Next Stop: Funnel Cake

by Heidi Champa

Travis Webber has been working at his uncle’s amusement park since the days of keeping money in his pocket during the summers of high school and college. But, with his college career cut prematurely short, it’s turned into a full-time job. To add insult to injury, he’s forced to spend the bulk of his summer driving the train that runs through the park. This isn’t a huge problem, however, until someone from his past recognizes him.

Andrew Baxter, the guidance counselor who helped Travis in high school, recognizes him immediately, in spite of the seven years that have passed—and Travis’s cheesy overalls. When he invites Travis out to catch up on old times, Travis is reluctant, but his long-dormant crush on Andrew from his teenaged years is still enough to make him say “yes.”

As the two men get reacquainted, demons from Travis’s past threaten to grind the reunion to a halt. Can Travis learn to trust again and let Andrew into his life, or will old hurts derail his future?

Gay / Contemporary / Exhibitionism / Public Places

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Contemporary

54 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2013

About the author

Heidi Champa is a typical last-born child. Snarky, attention-seeking and rebellious, she started to create dirty stories to keep herself out of real trouble. Having tried her hand at a million terrible jobs, she bought herself a laptop and finally started typing up those handwritten tales. After much deliberation, she started to let other people read her work.

In addition to her flare with the written word, she knows every sentence of the movie Clue by heart and bakes a mean Funny Cake. She loves Aussie Rules Football (Go The Cats!!), dancing to bad music and laughing too loud in public. A natural born klutz, she has been known to fall for no reason at all and always has a bruise somewhere on her body. Her life has taken her all over the world, but a piece of her heart will always be in Australia. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband.

She has been published in numerous anthologies including Best Women’s Erotica 2010, Best of Best Women's Erotica 2, Playing With Fire, Frenzy, College Boys, Like Magnets We Attract, Skater Boys and Ultimate Curves. Her first novella, White Out, was published by Amber Allure in August 2010 and her second, All Expenses Paid, was released in June. She has also steamed up the pages of Bust Magazine. If you prefer your erotica in electronic form, she can be found at Clean Sheets, Torquere Press, Ravenous Romance, Oysters and Chocolate, Dreamspinner Press, and The Erotic Woman.

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more serious than I was expecting, which was completely fine, I liked Travis a lot and understood his trepidation about trusting people given his story. Andrew was very likable as well, but I needed a little bit more of their history to buy into their relationship. The setup was borderline creepy and Andrew's dogged pursuit of Travis didn't have enough background to make me understand "why?". A little bit of backstory would have made a big difference.

[Ro · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Something about it being his former guidance counselor made it a miss for me, even though its seven years later. Travis is in a place right now where he is almost in need of a counselor (stuck working at the amusement park and going nowhere).

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve mentioned in past reviews how much of a gamble it is for me when I read a novella. I say that because I sometimes long for the parts of the story which weren’t written more than I enjoy what is written. My gamble didn’t pay off with Next Stop: Funnel Cake.

I had a few issues with the book but the biggest one was the feeling that important things had been left out. I really wanted a conversation about the past between Travis and Andrew. I needed to know how well they knew each other in high school and what their relationship was like back then. I’m still unsure how they went from a student/advisor acquaintance seven years ago to immediately dating. Honestly, the intensity of Andrew’s pursuit of Travis upon reacquaintance seemed very strange. It struck me as being creepy. If Travis had been a friend of mine, I would have been advising him to avoid Andrew and ignore the phone calls.

The second issue is one of my common complaints, the relationship moved way too quickly. My brain didn’t transition from Andrew being the pervy ex-advisor to the new lover anywhere near the pace at which the story moved. I needed more time to make that jump and felt the book left me behind.

The next issue came as a surprise for me. I had my initial bad reaction to Andrew but I did eventually move beyond that. What came as a surprise was my reaction to Travis once I got to know him a little better. I started off thinking of him as a good guy down on his luck but then later in the story I saw his as being sullen and whiny. I lost any connection I had with him as he started complaining about his parents’ divorce and them no longer having the money to pay for his education. I was less than impressed with him at that point.

I’m not saying this was a bad story, it just wasn’t that good. It would have been better if I had some more history and got to know the characters better. The biggest problem for me was that it was too short for me to care about what happened between Travis and Andrew.

[Page Crusherz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable!! :)

[Riayl · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Not much to say about this one, it couldn't decide whether it was going to be cute, or serious, instead it teetered between the two and never really took off, though it had good potential.

[Bogusia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Janeylou · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok read. had to look up what funnel cake was though, never heard of it before!!!!,