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Trust Me
One year into his studies at Moravec Academy, Koit has earned himself a reputation for womanizing. As half Shterpi, a reptilian alien sporting scales and other, more intimate assets, it has never been difficult to find a female cadet to keep him company for a night. When his friend, Sera, signs him up at a hook-up website frequented primarily by men seeking other men, he threatens to delete the profile. But then, the messages start pouring in, and he finds himself playing a whole new kind of field.
Message after message, hook-up after hook-up, Koit is less than impressed by the casual, shallow exchanges. But perhaps all it takes is the right guy with the perfect balance of looks and charm—not to mention an oral fixation—to show Koit that variety really is the spice of life.
Message after message, hook-up after hook-up, Koit is less than impressed by the casual, shallow exchanges. But perhaps all it takes is the right guy with the perfect balance of looks and charm—not to mention an oral fixation—to show Koit that variety really is the spice of life.
26 pages, ebook
First published December 29, 2011
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 5, 2012
This review can be found at Brief Encounters Reviews
While I had no problems with the writing in this story, there were a few issues that didn’t work for me, and some of that is personal preference, not the fault of the author. Koit is a womanizer whose best friend Sera has started a relationship with another woman. For some reason I never understood, she’s determined that he should at least try sex with a man. Like very determined to the point of signing him up for an oral sex site. Reluctantly he agrees to try it, but ends up in a gay bar rather than hook up with the one guy who he corresponded with and he declared a jerk.
After a few hook-ups which aren’t bad, but don’t blow his socks off, he finally agrees to a blind date set up by his friend on the condition she drop the subject. Of course some serendipity comes into play here. His friend was one of those female characters which make me crazy in m/m. They are determined to see their friend hooked up with someone and are extremely intrusive in their life. Although in this case, despite Koit’s grumbling, when he has a date, he asks her advice on what to wear. I have to admit though, I quickly lose my sympathy for guys who in essence encourage the behaviour. I was still left wondering why she was so insistent that he try gay sex. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was in a lesbian relationship, or if she’d sensed something in him, or why. I was mystified by her insistence.
Then there was Koit’s internalized homophobia. He was too manly to be gay, was happy to accept a blow job from a guy but had no intention of reciprocating, and kept telling himself out how unappealing gay sex was, despite his obvious interest. This was the future, there didn’t seem to be an anti-gay bias given that his friend was in an openly gay relationship and yet he was freaking out at the idea of anyone seeing him with a guy.
So as I said, the writing is smooth, I just found myself not connecting with Koit who seemed like a bit of an ass, and you only meet his love interest near the end so you don’t get to know much about him, except that Koit finds him incredibly smug. I just wasn’t invested in either character. On a personal note, the idea of wearing jeans and having a Mexican restaurant in space seems odd. I think I am a child of Star Trek, I expect Klingon Mot’loch and Vulcan Pok Tar, not chimichangas and burritos. But that’s my own personal bias. While set on a space station and Koit being only half-human, there’s not much sci-fi to the story, so you don’t have to be a die-hard sci-fi fan to enjoy it, and some of the issues that didn’t work for me will likely be fine for other readers.
While I had no problems with the writing in this story, there were a few issues that didn’t work for me, and some of that is personal preference, not the fault of the author. Koit is a womanizer whose best friend Sera has started a relationship with another woman. For some reason I never understood, she’s determined that he should at least try sex with a man. Like very determined to the point of signing him up for an oral sex site. Reluctantly he agrees to try it, but ends up in a gay bar rather than hook up with the one guy who he corresponded with and he declared a jerk.
After a few hook-ups which aren’t bad, but don’t blow his socks off, he finally agrees to a blind date set up by his friend on the condition she drop the subject. Of course some serendipity comes into play here. His friend was one of those female characters which make me crazy in m/m. They are determined to see their friend hooked up with someone and are extremely intrusive in their life. Although in this case, despite Koit’s grumbling, when he has a date, he asks her advice on what to wear. I have to admit though, I quickly lose my sympathy for guys who in essence encourage the behaviour. I was still left wondering why she was so insistent that he try gay sex. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was in a lesbian relationship, or if she’d sensed something in him, or why. I was mystified by her insistence.
Then there was Koit’s internalized homophobia. He was too manly to be gay, was happy to accept a blow job from a guy but had no intention of reciprocating, and kept telling himself out how unappealing gay sex was, despite his obvious interest. This was the future, there didn’t seem to be an anti-gay bias given that his friend was in an openly gay relationship and yet he was freaking out at the idea of anyone seeing him with a guy.
So as I said, the writing is smooth, I just found myself not connecting with Koit who seemed like a bit of an ass, and you only meet his love interest near the end so you don’t get to know much about him, except that Koit finds him incredibly smug. I just wasn’t invested in either character. On a personal note, the idea of wearing jeans and having a Mexican restaurant in space seems odd. I think I am a child of Star Trek, I expect Klingon Mot’loch and Vulcan Pok Tar, not chimichangas and burritos. But that’s my own personal bias. While set on a space station and Koit being only half-human, there’s not much sci-fi to the story, so you don’t have to be a die-hard sci-fi fan to enjoy it, and some of the issues that didn’t work for me will likely be fine for other readers.
January 15, 2012
This review was originally posted on my blog Joyfully Jay.
Koit is a student at the Moravec Academy, studying at the space station to be a pilot. His dating life is a series of shallow exchanges with random women he cares little about. His closest childhood friend Sera decides what Koit really needs to broaden his dating horizons. She signs him up for a website for those who enjoy a lot of oral with their sex, if you catch my drift. The site is primarily frequented by men and Sera thinks this might be exactly what Koit needs to find what he is really looking for.
At first Koit is freaked and annoyed at Sera. He is not anti-gay (Sera is a lesbian and his dad is gay) but he has never thought of himself as attracted to men and it definitely affects his image of himself. He is willing to admit that the issue is all in his mind though, as his body does thrill a bit at the idea of getting together with a guy, but he is not sure he is mentally ready. Most of the guys who email him from the site come across like idiots, and the one that looks promising won't put up with Koit's grouchy response so it goes nowhere.
Koit finally decides to just go for it and heads over to a gay bar to get some action that way. He has a couple of encounters with various men, and finds while he has no problem with kissing a guy or being on the receiving end of oral sex (not all that different from being with girls, he figures), he is still not comfortable doing the giving. Just when he thinks it is time to forget this whole idea, he agrees on one blind date setup by Sera. It turns out this one might just be the perfect match.
I really liked this story and thought it was a nice bridge between a contemporary story and a more science fiction style, which was good for me as someone not used to reading about nonhuman characters. Koit is part human, part Shterpi, giving him scales on part of his arms and back, no hair, and making him unusually well endowed (but of course). Yet with the exception of some mild power to sort of "boost" people's emotions and these physical differences, he is essentially human. There are a few other characters that are partially nonhuman, but again this primarily manifests itself as mild physical differences. With the exception of the setting, this feels a lot like a contemporary story. In fact, although it is sort of science fiction with the space station and all that, it is very light on the world building. This didn't bother me at all (and in fact I liked that in such a short story since you don't need to spend a lot of time explaining things), but I point it out because most of the story feels very familiar to modern day.
One thing that is interesting to note is that Koit doesn't meet "the one" until about halfway through the book. He hooks up with other people before that (both male and female) and his interaction with the men is described in a pretty detailed way. This didn't bother me at all as I think it was necessarily for Koit to come to terms with his reaction to men before he was ready to meet the right guy. The other experiences served to get Koit to recognize and get comfortable with his feelings so when the right person comes along he is ready to act on it. But I know some folks don't like our heroes getting it on with anyone but each other so I wanted to mention it.
So I really liked the way this book is sort of a mix between a coming out story and an out for you story, but not quite really either. Koit doesn't ever really identify as gay or "come out" in the book, although clearly he has an awakening of homosexual feelings and feels attraction to a variety of men. Yet although he has encounters with other guys in the story, it is that one special person who allows him to take things from liking the idea to really feeling comfortable with the full sexual interaction with a man. And I like that it wasn't an easy thing for him and the whole thing is a process, not just one day waking up and realizing he is gay.
One area I thought could use improvement is the idea of Koit's powers of suggestion or the ability to sort of magnify other's feelings. It is introduced and discussed several times, but it never really goes anywhere. On one hand it helps to show a way he is different than full humans. But if it is going to come up repeatedly, I guess I wanted to see it impact the story in some way. I'll also just point out I would classify this as an HFN not an HEA story, only because the relationship doesn't have that much time to develop. This felt very natural and a quick declaration of true love would have been totally out of place, but I just wanted to mention it.
Overall I enjoyed this story and really liked following along with Koit and his journey of self-discovery. For those of you who, like me, are a bit wary of stories featuring non-humans, I think this is a great way to jump into it. It has a very contemporary feel and one that I think most people would be comfortable with and enjoy. I know that I did.
Koit is a student at the Moravec Academy, studying at the space station to be a pilot. His dating life is a series of shallow exchanges with random women he cares little about. His closest childhood friend Sera decides what Koit really needs to broaden his dating horizons. She signs him up for a website for those who enjoy a lot of oral with their sex, if you catch my drift. The site is primarily frequented by men and Sera thinks this might be exactly what Koit needs to find what he is really looking for.
At first Koit is freaked and annoyed at Sera. He is not anti-gay (Sera is a lesbian and his dad is gay) but he has never thought of himself as attracted to men and it definitely affects his image of himself. He is willing to admit that the issue is all in his mind though, as his body does thrill a bit at the idea of getting together with a guy, but he is not sure he is mentally ready. Most of the guys who email him from the site come across like idiots, and the one that looks promising won't put up with Koit's grouchy response so it goes nowhere.
Koit finally decides to just go for it and heads over to a gay bar to get some action that way. He has a couple of encounters with various men, and finds while he has no problem with kissing a guy or being on the receiving end of oral sex (not all that different from being with girls, he figures), he is still not comfortable doing the giving. Just when he thinks it is time to forget this whole idea, he agrees on one blind date setup by Sera. It turns out this one might just be the perfect match.
I really liked this story and thought it was a nice bridge between a contemporary story and a more science fiction style, which was good for me as someone not used to reading about nonhuman characters. Koit is part human, part Shterpi, giving him scales on part of his arms and back, no hair, and making him unusually well endowed (but of course). Yet with the exception of some mild power to sort of "boost" people's emotions and these physical differences, he is essentially human. There are a few other characters that are partially nonhuman, but again this primarily manifests itself as mild physical differences. With the exception of the setting, this feels a lot like a contemporary story. In fact, although it is sort of science fiction with the space station and all that, it is very light on the world building. This didn't bother me at all (and in fact I liked that in such a short story since you don't need to spend a lot of time explaining things), but I point it out because most of the story feels very familiar to modern day.
One thing that is interesting to note is that Koit doesn't meet "the one" until about halfway through the book. He hooks up with other people before that (both male and female) and his interaction with the men is described in a pretty detailed way. This didn't bother me at all as I think it was necessarily for Koit to come to terms with his reaction to men before he was ready to meet the right guy. The other experiences served to get Koit to recognize and get comfortable with his feelings so when the right person comes along he is ready to act on it. But I know some folks don't like our heroes getting it on with anyone but each other so I wanted to mention it.
So I really liked the way this book is sort of a mix between a coming out story and an out for you story, but not quite really either. Koit doesn't ever really identify as gay or "come out" in the book, although clearly he has an awakening of homosexual feelings and feels attraction to a variety of men. Yet although he has encounters with other guys in the story, it is that one special person who allows him to take things from liking the idea to really feeling comfortable with the full sexual interaction with a man. And I like that it wasn't an easy thing for him and the whole thing is a process, not just one day waking up and realizing he is gay.
One area I thought could use improvement is the idea of Koit's powers of suggestion or the ability to sort of magnify other's feelings. It is introduced and discussed several times, but it never really goes anywhere. On one hand it helps to show a way he is different than full humans. But if it is going to come up repeatedly, I guess I wanted to see it impact the story in some way. I'll also just point out I would classify this as an HFN not an HEA story, only because the relationship doesn't have that much time to develop. This felt very natural and a quick declaration of true love would have been totally out of place, but I just wanted to mention it.
Overall I enjoyed this story and really liked following along with Koit and his journey of self-discovery. For those of you who, like me, are a bit wary of stories featuring non-humans, I think this is a great way to jump into it. It has a very contemporary feel and one that I think most people would be comfortable with and enjoy. I know that I did.
January 11, 2012
Trust Me is a slice of sci-fi erotica involving a womanizing reptilian cadet who suddenly finds himself the subject of a very different kind of attention, thanks to a profile secretly posted to a male-on-male oral encounters site by his best friend, Sera. In this far-flung future, sexuality is no more taboo than hair colour (Koit has none), skin colour (Koit sports brown scales), or planet of origin (pretty much all the cadets are aliens), so he decides to give the boys a chance. Koit is a great character, just different enough to truly seem alien, yet human enough that we can still relate to him. His encounters are as humorous as they are erotic, with the young man forced to learn his way around the wants, desires, and physical sensations of other men. More bi-passive than bi-curious, the way in which he's completely oblivious to the fact that his male partners should be any different than his female partners in how they accommodate his alien member is just delightful.
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December 31, 2011Out today!
June 23, 2012
Part of the Wild Passions anthology. Not my favorite in the collection, but just an OK read for me.
June 5, 2013
2.5 stars
It was just okay, I wasn't particularly attached to any characters and predicted the end nearly off the bat. Not bad just nothing special
It was just okay, I wasn't particularly attached to any characters and predicted the end nearly off the bat. Not bad just nothing special
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews