AUTHOR: Bryn Colvin
PUBLISHER: loveyoudivine
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 14k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $2.75
Spiritual healer Bee gets called to help a woman’s husband who has retreated from the world, and touches a mind that is unlike any she’s ever touched before…
This short story starts out incredibly intriguing, as spiritual healer Bee is asked to come and check out a woman’s husband. The wife is at her wit’s end. After they lost everything, the husband fell apart, becoming practically catatonic. Bee is reluctant to take the case, as she doesn’t like to help people who don’t ask for the help themselves, but she goes anyway, her instincts telling her to go. Touching his mind isn’t like touching anybody else’s, and even though the wife doesn’t pursue her services after that first visit, Bee can’t get him out of her mind.
There’s some great atmospheric touches in Bee’s encounters with this troubled man, but while experiences become quite visceral, they end up raising more questions than they ever answer. It’s an intriguing ride, and I got caught up in trying to discern where exactly it was going to take me. For half the story, there’s no hint of romance, though she does have some erotic moments with this man in her head. It seems to be more a tale of self-discovery, a path I was actually more than fine with. When it finally does shift to the romantic aspects – quite late in the story – I was disappointed. It never felt organic to the rest of the story. Bee’s emotional journey promised to be bigger than that.
She really is the true centerpiece of this short. While the hero does get introduced, he left so little impact on me, I remembered very little about him at the end other than his art. The whole spirituality aspect of her self-exploration does get a little tedious, but she remains a warm, driven, aware woman, fascinating me more than enough to keep me involved.
Because of the veer the story takes, I can’t say that it necessarily works for me as a whole as well as it started out, but I like how the author takes risks. I’m rarely bored by Colvin’s work, and look forward to further exploring more of her worlds.
| Readability | 7/10 – There’s an ethereal quality that matches the heroine, but it grows old after a while |
| Hero | 4/10 – For a long time, I didn’t even think this would be a romance, that’s how little the hero actually impacted me |
| Heroine | 7/10 – Driven and warm |
| Entertainment value | 6/10 – The romance felt tacked onto the end and spoiled what could have been a good psychological short |
| World building | 7/10 – Some great atmospheric touches, but it always felt like there was something I was missing |
| TOTAL: | 31/50 |
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