And we’re back again for another fascinating installment of Amy Reads the stories! Apparently I found where all the good stories were hiding this week, because only one of them earned the DNF note! And it’s not like I just slogged through the rest because I had to, they were fantastic!

Prophecy by Pelaam: DNF I’m not even sure what was wrong with this one, just that I could hardly read it. I thought maybe I was tired, but I had no troubles with the next story. It’s something about centaurs and arranged marriages between two guys who are instantly attracted to each other anyway.

More Than French Kissing by Cass Winters: A couple exchange students meet in Paris. It’s pretty much a Hollywood style grand-gestures romance movie, but I mean that in the best way, because this was a very sweet little feel-good read.

Without a View by Penny Brandon: A weird but well-written short about two guys kidnapped and put in a room together. Much was left unexplained so you have to read the sequel if you want to figure out WTF is going on, and also the fact that they *had* to do sex to get free of the room…it was weird.

Unexpected Homecoming by AJ Henderson: While the beginning of this one is a bit painfully cliche, it quickly turns into more comfortable cliches of omniscient old women and remeeting your high school crush. Parts are improbable or cliche (as I mentioned), but overall it’s another sweet romantic read.

Still Waters by Alex Gabriel: My favorite of this bunch; the tale of a monster from a monstrous world, who is trying to make his way as a peaceful fairy-tales-esque creature, when something worse than him hops between the worlds. It is a fantastic blending of horror-monsters and fairy-tale-monsters, and you can see how they fit or don’t fit into the world they are in, and it’s…just amazing. But. The author used “fathom” as a measurement of distance, and that was really painful.

The World in His Eyes by A.J. Thomas: This is a wonderful interracial story, told from the perspective of the guy who is black. Issues of race are touched on and important, but not in way used as cheap tricks, and all the characters are fully-fleshed out with their own motivations and personalities. It’s also a story of missed connections, second chances, and holding on for what you want. And it’s really hot, too.

Forbidden Broadway by Jonathan Penn: Another solid romance story, this time where one guy is a theater buff, and the other guy is …spoiler, never mind. It’s a good read, sweet, affirming, full of feels. But it’s also a bit unrealistic with somethings, like when character A meets character B, and is all “he’s hot, but a jerk,” and then really quickly forgets the second half of that sentence. So nothing unusual or really out of line with a simple romance, just room for improvement.