I got really caught up in having a life, so I didn’t feel I had read enough stories last week to justify a post, but then I made up for it be breezing through a whole bunch of them this week. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that I had a lot of free time, I just hit a section of really terrible stories. I went through 17 stories, of which it looks like I only finished seven. That’s not really great odds.

All stories can, as always, be found in their downloadable form .

Wolf’s Honor by Laylah Hunter: Some werewolves learning to live under a new alpha. It says it’s a “trope subversion” but while it wasn’t quite your standard werewolves, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was “subversive.” It was still an alpha wolf falling for a lower wolf, with some “being in heat” thrown in for good measure; so, you know, typical stuff.

Ask, Answer, Look, Kiss by Livia Frost: Two friends who are in business together buy a house together, which causes them to realize the new potential depths of their relationship. It’s really good, though the intensity isn’t quite as high as it could have been.

Just a Feeling by J.H. Knight: I thought I read this one way more recently that a nebulous “sometime early last week,” so I guess it’s a bit of a sticky idea. Anyway, a man is thrust into being a father, and must find a nanny, and then ends up with a male nanny whom he falls for. It’s sweet and cute, and a few of the scenes had that wonderful UST zing to them.

Bright Like a Thousand Memories by Gabrielle Morgan: This was a cute reunited friends story, where they end up working for the same firm, but not actually as co-workers, and then slowly figure out what they want.

Sicario by Kai Tyler: The fact that this is only book #1 helps explain the unfinished plot, but it doesn’t really make characters or writing better. It’s a typical rich-man-buys-slave-to-dominate-him story (and how weird that that’s pretty much a trope now), with some …uh…other things tossed in for plot-reasons that were not at all addressed in this volume.

Eagle Man and Mr Hawk by Dawn Sister: DNF. I haven’t been commenting on the unread ones this post, but this story was almost good enough to read all of, so I’m making an exception. A new guy moves into a small town, and, despite some small abandoned details, falls for the local color. And there are lots of things that conspire to inconvenience them in trying to have a relationship, like ducks. And family emergencies. It got a few laughs out of me, but just failed to grab my attention somehow, so you could check it out, see if it’s more your style.

Sing Me Your Love Song by Raine O’Tierney: This one probably takes the WTF award for this post. It starts with a guy who has a curse/blessing that ties him to his destined lover, which is a great idea if you ask me, but then it gets weird. I’ll admit I didn’t read the “Oh, we have past lives together!” bits, but that’s because by then I was mostly in train-wreck-watching mode, and I just wanted to see da fuc was going on. So, I read all of it, but…maybe someone can write me a good story about magical strings tying fated lovers together?

Connected by Ink by Nicole Dennis: A man with bird-tattoos has those tattoos magically escape from his skin onto his lover’s. K.J. Charles did it better.

Shintarou’s Way by Eve: A were-dog makes friends with a vampire. Spent too long building up a world and character back-story that doesn’t ultimately figure into the short story, but it was okay, if you like “puppy play” and dom/sub relationships, and the trope of a rich man …adopting a beggar from the streets.

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And now I have a mere 78 stories left to read. Anyone want to place bets on when I finish? It looks like it’s mostly shorter stories left, but that’s still a lot, and I do have a bit of a life to live.