Liquid Silver Books, $4.25, ISBN 978-1-59578-658-6
Fantasy Romance, 2010
Meet Christian. He’s a web designer who is both cat and wolf. This newest arrival to the town of Strange Hollow is hoping to start life anew in a place where he can feel safe after some traumatic incident in his past. Strange Hollow, a small town that could have easily stepped out from the 1950s, seems to be that place, although Christian is still reserving judgment at the moment. Still, the neighbors are all… unusual… types. And friendly too.
“I’m Ethan and this gargantuan, mannerless oaf is my lover, Jarek. Oh, I should have asked ’cause you might have an issue with gay men. Are you gay? You smell gay.” Ethan got as close as the partially opened door would allow, and inhaled, taking air deep into his lungs. “Yup, definitely gay. Good, so you won’t be all icky about Jarek and me. We don’t share though, so get that thought out of your mind. If it was in your mind. Who knows? Anyway, Jarek’s a wolf and I’m a Labrador retriever, but not a black lab.” Ethan stroked his white-blond hair. “I’m blond. Not many of those, you know. Anyway, we brought you some dinner since you’re new and we wanted to be friendly, and oh! We’re your landlords. And what are you? You smell like a cat and a wolf, but that can’t be and —”
Well, technically it won’t be sharing if Jarek and Ethan keep Christian – adopt him as their new pet, if you will. Lots of boinking follow. Along the way, they get to have special powers from all that sexy stuff they do. Christian feels safe and healed once more, so it’s love all the way to Sunday and back.
I must confess one thing: reading love scenes involving three men tend to tire me out because of all that acrobatic stuff they do. When I read those scenes, I can’t help trying to imagine how everything fits – like trying to put together a tangram puzzle, in other words – and after a while, the effort is tiring. Since the focus of this story is on sex, that’s a whole lot of mapping I have to do in my head. Sigh.
One thing that amuses me about this story – and not in a good way – is how blatantly the author uses her characters’ not-that-human attributes as shortcuts when it comes to characterization. Christian is unable to make any decision without getting influenced by his wolf or cat nature – it is as if he’s a slave to the beast. As you can read in the above excerpt, these creatures can smell whether someone is gay. Who needs bothersome introduction? Hello, I can smell The Gay from your stained undies, and now that introductions are out of the way, let’s now start a rumpy-pumpy session!
Wary Were is very contrived. This is a substandard story that you should read only for the sex scenes, and since I’m not enamored of those sex scenes, it doesn’t do anything for me.
