FA Publishing, $1.99
Fantasy Romance, 2016
But how can they start anything if he’s too chicken to reveal his real self to Max?
Don’t laugh, but I misread that line on the book showcase page, and end up thinking that Dylan is a were-chicken. Oh, I have to read that, I find myself thinking, and grab Haylee Wolf’s Lost Lion without hesitation.
Alas, Dylan is a weretabby. He’s a virgin at twenty-one, acts like an overwrought sensitive damosel around people, and dreams of love. I’m sure everyone will be shocked to learn that he’s going to be at the receiving end of the sodomy ceremony. Heaven forbid we buck the tired old stereotype and have the sensitive, gentle guy whip out a ten-inch bazooka and ram it home into the hoo-hah of a strapping, muscular jock, after all. No, no, the big muscular straight-acting Maximillian Lionheart – guess what were-whatever he is – is doing the giving, yawn.
Max is a widower. It says a lot that I don’t know Dylan’s last name, but I’m told the full name of Max’s dead mate early on. It gives me the impression that even the plot device in this story is given more of a thought to by the author than the receptacle of Maxipad Lion-O’s mighty mojo. The so-called internal conflict here is that Max has a hard time moving past his mate’s death, but instead of an emotional tale of love and healing, the destined mate thing rears its ugly head and soon Max is like, Pat who, Dylan is my boo now.
To add insult to the injury, there aren’t any exciting hot love scenes or anything else to make up for this emotional void. Hence, Lost Lion is a boring tale of a stereotypical big muscular jock topping a sensitive, virginal, gasping, writhing bottom, and that’s all it is. No genuine romantic entanglements, no hot sex, no weird sex either come to think of it – I do wonder what the point of this whole thing is, other than letting the author make some money, that is. What’s in it for the reader?
I guess folks who just have to read another unimaginative take on gay tropes with some furry cosmetics slapped on top of the whole thing may like this one better. Then again, there are so many of such stories out there too. Life’s too short to be spent dwelling on forgettable stories that have little to offer.
