Best Man by Shelley Munro

TITLE: Best Man
AUTHOR: Shelley Munro
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 14k)
GENRE: Contemporary gay erotic romance
COST: $2.99

Rugby players Grayson Lynford and Jesse Peters are groomsmen for their teammate, sharing a room together the weekend of the wedding. What they don’t realize until they get there is that each is in lust with the other, but a drunken encounter puts all their cards on the table. With passions running high, they explore their mutual desire, but someone is threatening the privacy of their teammate, and their own.

I don’t like spoilers in reviews, but the ultimate message of this short story annoys me so much that I don’t really care about revealing it. You can stop reading now if you don’t want to be spoiled. Go on. This is your time to switch away from this page.

So you know what this story ultimately says? That if you’re gay, and you have any hopes of furthering your career, you should be prepared to deny your sexuality in public for the rest of your life, and spend time with the partner of your choice only in the privacy of your own home.

Honest. That’s what it says. In this story, Grayson and Jesse are both angling to be a part of the national rugby team for New Zealand, but when a picture of them kissing is set to be published in a national paper, their entire strategy for dealing with it is to deny, deny, deny. What kind of message is this sending? I understand that homosexuality is still a taboo in some parts of the world, both public and privately, but that doesn’t mean that the author couldn’t have tried to come up with some sort of resolution that doesn’t completely subvert what they are.

Even if the message of the story hadn’t completely turned me off, the lack of distinct characterization and boring – and far too short (one paragraph from penetration to orgasm!) – sex makes this a very disappointing read. Even at its low price, don’t waste your money. I certainly won’t be bothering with this author again.

Readability	5/10 – Run-on sentences and some interesting typos make this less than ideal
Hero #1	2/10 – Pretty much interchangeable with his partner
Hero #2	2/10 – See note above
Entertainment value	1/10 – The message this story sends completely ruined any entertainment I got from this.
World building	4/10 – She built a rugby world in New Zealand, but I can’t say that I liked it.
TOTAL:	14/25