all authors participating in this would have been asked for approxiamately the same length to there stories. Yet some were much longer than others.

The Florist and The Lawyer by Sloane Kennedy 5 Stars
This is one of my most favorite stories in this anthology. It is sweet, tender and tear-inducing. I loved, loved, loved it!

Setup and Aftermath by ??? 4.5 stars
Really loved these sweet and sexy bookends of the anthology, whoever wrote this did a great job!

WOW...
I am really impressed by the talent this author showed in this book. She deftly managed to weave together friendship, sexiness, tenderness and fun into a truly awesome book. She even threw in a tiny bit of angst at a most appropriate point, even though the happy ending was never in doubt. In Jason and Derek she created a couple who seemed to fit almost at page one and I felt like I had known them forever. The football side of things were done very well... she is either a fan or knows somone who is. She is a writer to watch in the future cuz I think she will be going places, her first time gay sex scene halfway through this book was one of the sexiest, most tender and well-written that I have ever read! Overall this was an immensely satisfying and thoroughly enjoyable read. I definitely will be working my way through the rest of this series and her other books in the near future.

This book is just perfection. The two MCs are just beautifully crafted, feel very real and you can't help rooting for them from page one. Each have their own faults and imperfections, but that just makes them that much move lovable. I love the small town setting of the book, the author truly makes it come alive and populates it with an amazing cast of supporting characters. I give the author major kudos for resisting the urge to create angst for angst sake which happens more than I like in many friends to lovers stories. Instead he gave us an incredible love story with a completely believable couple. This has to be one of the very best I have read!!! Now I just need to read through the rest of this great authors works!

This is the 2nd of 4 short (<30 pgs) mm stories (not sure what the read order should be)... what they make lack in the romance department they more than make up for with the scorching hot sex and the tenderness show to one another. Well worth the read!

OK gonna start this review by just using my status updates I posted while reading this book as I think that will best convey my feelings on it as I went along.
I usually like "Friends to Lovers" stories... but even though I love Devin and Russ it is just taking way too long for these knuckleheads to tell each other what they are feeling. I mean they are beyond clueless... I am all for anticipation and all but I am 50% done and no romance yet. Tempts me to just skim a few chapters till the romance starts. But I'll be good and wait for it! Russ is acting like he is 18 not in his thirties... or actually more like a child who rather than dealing with the situation hides under the bed. I am not buying that he would have reacted this way, even with his insecurities...
I just don't get the fact that this is supposed to be romance, cuz instead of Devin and Russ dating... Russ runs away. These are adults and supposedly friends, yet they apparently can't even communicate with one another. Too much unnecessary angst and stupidity... Might just DNF this one, the author has 15% to get their characters' head out of their asses or I'm done! 75% - Devin and Russ are still miserable and NOT together... Yah know if the couple in the book are only actually together and happy for like less than 25% of a book that is NOT romantic... it's more like torture!
So now to wrap it up, I absolutely loves the first 25% and the last 25% of this book... the middle 50% while well written was so full of angst and stupidity by the MCs that it was pure, unadulturated torture. If I could have reached into my Kindle slapped those two I would have. I know the author did her best to try and make it believable, but if your in your 30s and still acting like an immature teenager you need serious help or you should not be dating anyone! So what it all boils down to is my giving this book 3 stars, cuz 50% of it was awesome... so I rounded up a 2.5 to 3.

I like the fact that though the story is ultra short the author nonetheless manages to create two characters with just enough development to flesh them out and the rest is all hot mm sex! My only wish is that the author would write something a bit longer because these shorts tease me into wanting more!

I really loved these short stories all taking place at the Lace Masquerade. Each one while being over the top sizzling hot definitely had its own feel and story. Like I said in the previous review I would love it if the author did a bit more exploring in this series... and even perhaps a full-length novel. I think there are still lots of stories that could be told!

If your looking for a fun, scorching hot read with a tiny bit of romance thrown in then this short story is just what the doctor ordered. Not sure if it is the mystery of the masquerade or the way the sex is written... but this story was over the top hot. Looking forward to reading the remaining three stories ASAP!!

These two short stories are the first pieces I have read written by this author, and if the full series is even half as good as this, then I am gonna devour it! Each of these stories was vibrant and full of life and detail, they both painted beautiful images in my head and left me wanting more! Astrid is intriguing and complex. And the idea that a person can physically change their appearance or have it changed by someone else, depending on the strength of one's belief is a fascinating one. I am looking forward to reading much much more of this series!!!

The Starship and the Temple Cat by Yoon Ha Lee - 5 Stars

This magical and touching short story was a wonderful read and also and interesting take on just what it might mean to be dead and a cat!

El is a Spaceship Melody by Maurice Broaddus - 5 Stars

This story is thought-provoking, interesting and manage to get me teared up over something I would not have thought possible prior to reading it. The development of the characters was much more complex than I would have thought possible for such a short piece. I really loved it and the possibilities it suggests!

Where the Anchor Lies by Benjamin C. Kinney - 5 Stars

Wow... the concept of this story was unique, yet felt somehow familiar at the same time. Parts of it had a resonance that felt similar to some things that have been happening in our own country this last year. It really made me think.

I will start out by saying that when I started this book I was a bit intimidated by it's size at over 500 pages it is bigger than your average gay romance novel. I should have known that there was nothing to worry about, Spencer Spears has never disappointed me yet and she certainly did not do so with this awesome story. Once I started reading the story and characters hooked me and never let me go till the end. OK.. for starters, I would love to find a man out there like Gray, he is just so incredible and so exactly what Tyler needs in every way. I love the fact that even though Tyler could easily have become a whining, annoying, one-dimensional paper doll of a person, due to Ms. Spears writing for me he never came close to being just that. This story was never too angsty and though the relationship took most of the book to get them to the mutual "I Love Yous", it felt like the timing was perfect and necessary to be true to the two MCs. Since I had ended up reading "Oliver Ever After" before this one, I obviously knew about Gray & Tyler being together since they were in quite a bit of Luke's story. It was certainly nice seeing how they got to that point. Over all another awesome read that sucked me in and by the end made me cry lots of happy tears!