Sunday Shorts: Valentine's Dave

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past.

At the start of the month, editor Lee Blair published Candy Hearts: An LGBTQIA2S+ Charity Anthology, an e-book collection of 16 romance novellas featuring, as one might be able to guess from the title, LGBTQIA2S+ characters. The collection is available for only a limited time, and all proceeds go to the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality – in my opinion a pair of organizations that absolutely deserve our support. So I’m urging anyone who loves romance to pick the anthology up while it’s available – and even if you don’t love romance, pick it up anyway! Then gift it to someone you know who does love the romance genre while supporting an excellent cause.

Upon opening my copy, I did something I almost never do with anthologies. Instead of reading the stories in order (which I prefer to do because I know how much effort anthology editors put into determining story order), I jumped straight to ‘Nathan Burgoine’s novella – because it is set in the Little Village, and thus connects to the novellas in Burgoine’s “BitterSweets Club” series, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. (A neat little bit of timing/serendipity/whatever you want to call it, that my first “Sunday Shorts” post of the year directly connects to my first “Series Saturday” post.)

Valentine’s Dave by ‘Nathan Burgoine

Dave has had a pretty disastrous streak of Valentine’s Day dates – from the married man to the barfer to the “coffee incident” – but he’s hopeful that this year he can break the streak through a “Secret Admirer” messaging program administered by the Village Business Council and with a little help from his roommate/best friend Asher. Asher is a recent cancer survivor, coming out the other side of chemo, and seems content to help his bestie find romance rather than seek it out himself. Dave has a crush on Victor, a “silver fox” of a veterinarian. Problem is: Dave is not at his most eloquent when it comes to sending secret messages to a cute guy. Luckily, Asher has a way with words. Of course, complications ensue on the path to happily ever after.

Burgoine is not the first author to run a gay spin on Cyrano de Bergerac, to be sure (although I can honestly say I’ve never read another such book, I’m sure they must be out there). But in standard Burgoine fashion, he tweaks the original story by merging it with another standard romance trope (which, if I made it explicit here, would spoil the ending, and I am loath to do that). This combination of tropes makes the story a little twistier, adding just enough inter-character angst to keep the story interesting without causing the reader undue anxiety.

I found Dave’s verbal and physical awkwardness endearing, and his obliviousness a bit too relatable (I tend to be, shall we say, a bit blind when it comes to whether other men are interested in me). Asher’s post-chemotherapy struggles with energy, and his declaring “Are you okay” a forbidden question, was also relatable as a colon cancer survivor myself. I remember the on-set of sudden, unexpected (even though I should have expected it) fatigue in the midst of an afternoon out with friends very well, and I think Burgoine captured it perfectly. I also enjoyed the view of Dave and Asher’s friend group; I think it’s always important to recognize that love doesn’t happen in a vacuum, that outside forces, including caring support from found family, have an effect (thankfully, in this case, positive) on the way romantic relationships form.

As a regular reader of Burgoine’s work, I was overjoyed to see references to members of the BitterSweets Club, and I loved how this novella gives us a tour of the various queer-friendly (and queer-owned) businesses in the Village. If you’ve never read anything by ‘Nathan Burgoine, this novella is a great introduction to the world his characters inhabit – but not in a way that detracts or distracts at all from the main story, which is a wonderful romance.

I’m hoping to post about other novellas in Candy Hearts between now and Valentine’s day. In the meantime, you can read my thoughts on ‘Nathan Burgoine’s other holiday-themed romance novellas featuring the BitterSweets Club in this Series Saturday post.

I’m not a total stranger to writing romance, either. My supernatural gay love story Paradise Fears can be read free here on my website.

Book Review: HOWL

TITLE: Howl

AUTHOR: Shaun David Hutchison

429 pages, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, ISBN 9781534470934 (softcover, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

Virgil Knox, unwillingly transplanted from big city Seattle to the small southern town of Merritt after his parents’ messy divorce, is already dealing with the trauma of being the new kid – and more, the new openly-gay kid – in town when he’s attacked by … something … in “the sprawl,” a wooded area apparently everyone knows to avoid. Virgil has no memory of how he got there, and no idea exactly what attacked him, except that it was a monster. Nobody in town believes him, of course, not even his overworked father and judgmental grandparents, despite his noticeably clear wounds and post-trauma coping mechanisms (like sleeping in his closet). Well, almost nobody does – but among the few who say they do, which are really friends, and which are setting him up for another fall? This is the set-up for Shaun David Hutchinson’s brilliant and moving novel Howl.

I admit I approached the book expecting a standard story about small town bigotry and the need to develop found family when your blood family lets you down. The book includes all of that, with some nice twists to the tropes, which I won’t spoil. The supporting cast of local students and adults are well-developed, and their relationships to Virgil are developed in a way that kept me guessing as to who might have been behind his attack, who might be setting him up for further bullying, and who might actually care about him.

But what Hutchison delivers is so much more than the tropes mentioned above. I am ashamed to admit it took me almost half of the book to realize what should have been obvious from the start (and was, in retrospect): Howl is about surviving assault, about finding ways to heal from trauma in the face of disbelief and victim-blaming. Virgil’s struggle to overcome this trauma, to find some way back to “normalcy” when his normal has been upended, is the heart of the book much more than solving the mystery of his attack. And this is what might make the book a difficult read for some – while not graphic in description, Hutchinson doesn’t stint on Virgil’s flashbacks to the event or on his nightmares. Readers who have been the victims of sexual assault will undoubtedly recognize Virgil’s choices, which may not be healthy but are utterly, heartbreakingly, realistic.

Victim-blaming is a huge part of those choices: Virgil is constantly told that he shouldn’t have been in the sprawl alone, that he shouldn’t have been drinking, that he shouldn’t be making up stories that are too fantastic to believe. The police investigating the case mock him. The first week of school, he is bullied and harassed, with “monster porn” pictures on his locker. Yes, he finds sympathetic ears – but even those don’t necessarily listen to what Virgil is telling them. Especially not the sympathetic adults. One adult in particular, who we find at the end of the book clearly knew more than they were saying, really frustrated me because of how realistic their actions felt.

While parts of the book were difficult to read, this story is so well told, so well-paced, and has so much to say about surviving and moving on from trauma, that I must highly recommend it. Howl was my first exposure to the work of Shaun David Hutchinson, but it won’t be the last.

SERIES SATURDAY: THE BITTERSWEETS CLUB

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

Series cover art by Inkspiral Designs

It’s a little past the season, but I thought I’d relaunch regular Series Saturday posts with a look at what has become one of my annual re-reads: a set of holiday-themed novellas, three of which take place at Christmas (and the other on April Fool’s Day).

The Little Village novellas (4 volumes)

Written by ‘Nathan Burgoine

published by Bold Stroke Books (2019 – 2022)

Titles:

·       Handmade Holidays

·       Faux Ho Ho

·       Village Fool

·       Felix Navidad

A substantial number, if not all, of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s novels and short stories interconnect, with his fictionalized version of Ottawa’s Gay Village as a shared setting. Main characters in one story will play supporting roles or make cameo appearances in others, local businesses with names like Body Positive, NiceTeas, and Bittersweets recur, incidents are mentioned in passing, lending all the stories a shared history and timeline. Part of the fun of reading any Burgoine work is figuring out how it connects to all his other work. Some are more obviously connected than others, such as those identified as “Little Village novellas” on the cover – and in particular, the quartet of romance novellas featuring a group of friends called “the Bittersweets Club.”

The Bittersweets Club are four friends who meet regularly at the titular coffee shop: graphic designer Ru, the quippiest member of the group; software designer Silas, the most socially awkward; I.T. Specialist Owen, who still bears the mental and physical scars of a bad car accident; and home health aide nurse Felix, who never met a practical joke he didn’t love and never met a man he did. Each man’s road to romance gets its own novella focused, as mentioned above, on a particular holiday,

What I love about this series as a whole is how sweet and straightforward each book is. These are books about gay men finding love, yes, but also about friends nurturing each other and the strength of “found family.” They have just the right amount of “will they get together or won’t they” angst, are playful with the tropes of the romance genre, and all have HEA (Happily Ever After) or at least HFN (Happy For Now) endings. Which is not to say the stories are completely light or frivolous. Burgoine’s romances are always grounded in our very real current culture, where queer people still have to check their surroundings before holding hands or kissing in public, where birth families still disown gay children, where transphobia is very real even within the LGBTQ+ community. I always appreciate Burgoine’s refusal to paint his stories into some rosy world where homophobia is a thing of the past. Because it isn’t.

Though they share characters and a timeline, each of the four novellas stands alone and thus can be read in any order. References are made to events in the other books, but always in a way that does not make the reader feel like they’re missing vital information for the story at hand and I think in a way that intrigues the reader enough to seek out the other books regardless of which one you start with.

That said, I’ll discuss the books in publication order since that’s the order in which I read them.

Handmade Holidays

Handmade Holidays is Ru’s story, even though he is not the focal character. That would be bookstore manager and budding author Nick. Disowned at nineteen but his family for the “sin” of being gay, Nick begins to build his own traditions with a found family that includes his best friend Ru. The only novella in the series told in strict chronological order, each chapter covers an important Christmas in Nick’s life, and therefore Ru’s, as the friends navigate unsuccessful relationships, changes in employment, parental illnesses, and the growth of their found family. This is also the novella with the longest timespan, stretching over 15 years of Nick and Ru’s lives. I love the pacing of this book. Burgoine packs so many major life events in and manages to make it feel neither rushed nor lacking in detail. It’s also a wonderful take on the “friends to lovers” trope, as Nick and Ru bounce off of each other and second-guess their feelings, the timing never feeling quite right – until one of them takes a risk. It all feels totally authentic. And as with all the Little Village romances, both leads are men I’d like to know in real life.

Faux Ho Ho

But lifelong friends finally admitting they’re in love with each other can have repercussions on their friend group. When Nick and Ru move in together, Ru’s roommate Silas is left in search of someone to share the rent with. The apartment is perfectly placed above Bittersweets, but Silas’ pay as a freelance IT consultant and software designer won’t cover the rent and he knows that asking his conservative and politically powerful parents (who tolerate Silas for the optics more than anything) for help will come with strings attached. Silas is skeptical when Ru suggests he consider personal trainer Dino as a new roommate. Big, burly bodybuilders do not really fit in the Silas Waite Venn Diagram of Life. But as they get to know each other, Dino causes Silas to readjust his outlook. Told in Burgoine’s signature style – that is, chapters that alternate between the present and the past to heighten the story’s tension (juxtaposing “what will happen next” with “how did the characters get to this point”), Faux Ho Ho plays with both the “opposites attract” and “fake relationship” tropes. To get Silas out of spending Thanksgiving with his very conservative family, Dino pretends to be Silas’ boyfriend … which inspires Silas’ sister to finally marry her boyfriend because now Silas can attend with a date, which she knows will piss off their parents and siblings. I love how Silas and Dino bring out the best in each other. I love the contrast between Dino’s family, who all instantly love Silas and go along with the “fake relationship” hoping it will turn real, and Silas’ family, who (other than his wonderfully supportive sister and her fiancée) are only okay with Silas being gay as long as he stays quiet and single. And I love the themes of found family what it really means to be an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community that Burgoine continues to thread through these books.

Village Fool

Village Fool is the only “Bittersweets Club” novella which does not take place on or around the Christmas holidays. While this is Owen’s story from start to finish, the main action is incited by Felix’s impulsiveness. He plays an April Fool’s joke on Owen, switching Owen’s phone contacts so when Owen thinks he’s texting Felix, he’s really texting his unrequited crush Toma. The fact that Toma is Owen’s physiotherapist complicates matters even more. Like Faux Ho Ho, the chapters in Village Fool alternate between the present, where we see the set-up of the practical joke, how it plays out, and the immediate aftermath, and the past, where we see how the Bittersweets Club formed, how Owen met Toma and how their mutual crushes (this is not really a spoiler) developed. One of the things I love about this book is the way Burgoine presents Owen’s anxiety and insecurity as compared to Silas’s in Faux Ho Ho; the author is very conscious of the fact that no two people’s anxiety, insecurity, or depression operate the same way and makes sure that Own and Silas are not cookie-cutter stereotypes. They have certain commonalities (just as Ru and Felix, the group extroverts, do) but their coping mechanisms, as well as their formative backgrounds, are quite different.

Felix Navidad

The final “Bittersweets Club” novella is all about Felix, but it also ties the series’ subplots together in a nice little bow. Ru and Nick are finally getting married, after Covid forced them to delay. Owen and Toma and Silas and Dino are of course going together, but Felix is going solo. He’s had a rough year but is also still feeling the sting of how his impulsive April Fool’s gag affected Owen, even though everything turned out okay. The story alternates between the present holiday, (where Felix and another wedding guest, Ru’s ex Kevin, end up stuck in a cabin that only has one bed, thanks to a massive blizzard), and the past year (with Ru getting to know a new patient, retiree Danya, who has a thing or two to say about Felix’s lack of a social or romantic life). In the “present holiday” chapters, Burgoine moves from one classic trope (the “blind date misunderstanding”) to another (forced proximity/one bed) so smoothly you almost don’t realize it’s happening … and manages to tweak both in very satisfactory ways. The flashback chapters focus on Felix’s growing friendship with sickly but still effervescent Danya, and they are an amazing look at how intergenerational friendships in the gay community should (but all too often don’t) work. Burgoine often comments on how hard it is for younger queer folk to learn our community’s history, because so many of those who should be our elders were taken away from us by the AIDS epidemic. But here, he reminds us that some of that history is still living, still vital – if only younger folks are willing to pay attention, learn, and develop actual connection with our elders. Danya’s illness (NOT AIDS, I feel like I must stress) is a major part of the flashback chapters but please don’t think this means the book is depressing. It is not. It’s as sweet and cute and romantic as the other books in the series – but it also doesn’t shy away from the reality that often joy and sorrow walk beside each other.

While books focused on the “Bittersweets Club” may be done for now, Burgoine isn’t done with gay romances set at the holidays in the Little Village. He recently teased plans for a series featuring a new group of Little Village residents taking place on holidays other than Christmas, and I don’t need to tell you I’m here for them all. He’s also got plans for non-holiday romances building out some of the characters and locations we’ve met along with the Bittersweets guys. In fact, A Little Village Blend is already out in the world.

So: what are your favorite holiday-set LGBTQIA+ romances? Let me know in the comments!

Book Review:THE NECTAR OF NIGHTMARES

TITLE: The Nectar of Nightmares

AUTHOR: Craig L. Gidney

166 pages, Underland Press, ISBN 9781630230630 (paperback, also available in e-book)

MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

SHORT REVIEW: The Nectar of Nightmares is an excellent introduction to the work of Craig L. Gidney. In stories that run from the erotic to the romantic, from the subtly horrific to the gorily terrifying, Gidney takes on the loneliness, yearning for connection, self-images issues, and homophobia that are almost endemic to queer lives and particularly queer Black lives. Along the way, he draws on classic fairy tales, historic settings, and a variety of horror sub-genres.

LONG REVIEW:

The Nectar of Nightmares is an excellent introduction to the work of Craig L. Gidney. In stories that run from the erotic to the romantic, from the subtly horrific to the gorily terrifying, Gidney takes on the loneliness, yearning for connection, self-images issues, and homophobia that are almost endemic to queer lives and particularly queer Black lives. Along the way, he draws on classic fairy tales, historic settings, and a variety of horror sub-genres.

The collection opens strong with “Beneath the Briar Patch,” a riff on traditional Bre’r Rabbit/Bre’r Fox oral tales. Where the traditional tales (at least as far as I’m familiar with them) are light-hearted and usually impart moral lessons, Gidney’s tale takes a more supernatural turn as the Tar Baby Brother Rabbit gets stuck to pulls him into the otherworldly briar patch. The omniscient narrator of the story has a very relaxed, colloquial, storyteller’s voice and I can easily see this being told around a campfire. I loved the way Gidney employed the classic “rule of three’s” storytelling trick throughout the story: three reasons Fox plays the tar baby trick on Rabbit, three rumors about the creature that rules in the briar patch, three encounters with supernatural beings in the briar patch, and other groups of three (juggling three balls/6 knives; 6 animals present at the briar patch bar) throughout the story.

I don’t have space to comment on every story individually in this post, but here are thoughts on some of the stories that stood out for me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

“Myth and Moor” gives us Emily Brontë as a child, encountered the ghost of a boy who has recently died and trying to find out what the ghost wants from her. Emily is clearly lonely, yearning for a connection with someone who will understand and accept her ability to see – although not talk to – ghosts. She does find such a person in this story, but the person is not what she expected.

In “Fur and Gold,” Gidney gives us a gay riff on the tale of Beauty and the Beast that is closer kin to the original tales than to the Disney version. Gidney delves into the beast’s loss of sense of identity and decline into a creature of instinct and primal needs in a story that feels elegiac even while delivering a strong message about the importance of consent.

From fantasy France, Gidney moves us to the Harlem Renaissance in “Black-Winged Roses,” a tale of transgender folks discovering and taking pride in who they are and what they can do while under assault by a hateful and self-hating preacher. This story is full of strong women who will take no shit and is one of my favorites in the collection. I suspect I’ll be re-reading this one often.

“Spyder Threads,” which I’d previously listened to as part of Nightfire’s audio-only short story collection Come Join Us By The Fire, Volume 2, is an intriguing mix of body horror and fantasy, a commentary both on how society treats people whose bodies don’t fit into the current social media paradigm and on how far people with low self-esteem because of that treatment will go to feel special. The shorter, punchier “Mirror Bias” attacks that same body image issue from a slightly different angle.

In “Sacred She-Devil,” Gidney gives us a near-perfect urban fantasy noir, in which main character Opal has the power to summon the ghosts of murdered women who were victims of sexual violence. It’s not an easy story to read, but it is a vital one. Especially as it plays with, and neatly subverts, the over-used trope of subjecting female characters to sexual violence to motivate male characters to “do great things.” I would love to see more stories with Opal.

I would be remiss if I did not mention “Desiccant,” a story which made it into the inaugural edition of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), which just days before I’m posting this won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. “Desiccant” focuses on a trans woman forced to move into a very impoverished building, where she, like her neighbors, falls ill because of the environment they are forced to endure. The story touches on systemic lack of attention to how contaminated living environments disproportionately affect marginalized populations. The fact that there is a supernatural explanation for the ongoing health issue does not take away from the importance of the issue. Fair warning: there are also moments of transphobia in the story (as, sadly, there would be in real life).

The collection closes as strongly as it starts, with the title story “The Nectar of Nightmares,” in which three quite different individuals encounter a powerful dream being. I may have given too much away even saying that much – it’s a story about the way our nightmares feed off our anxiety, body dysmorphia, feelings of inadequacy, and more.

Book Review: SUMMER SONS

TITLE: Summer Sons

AUTHOR: Lee Mandelo

372 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250790286 (hardcover, also available in audiobook, e-book. Paperback due on August 16, 2022)

DESCRIPTION: (from inside front cover): Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble.

And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons is about as close to an ideal modern gay Southern Gothic novel as we’re likely to ever get. An intriguing set-up (the apparent suicide of a best friend uncovers secrets perhaps best left covered) allows Mandelo to explore not just the bonds between best friends but the way toxic masculinity fosters secrets and separation. All the men in this book have a tough time expressing what they’re really thinking and feeling; there’s a lot of deflection, denial, and just plain silence. There were several times I found myself shouting at the characters to “JUST TALK ALREADY.” It’s frustrating, but in an effective way, building tension for characters and reader alike.

It’s clear from the beginning that it’s not just Andrew’s long-unrequited love for Eddie that drives him to find out why Eddie so suddenly committed suicide. Exactly what else is driving Andrew, why even while in denial he always placed Eddie so much above every other relationship, is one of the slow-burn sub-plots of the novel. All is revealed eventually; the slow parceling-out of the details is paced perfectly for the reveal to hit with maximum “holy shit” effect. As Andrew struggles with accepting his own past, his love for Eddie, and the possibility that he might be falling in love again, his mental state swings from depressed to disturbed and back again. It’s a fantastic character study, a deep look into how depression and anxiety work, especially on someone as closeted as Andrew is.

The new circles Andrew finds himself thrust into are full of interesting characters with their own secrets and agendas that don’t overlap quite the way one might expect. There wasn’t a character introduced that didn’t pique my interest.

And Mandelo fills the book with mood: from the first scene to the denouement, the story fairly drips with claustrophobia. The three main locations (three very different houses) feel close and confining, but so do the outdoor scenes (especially a particular party scene), and even the racing scenes (these boys love their fast cars, and so do the ghosts) despite, or perhaps because of, how well Mandelo captures that sense of speeding down dark roads with the woods on either side barely visible on moonless nights.

There are plenty of twists and turns, and a healthy dollop of supernatural activity and dread, making this a great summer horror read.

I originally received an electronic Advanced Reading Copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. For assorted reasons, this review did not get posted at that time. With the paperback edition coming out in August 2022, I thought it was time to rectify that.

Book Review: THREE LEFT TURNS TO NOWHERE

TITLE: Three Left Turns to Nowhere

AUTHOR: Jeffrey Ricker, J. Marshall Freeman, and ‘Nathan Burgoine

235 pages, Bold Stroke Books, ISBN 9781636790503 (paperback; also in e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Three strangers heading to a convention in Toronto are stranded in rural Ontario, where a small town with a subtle kind of magic leads each to discover what he’s been searching for.

Ed Sinclair and his friends get stuck in Hopewell after their car breaks down. It’s snark at first sight when he meets local mechanic Lyn, but while they’re getting under each other’s skin, the town might show them a way into one another's hearts.

Rome Epstein is out and proud and clueless about love. He’s hosting a giant scavenger hunt at the convention but ends up in Hopewell. When the town starts leaving him clues for its own scavenger hunt, he discovers a boy who could be the prize he’s been searching for.

Fielding Roy has a gift for seeing the past. His trip to reunite with friends hits an unexpected stop in Hopewell, but a long-lost love letter and two local boys give him a chance to do more than watch the past. This time, Fielding might be able to fix the present.

Authors Jeffrey Ricker, J. Marshall Freeman, and ‘Nathan Burgoine believe getting lost is a perfectly legitimate way to find yourself, but suggest you pack snacks.

MY RATING: 4 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: The contents of “Shared World” short story or novella anthologies, with multiple authors working ostensibly in the same setting, can be notoriously hit/miss depending on factors as varied as the depth and breadth of the world-building before the authors start on their own stories, how all of that information is communicated from editors to authors, faithful to the shared setting the individual authors are. Typically, the more writers working in the setting the more likely it is to find “outlier” stories that don’t fit the setting or match the mood of the majority of the stories in the anthology. I’m happy to be able to say that Three Left Turns to Nowhere, a collection of novellas all set in the magical small town of Hopewell, is far more hit than miss despite, or perhaps because of, the quite different tones of the novellas. What all three stories have in common is the set-up of a slightly grumpy out-of-towner stranded in Hopewell meeting a local (or locals) who help lift the out-of-towner’s mood.

Jeffrey Ricker’s “Roadside Assistance” is a great lead-off: a sweet meet-cute of a romance between the grumpy out-of-towner (Ed) and a friendly local mechanic (Lyn) that doesn’t let the grumpy guy stay grumpy for too long. The attraction between the characters is clear from the start and nudged along by forces both human (Lyn’s BFF Josh) and not (a local ghost that only Lyn can see). I could try to count the number of times I found myself smiling at a geeky exchange or adorable moment, but there were too many. Ricker also does a wonderful job setting up the shared world in which these stories operate: by the end of the story I had a solid mental image of the “downtown” of Hopewell, a good sense of the character of the townspeople as a whole, and a total acceptance of the town’s subtle magic and how it works.

“The Scavenger Hunt” by J. Marshall Freeman is still a romance, but not as sweet meet-cute as Ricker’s. It’s a bit darker – homophobia rears its ugly head early in the story and stays a threat throughout in a way that doesn’t quite fit with the other two stories herein – but still centers a budding romance between an out-of-towner (activist Rome) and a local (artist Darcy). I liked the pacing of the story, I liked the way the town’s magic expresses itself (by sending Rome on the same type of scavenger hunt he’s designing for the Con all these out-of-towners are on their way to), and I loved Darcy’s found-object sculpture art. In fact, I loved Darcy – awkward, artistic, possibly neurodivergent Darcy – from the moment he’s introduced. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Rome, who I found self-centered beyond likeability even at the end of the story. (Your opinion, of course, may vary.)

The third novella, “Hope Echoes” by ‘Nathan Burgoine, doesn’t center romance for the lead character at all but still hinges the plot on one. The out-of-towner in the equation is Fielding, who can see echoes of the past, and the locals are adorable boyfriends who show him around town and help him resolve a mystery he’s stumbled into thanks to the echoes he can see. The romance is one that occurred well before any of the young men in the story were born, and I won’t spoil how the mystery of the love letter is resolved other than to say there’s a happy conclusion for all involved. The fun of this story is Fielding’s growing friendship with Josh and Logan, a nice interpretation of the way the town’s magic works. The town recognizes that what Fielding needs isn’t a boyfriend or romance – it’s supportive friends and a way out of his depression.

As one would expect, characters from one story pop up in the background or are mentioned in the other stories. But the authors also do an excellent job populating the story with interesting local characters: bed and breakfast owner Candace, used good store owner Mrs. Tremblay; Lyn’s mother; Josh’s father; Logan’s grandmother and her fellow residents at a nursing home; and auto shop owner Sloan and her wife the town Mayor. They make the shared setting of the stories consistent.

I do hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of the magical town of Hopewell. In fact, I’m putting in a request right now for a second anthology with perhaps a focus on lesbian characters – and please, Bold Stroke Books, let one of those be the story of how Sloan and Dina met!

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review: A LITTLE VILLAGE BLEND

TITLE: A Little Village Blend

AUTHOR: ‘Nathan Burgoine

54 pages, Bold Stroke Books, ISBN 9781636790978 (e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from the Goodreads page): According to Ivan’s sister Anya, Ivan’s tea leaves promise his perfect match is out there somewhere, just waiting to be swept off their feet. Ivan knows Anya’s always right—an annoying trait for a sister if ever there was one.

Ivan’s own knack with tea might not deal with the future, but it’s pretty good at helping with the here and now. When Walt, a tall, dark, and grumpy soldier shows up at his store, NiceTeas, in obvious need of a hand—and a dog-sitter—Ivan rises to the challenge and offers blends to make Walt’s life a little easier. There’s just no way he can help falling for the guy. But Anya says Walt’s not the one for Ivan, and the tea leaves don’t lie.

Is it worth steeping a here-and-now while waiting for the one-and-only? Ivan’s not sure, but everything tells him it’s all just a matter of finding the right blend.

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: In A Little Village Blend, ‘Nathan Burgoine delivers another sweet gay romance set in the Little Village, an area of primarily queer-owned businesses and queer-occupied apartments. This time, the focus is on Ivan, the co-owner (with his sister Anya) of NiceTeas. Like a lot of Burgoine’s characters who occupy the Village, Ivan has a touch of magical ability: he’s able to imbue the teas he hand-crafts and brews with a little extra magic to help the drinker with what they most need: a boost of confidence, an extra layer of calm, and so on. Anya has a related ability: she can read the grounds/leaves left behind and get a sense of a person’s future. And as the synopsis says, when harried and moody Walt enters NiceTeas, Ivan’s heart says one thing and Walt’s tea leaves as read by Anya say something different. The novella builds off that conflict smoothly and steadily without unnecessary detours or extra complications. It’s a tightly told story with a happily-ever-after (or at least a happily-for-now).

Even at a scant 54 pages, there’s a ton of character development for all three leads. We get details of Ivan and Anya’s childhood and why Anya is so concerned about Ivan finding a man who will love and protect him. We get a good sense of Walt’s current job and the not-work-related reasons he’s out-of-sorts on his first and later visits to NiceTeas. We get a look at Anya’s acting career and her thing about cats. And we get a sense of NiceTeas regular clientele and neighboring businesses as background characters, something a lot of books don’t seem to bother with.  Some of these folks are characters we’ve met in other Burgoine stories, and some are brand new. This being the Village, there’s a strong possibility every new character who gets a name and even a bit of dialogue could turn up as the main character of a later story or novella.

And then there’s Sensei, the husky who brings Ivan and Walt together as more than tea-purveyor and customer. This dog absolutely steals the show in every scene he is in and is the heart of the novella. Often, pets can be nothing more than plot devices or as an easy signifier of a character’s personality (“Oh, this guy is a dog lover”). Not so Sensei. Burgoine and his husband have a husky, so it’s no surprise he gets the dog’s personality so totally correct.

It bears noting once again: you do not have to have read any of Burgoine’s other Little Village novellas to follow the plot of this one. The author goes out of his way to make sure these stories stand alone and can be read in any order. So if gay romance with subtle magic and an adorable husky sounds like your thing, pick up A Little Village Blend.

Book Review: SUN-DAUGHTERS, SEA-DAUGHTERS

TITLE: Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters

AUTHOR: Aimee Ogden

112 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250782120 (softcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Gene-edited human clans have scattered throughout the galaxy, adapting themselves to environments as severe as the desert and the sea. Atuale, the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord, sparked a war by choosing her land-dwelling love and rejecting her place among her people. Now her husband and his clan are dying of an incurable plague, and Atuale’s sole hope for finding a cure is to travel off-planet. The one person she can turn to for help is the black-market mercenary known as the World Witch—and Atuale’s former lover. Time, politics, bureaucracy, and her own conflicted desires stand between Atuale and the hope for her adopted clan.

Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters has all the wonder and romance of a classic sci-fi novel, with the timelessness of a beloved fairy tale.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Aimee Ogden’s Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters may use The Little Mermaid as its base and starting point, transferring the action to a far-future interstellar setting, but I wouldn’t categorize this novella as a retelling of the fairy tale. Rather, I think it’s the sort of “what happened next” story that has always intrigued me (it’s not chance that of all the musicals based on fairy tales, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods is my favorite, or that I list Bill Willingham’s comic series Fables and the first season of the television series Once Upon a Time as favorites as well). I quite enjoy stories that explore the “happy ever after” (or not-so-happy, as the case may be), and Ogden delivers the goods.

Rather than start with a straight retelling of The Little Mermaid and progressing linearly from there, Ogden dumps us right into the “no longer so happily ever after” described in the back cover copy: in the very first scene, Atuale (the “mermaid” of the story) leaves her husband’s sick-bed to seek the aid of her former “pillow-friend” Yanja, known more commonly as “the World-Witch:” a smuggler/dealer/scientist who years before created the gene modifications that allowed Atuale to leave her controlling father’s sub-sea kingdom. Hints about those events, about Atuale’s relationships with Yanja, with husband Saareval and his family, and with her estranged father are dropped throughout the story but don’t dominate it. There’s just enough for us to recognize the basics of the original fairy tale, to see how science replaces magic in the narrative, and to understand just how much things have changed for Atuale and Yanja.

And things have changed: the World-Witch is not physically the person Atuale knew and is no longer disposed to acquiesce to Atuale’s needs just for old times’ sake. And of course Atuale is no longer the same person she was when she first left for the surface world. Through dialogue and quiet moments, Ogden explores the question of whether two people who used to love each other but have been estranged for a long time can find their way back to some kind of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence. It’s a beautifully told arc woven around all of the other stumbling blocks the pair encounter, both on-planet and off, attempting to reach Atuale’s goal. I don’t want to spoil any of those stumbling blocks in this review. Suffice to say, they varied from the personal to the societal and none of them felt contrived or forced.

I also must compliment Ogden on how, as someone else put it, “casually queer” the novella is. Atuale and the World-Witch’s former relationship isn’t played for shock or as anything outside of the societal norm, nor are the physical changes in Yanja. It’s always nice to read stories about alien cultures that do not have the prejudices we have here on Earth in the present day.

Although Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters was written pre-pandemic, it came out during it, and it was hard not to see echoes (perhaps unintentional given the time) of it in how different the response to such a fast-spreading plague is from culture to culture across not just a planet but star-systems. This, and references to miscarriages as well as a bit of body horror, may make the novella a harder read for some folks.

In the end, Aimee Ogden delivers a fast-moving star-spanning adventure in which the lead characters discover/rediscover themselves during a quest to help others regardless of the personal repercussions, expanding on the questions of identity and belonging that are a part of any good retelling or expansion of The Little Mermaid.

I received an Advance Reading Copy from NetGalley/TorDotCom in exchange for an honest review, which is clearly being posted far later than anticipated. Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters was released in February of 2021.

Book Review: BLIND TIGER

TITLE: Blind Tiger (The Pride, Book 1)

AUTHOR: Jordan L. Hawk

206 pages, JLH Books, ISBN 9798711192763 (print, also available in e-book; audiobook forthcoming)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): 1924, Chicago. Prohibition is in full swing and gang bosses rule the city with might—and magic. When Sam Cunningham flees his small-town life to try his luck in the big city of Chicago, he quickly finds himself in over his head in a world of gangs, glitz, and glamour. Fortunately, he has his cousin Eldon to teach him the trade of hex-making. Everything changes the night Sam visits The Pride speakeasy and meets grumpy cheetah-shifter Alistair Gatti. After losing his first witch to the horrors of the World War, Alistair isn’t interested in any new entanglements, romantic or magical. Especially when said entanglement comes in the form of kind, innocent Sam. When Eldon is brutally murdered, Sam becomes drawn into the dark underworld of the Chicago gangs. Sam must find the missing hex Eldon created for one of the crime bosses—before whoever killed Eldon comes back for him. Together, Alistair and Sam begin the search for the mysterious hex, diving deep into the seedy side of Chicago’s underworld while dodging rival gangs. And as they come to rely on one another, Alistair realizes he’s falling for the one man he can’t afford to love.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Fans of Jordan L. Hawk’s previous alternate history/fantasy/gay romance books will not be disappointed with Blind Tiger, the start of a new trilogy in the same alternate history timeline as his Hexworld books. Blind Tiger is full of the action, mystery, humor, romance, and steamy sex that are Hawk’s hallmarks.

For those not familiar with the world-building of the Hexworld series, a recap: it’s a world just like our own, with most of the same history intact, except that magic is a known quantity. Witches (a gender-neutral term in this world) are able to imbue written hexes with magic drawn from their shape-shifting familiars (also a gender-neutral term). Normal people can then use those hexes to do everything from keeping iceboxes cold when there’s no electricity to healing sickness – and occasionally, if the right hex is used, much larger scale magic. Any witch can bond with any familiar (but not more than one in either direction), but the magic works best when the familiar bonds to “their” witch (a nebulous-defined term that basically means that they are “meant to be together”). The books in Hawk’s Hexworld series all take place in 1890’s New York City, focused on the witches and familiars of that city’s Witch Police. Over the course of four books and a couple of short stories, Hawk has been developing a larger conspiracy involving the public’s perception and acceptance of familiars fanned to unhealthy levels by both government and religious leaders. Hawk has said he’ll eventually return to that storyline but had this idea that just wouldn’t wait. And thus, we have the start of the Pride trilogy, which moves the action to a different city (Chicago) and a different decade (the 1920s).

Whatever finally happens in 1890s NYC, it’s implied that in 1920s Chicago people are a bit more accepting of familiars in general but not necessarily of the more “dangerous” ones. Familiars are specific shapeshifters: they can transform into one animal and only one animal. When that animal is a cute dog or cat or bird, no one seems to care. But when that animal is something large and predatory, say “big cats” like lions, tigers, and cheetahs, people are still afraid. The members of the Gatti family all turn into big cats, and they’ve used that fear to carve out a place for themselves as “independent operators” within the territory of a gang overlord named Sullivan. Their position is ordinarily precarious but becomes even more so after the murder of Eldon Cunningham. Hawk does a wonderful job of setting the stakes for this “found family” from the very start of the book and then ramping those stakes up as the action progresses.

As the book synopsis indicates, the characters at the heart of the story are Alistair Gatti and Sam Cunningham. There’s an awkward meet-cute in the speakeasy the Gattis own, Sam introducing himself as “Sammy … Sam … Sam,” which Alistair riffs on immediately (but only until it’s clear Sam doesn’t like it; then Alistair backs off). These are two quite different men: Sam is shy, insecure, skittish where Alistair is grumpy, too sure of himself, bold. But they have something in common (other than the witch-familiar bond that Alistair recognizes right away and Sam has no reason to think even exists): both are suffering from forms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and abandonment issues. The formative experiences that lead to the PTSD, and the ways in which each man deals with it (or doesn’t) are revealed slowly throughout the book and I don’t want to spoil anything. But I can say that Hawk writes these characters with a sensitivity and keen understanding of both PTSD and abandonment disorders that infuses both men with deep layers the reader will appreciate. This is true of pretty much every Hawk character I have encountered; just because there’s sex in these books doesn’t mean the characters are flat or undeveloped. But in this particular book, it really stands out. I look forward to how Alistair and Sam’s relationship will progress through the second and third books of this trilogy, and how they will help each other deal with the PTSD triggers they inevitably will encounter.

I also look forward to the development of the rest of the Gatti family over the next two books. The Gatti siblings are all orphans who adopted each other and do everything they can to protect each other. In addition to the five siblings, the family extends to include witches, lovers, and spouses (not always the same person; even when a familiar finds “their” witch, there’s not always a romantic connection nor does there need to be for the magic to work). We get glimpses of these relationships and tidbits about how they came to be, and we get a good sense of each family member’s personalities – but it would be nice to get to know them even better, to see the depths in them that we get to see in Alistair and Sam. Heck, I’d even like to see more of the crime-lord Sullivan.

The mystery of Eldon’s murder is very “fair play.” The clues are all there for the reader to pick up on, but not so obviously presented that you’ll guess whodunnit and why within the first half of the book.

And the steamy sex is steamy. As one would expect from a Jordan L. Hawk book.

Romance, erotica, mystery, and fantasy all under one cover and all equally well-written: Blind Tiger has something for everyone.

Book Review: VILLAGE FOOL

TITLE: Village Fool

AUTHOR: ‘Nathan Burgoine

74 pages, Bold Stroke Books, ISBN 9781635559828 (e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from Publisher website): Owen is only confident in two places: at work, supporting clients through IT woes, and when he’s sitting around a gaming table in the role of a smooth and charming bard. He’s never acted on the crush he’s had on his physiotherapist—and total cubcake—Toma. Even though Owen’s no longer Toma’s patient, and his crush hasn’t dialed down in the slightest, Owen can’t figure out how to make a move.

When a friend decides to play a prank involving Owen’s contact list, Owen spends the morning of April Fools’ day inadvertently texting smooth and charming thoughts about Toma... to Toma himself.

By the time Owen discovers the prank, things are completely out of control. Discussions of thighs and awards for the World’s Best Chest have been handed out—not to mention they’ve set an accidental coffee date—and there’s no taking that sort of thing back. When this joke finally gets told, Owen’s convinced he’ll be the punchline, but with a little luck and some nudging from his friends, the last laugh might be the best of his life.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: If you’ve read either of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s other “Little Village” romance novellas (Handmade Holidays and Faux Ho Ho) you will not be surprised at how endearing Village Fool is nor how relatable the main characters are. If this is your first “Little Village” romance, you’re in for a treat. Yes, this is the third book in a series if we look at them in release order, but each “Little Village” novella stands alone so you can jump right into this one without having read the previous two (and maybe it will inspire you to read the others!).

Like its predecessors, Village Fool is a holiday romance, but instead of the usual Christmas or New Year’s setting we get April Fool’s Day. Now, I don’t know about you, but April Fool’s Day is not one of my favorite holidays, having involved more bullying than humor in my childhood. But I don’t dislike the holiday enough to write off a romance with April Fools pranks at the core unread, especially when that book is written by one of my favorite authors (overall, and specifically of gay romance). Unlike its predecessors, where the holiday itself is not just the set-up but a key component of the plot, Village Fool really could have taken place at any time of year. Friends play pranks on friends all the time. But setting it on the holiday keeps the “Little Village” holiday theme going, and it works just fine.

I identified heavily with Owen, the novella’s POV character. Like him, I am far smoother and more personable when I’m on the job (corporate trainer in my case, IT support for Owen) or when I’m among very, very close friends (the Bittersweets Club and D&D circle for Owen) than when I have to make conversation with a guy I find interesting/attractive (my current ongoing crush is also a total “cubcake” like Toma, but he works in the food industry not as a physiotherapist). Like Owen, my friends tease me about my crush and I get a little angsty about why I can’t seem to formulate complete sentences around him. Also like Owen, I would be devastatingly embarrassed if my friends pulled a stunt like Felix does at the start of Village Fool to force the “just ask him out already” issue. (Unlike Owen, I still have no idea if my crush might be even remotely into guys, but that’s a topic for my therapist and not a book review…) The TL;DR of this paragraph is: Owen is recognizable, relatable, and very easy to like.

And even though we don’t get any scenes directly from Toma’s POV to see inside his head, we can tell that he’s also relatable and likeable. His every interaction with Owen is supportive, friendly, eventually flirty. He’s not happy that the date he thought he was finally going on was a misunderstanding and he’s not willing to let Felix completely or easily off the hook. But Toma also understands why Owen is so much more upset about the situation than he is and he’s willing to back off and give Owen space if that’s what Owen wants.

In the hands of other authors, this misunderstanding would garner a novel’s worth of anger and angst before the situation gets resolved, with both characters second-guessing their own feelings as well as the other character’s motivations and responses. Burgoine threads that needle expertly: Owen’s reactions, borne out of humiliation, are a bit more histrionic (without being soap-opera scenery-chewing) while Toma’s are more grounded (without being dismissive of Owen’s feelings), and both men’s reactions are totally in character.

The alternating chapters of present-day and flashbacks format works as well in Village Fool as it did in Faux Ho Ho, adding nice levels of tension and release. Again, it’s a style that not every author is fully effective with, but Burgoine is a master.

There’s also just the right amount of interference from Owen’s circle of friends in both the present and the past to help nudge things towards a Happily Ever After ending (although in Felix’s case the “nudging” is what creates the drama in the first place). The alternating flashback chapters fill us in not just on how Owen came to know Toma, but also how he met Silas, Ru, and Felix and started to feel like maybe the Village was someplace he belongs. The prank and its aftermath don’t occur in a bubble; we get glimpses of a well-developed group of friends without those glimpses being winky-nudgy-youshouldhavereadtheotherbooks distractions. I was happy to see Silas and Dino (from Faux Ho Ho) and Ru and Fiona (from Handmade Holidays) in varying-sized supporting roles along with mentions of other residents and businesses in the Little Village district.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of stories set amongst the group of friends we’ve met in these three novellas, and I hope the “Little Village” series goes on for a long time regardless of whether the “holiday” theme continues. If you like stories that include awkward meet-cutes, friends who are family, and happily-ever-after gay romance, pick up Village Fool and the other Little Village novellas.