First, let me just remind everyone that FoxHart is now available at your local Amazon bookseller. It’s a story of wars lost, and marriages arranged, and I don’t know whatever else I put in it.

Then, let’s see, we’re up to entry 7 for ? That’s a wee bit pathetic, especially since there’ll be another SSBB to read tomorrow or Tuesday or soon. But, hey, I have less than 140 stories left! So…

I think next year I will see if I can figure out how to read them when they start posting, and then we’ll get to watch how quickly I fall behind! Won’t that be fun.

Anyway, here’s the stories from the last two–OH! Before I say that, some of the stories were not good enough to read, but not bad enough to gripe about, (like the one with the…”ageplay”?) so I’ve started deleting the ones not worth my time.

Stories:

When He Kissed Me by Lexzi Jerald: I barely remember this one, I’m having to re-read it just to try… okay, it’s a sweet college romance story of moderate to good quality, but low remember-ability.

Coil Me Up by Eloreen Moon: I was unable to accept the premise that the Greek Gods were homophobic, which made the rest of the story impossible to handle. Also, snake-shifters? DNF

Caffe Latte by Dee Aditya: Classic college romance tale, with a few unusual twists, but nothing too out-of-the-ordinary.

The Troll Whisperer by Sera Trevor: I hated the main character from the very first paragraph, although that didn’t last, and by the end I loved him as much as anyone. It’s a really great character-arc, honestly. Saying too much will spoil it, but this is just fantastic. I thought I would hate it, the character wanted me to hate him, but…this is a great story.

Somewhere In-Between by Kenzie Cade: A prince with a dead father, has to choose his life-companion ASAP because Politics. Some shenanigans result due to his choice. The motives of the Bad Guys never actually made sense to me, and the companion-choosing was obvious, but it’s an okay story.

The Garconniere by Ali MacLagan: I feel like stories about slaves should all be terrible. Because when they aren’t, I feel terrible for not finding them terrible. So, this was the story of a slave and the master’s son, who strike up an unlikely friendship. It does a really good job of side-stepping/dealing with the consent stuff (I didn’t wonder at all about anyone’s consent in anything unless my thoughts wandered out of the story, and I started over-analyzing), and if you don’t worry about the ending too much, it’s really sweet–though, being a story of slavery in the deep south, it does have some really heavy moments.

That Eighteenth Summer by Raine O’Tierney: This was a very intense one with a character who’d just graduated high school, and who was thinking about joining the army like his brother, instead of going to college like every other high school graduate character ever. I liked the intensity and the fact that it was a look at a potentially different path in life. It’s also really sweet and really heart-wrenching, too.

Hating You is the Hardest Part by C.C. Jaz: Werewolves who don’t like each other and a meddling grandmother alpha. This one has an odd emotional distance–which isn’t a mark of bad-writing, I’ve seen it more in older works, it’s just not very intense, even when it is, you know? There are also a number of …I guess I’d have to say syntax errors, although it’s more like the tense of the verb attaches it to the wrong character, and not that it’s actually grammatically incorrect. Anyway, those make it confusing here and there, although I did enjoy this story overall, and was almost late to work because of it.

That Night in Cherry Grove by J.J. Cassidy: A hot interracial story about a cop and a guy who is not a cop, but who isn’t what he seems. Bit on the filthy side, and on the “don’t look at it too hard” side, but hot, like I said.

587,687 (Little) Words by Kathleen Hayes: A weird one, well written, but the plot and world setting doesn’t hold up to even the slightest of scrutiny. A journalist who is also a foster parent has a foster child stolen, and has to get a spy to get her back. Like I said, don’t think too hard, and it’s a nice little romantic read.