Poor Boy by Jaime Samms

TITLE: Poor Boy
AUTHOR: Jaime Samms
PUBLISHER: Freya’s Bower
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 32k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary romance
COST: $4.99

Just because he has money, doesn’t mean Roy’s life is a good one. His parents blame him for his brother’s death, blame he most readily accepts, and when one demand too many is made of him Roy decides to abandon the wealth that has always protected him. His addict boyfriend isn’t as interested if Roy won’t put out sex or cash, so Roy takes off, ending up on the other side of the tracks in the company of a street hustler named Scooby. With no money, no friends, and nothing else to fall back on, he’s left to try and survive. And if he can save Scooby at the same time, even better…

Poor Boy is an edgier read than most m/m romance out there. It doesn’t even read as a romance for a good part of the story; both leads are just trying so desperately to survive that any real romantic development is abandoned in favor of heaping more and more trials upon them. It gives them a lot of potential problems to work through, but unfortunately, while there is an HEA, I can’t say much of it really worked for me.

My primary difficulty lies with the two main characters. Roy is an affluent young man with a savior complex and a guilty conscience larger than Texas. These drive almost every decision he makes, but ultimately, he makes some clearly idiotic choices – as well as unexplainable – that only exacerbate an already awful situation. Though the story is told in 1^st person from his perspective, I was never able to emotionally connect with anything he was able to go through. In some sections, the POV was so deep that crucial details explaining what his motives might be were missing, gone most likely because they’re so ingrained in the character’s identity. In others, information gets dumped awkwardly and distances me from involvement.

On the other hand, Scooby comes across as a selfish user, and I never understood what exactly the appeal was. An explanation is given – that Roy feels the need to save him – but Scooby’s actions speak louder than words. It’s realistic, but so realistic that I just can’t buy any sort of real connection. The effect is worsened by the fact that Scooby and Roy never actually solve their problems. All those problems that get heaped upon them by their choices get erased by either events that happen off the page or the actions of others. It’s all circumstantial, random events that just so happen make it possible for them to be together. Just like the random events that make it possible for them to meet in the first place. That might have been intentional on the part of the author, but for me as a reader, it fails to engage me emotionally.

That’s not to say there isn’t definite potential in this novella. The author has some very sharp prose in more than one place, and paints enough vivid pictures to give a real feel for the difficulties Roy is having slumming. Her dialogue rings mostly true as well, which just enhances the harsh reality of her world. It’s a great combination when it works, and does so often enough to draw it to my attention. It just didn’t work for me on a structural level, feeling like the author got 2/3’s of the way through the story, thought, “Oh, I don’t know how they can fix this,” and then decided to have somebody else eliminate the problems for the two heroes instead. It resolves their issues, that’s for sure. At the same time, it disconnected me even more and resulted in an unsatisfactory read. However, it’s still a memorable read, because of the author’s more realistic approach and glimpses of her talented voice.

Readability	7/10 – An awkward beginning and a few awkward sections scattered throughout hold back some promising prose
Hero #1	4/10 – It’s hard for me to empathize with a character who makes so many unexplainable choices that clearly led to his and other’s problems
Hero #2	4/10 – A user, I never understood the appeal
Entertainment value	5/10 – Explanations came too late to garner empathy for the characters, with too many cases of incidental action to resolve problems
World building	8/10 – The grittier underworld is very well played out.
TOTAL:	28/50

Dreams & Desires 2 by various authors

TITLE: Dreams & Desires 2
AUTHOR: C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp, Jenna Bayley-Burke, Amanda Brice, Shannon Canard, Sela Carsen, Rachelle Chase, M.E. Ellis, Jenny Gardiner, Gemma Halliday, Candace Havens, Zinnia Hope, Babe King, Susan Lyons, Sarah Salway, Rhonda Stapleton, Bebe Thomas, Emily Veinglory, Lois Winston, Shaunna Wolf
PUBLISHER: Freya’s Bower
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 65k)
GENRE: Romance
COST: $5.95

A collection of nineteen stories, some romance, some chick lit, some just simple women’s tales, brought together to raise money for battered women’s shelters.

Because of the sheer number of stories in this anthology – 19 of them! – I’m foregoing my usual method of showing the breakdown of scores and just giving an overall total. I kept a running tally on each individual story and then added them all up, but honestly, to give you the breakdown on 19 stories would be too long and boring, and to show you each of the category total breakdowns will tell you nothing. They’ll look like averages with pretty much the same comment – some of these stories are really good, and some are just truly awful.

The ones I like? Three of them truly stood out for me. Adams’ and Clamp’s story, Regrets, is a nice little paranormal tale about a woman getting stuck in a small nowhere town. The ending is a little predictable, but there’s an emotionally satisfying conclusion to this that most of the stories lack. The First Date by Candace Havens is a very real, romantic short about a widow getting back into the swing of things with her hunky Scottish neighbor. For something on the gay side of the fence, Emily Veinglory’s Maze Bright takes another of her offbeat characters and makes him utterly human without losing focus on the romance.

A couple others that bear mentioning – Mark of a Bond Girl by Gemma Halliday is fun and sparkly, while Free by Bebe Thomas is the shortest and most heartbreaking of the bunch. Less than 500 words, it packs an emotional wallop that stories much, much longer never attain.

While my score for this might not reflect just how much I really enjoyed the above-mentioned stories, the fact that all proceeds on sales for this anthology go to battered women’s shelters should weigh in its favor. I don’t regret buying this in the slightest. I discovered a few new authors for me, learned that several that showed promise are paying off, and found out a few who just aren’t my style. Add in the charity angle, and really, you can’t go wrong.

29/50

Dream by the Fire: Winter Magic by assorted authors

TITLE: Dream By the Fire: Winter Magic
AUTHOR: Esmerelda Bishop, Lanie Fuller, Jamie Hill, Ava Rose Johnson, Kelly Madden, Lyra Marlowe, Kim Rees, Emily Ryan-Davis, Fiona Shinn
PUBLISHER: Freya’s Bower
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 48k)
GENRE: Holiday romance
COST: $5.75

A collection of nine short stories, all written by different authors, for feel-good moments about the holiday season.

A Love Rewritten by Esmerelda Bishop – A woman falls into her favorite romance novel and gets to replace the heroine she doesn’t really like. Pure wish fulfillment fantasy. The heroine is Mary Sue’d, the hero is interchangeable with almost any Highlander hero, and the prose is simplistic at best. Pass.

Mistletoe Magic by Lanie Fuller – A woman has a dream about her husband getting killed, only to have a chance to save him. There was so little detail on this one that I had an almost impossible time understanding the world development. Both characterizations suffer as a result, too. Pass.

High Maintenance by Jamie Hill – A woman breaks her leg on a skiing trip with her family, and gets charmed by the lodge’s maintenance man. There’s an attempt at making this heroine more 3-dimensional, but that falls short when this woman who seemed very intelligent to this point wonders if there’s such a thing as lust at first sight (when she seems to have no problem believing in love at first sight). The hero suffers the same fate. Still, more enjoyable than its predecessors.

Letting Go by Ava Rose Johnson – A woman believes her marriage is on the rocks after pushing away her husband after a miscarriage, but he uses the Christmas season to try and get her back. Maudlin melodrama. Pretty boring.

Upon a Midnight Clear by Kelly Madden – A woman gets a Yule tree for her village, only to encounter a fairy protecting the one that captivates her. One of the stories I liked more in this collection. Prose is more sophisticated than most, the idea sweet and self-contained. The hero has next to no characterization, but I still liked this one.

Solstice Night by Lyra Marlowe – A woman runs away from the lord who is determined to use her healer abilities against his enemies, and a bounty hunter seeks her out in a storm in order to take her back for the money he so desperately needs. My favorite story of the bunch, and the only author I sought out other work from. The story is sweet, the characters flawed and realistic, and the prose doesn’t suffer from the problems that plague others. A keeper for me.

A Winter’s Gift by Kim Rees – A woman returns home after yet another break-up to realize that she’s been in love with a lifelong friend the entire time. Unlikable characters and no sense of setting when the story requires it means this one was one of my least favorite. Pass.

Einmal nach a Modresnach by Emily Ryan-Davis – A woman is on holiday in Germany with female relatives and develops a crush on her grandmother’s male nurse. One of the strongest stories in the bunch, with very nice prose and real characters. It only gets muddled a bit in trying to do too much in too short a space.

Sugar Baby by Fiona Shinn – A woman wonders if she’s consigned to a loveless life in her bakery when she meets the new man in town. Likable characters, but prose with tense switches and other errors makes it hard to take this one seriously.

On the whole, a very average collection. There are varying heat levels, but nothing I found truly hot, and while there’s very little offensive about the anthology, there’s very little to remember, too.

Readability	5/10 – Nothing truly outstanding, though a couple of the stories help counter some of the tense shifting and simplistic prose of the weaker contributions.
Heroes	5/10 – For the large part, forgettable.
Heroines	5/10 – It almost feels like most of the authors are striving for that normal woman feeling and missing the point by a mile.
Entertainment value	5/10 – Some of them were a struggle to get through; only one author was worth the effort to look up other works.
World building	4/10 – The format of the short stories works against most of these, especially since they vary so greatly in genre.
TOTAL:	24/50