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Prem Numbers: a story collection
The cocky charmer at your local bar...the awe-inspiring U.S. Vice-President you'd lay down your life and your love for...the mysterious stranger who comes to your rescue one night...the beautiful woman you can't touch, because to do so might literally kill you...the smokin' hot roadhouse bartenders who take your troubles away, only to add new ones. These are the prem numbers. They almost always add up to passion.In this collection, find previously published stories like "In Her Service" and "The Pick-Me-Up" as well as steamy new material like "She's So Lovely," a small-town ménage set in the same world as Tikka Chance on Me.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 3, 2019
7 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Suleikha Snyder
28 books320 followersEditor, writer, American desi and lifelong geek Suleikha Snyder is an author of contemporary and erotic romance. A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusivity in publishing, Suleikha is frequently ranting when she should really be adding to her body of work.
Suleikha lives in Chicago, finding inspiration in genre fiction, daytime and primetime soaps, and anything that involves chocolate or bacon. Visit her online at www.suleikhasnyder.com and follow her on Twitter @suleikhasnyder.
Suleikha lives in Chicago, finding inspiration in genre fiction, daytime and primetime soaps, and anything that involves chocolate or bacon. Visit her online at www.suleikhasnyder.com and follow her on Twitter @suleikhasnyder.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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December 19, 2019A collection of romance shorts. Romance is probably the hardest genre to write short stories in, and Suleikha Snyder is exceptionally good at it, mostly because she understands structure and when to drop us into the story. I maintain 'Jesse's Girl', her take on Jolene in Dil or No Dil, is the finest romance short story ever written and I *will* fight you about it.
The first story gives us the passionate affair of the black woman who becomes VP when Trump is kicked out of office and her Muslim bodyguard and honestly it was almost too painful to read for its furiously hopeful refusal to give up a vision of a better world. The collection ends with a lovely longer story set in the world of the delightful Tikka Chance on Me, with a m/m couple introducing a desi woman into their relationship. It's sexy, well written, well edited, and even if you don't tend to like shorts, you should try these.
The first story gives us the passionate affair of the black woman who becomes VP when Trump is kicked out of office and her Muslim bodyguard and honestly it was almost too painful to read for its furiously hopeful refusal to give up a vision of a better world. The collection ends with a lovely longer story set in the world of the delightful Tikka Chance on Me, with a m/m couple introducing a desi woman into their relationship. It's sexy, well written, well edited, and even if you don't tend to like shorts, you should try these.
December 29, 2020
Reading this for my Short Stories 366 project, so individual reviews will pop up on my blog under this tag, but just trust me: this is hot, sexy, romantic and the collection I never knew I needed. For the polyam version of “Roadhouse” alone it’s worth the price of admission.
October 18, 2022
I love a short story; done right, it’s an art form. Extra points for romance short stories that feel complete within a few pages. One or two of these don’t click for me, but the ones that are great are GREAT.
(Including one that goes supernatural like it’s no big deal.)
(Including one that goes supernatural like it’s no big deal.)
January 2, 2020
I had a conversation over the holidays about the romance genre. I was talking to a friend who thinks fiction lacks truth, so obviously she is wrong. I am quite open about what I read, but she was still surprised that I, a woman of good sense, read a lot of romance. How do you explain to someone who dismisses all fiction as “fantasies” the powerful truths conveyed in fiction? Reader, I could not. We left that conversation each convinced of our own position. The belief that I hold dear is that fiction can reveal the truth under the information. I believe that fiction has the power to challenge our beliefs about the way the world should work. I read romance because romance is about hope, about all kinds of people getting happily ever afters, and about loving and accepting each other for who they are and who they can be. Because I have felt it in myself, I believe that reading writers who challenge patriarchal and white supremacist belief systems can help us unwrite the exclusionary rules in our heads. That seems like a lot to put on a love story with some hot sexy times. Let me introduce you to Suleikha Snyder where you get radical hope and face-sitting.
One of the things I love best about Suleikha Snyder’s writing is the agony of hopeful vulnerability with which she infuses her stories. Her characters believe in themselves but it feels unsafe for them to be in the world. They take risks on lust and love in the face of possible rejection, public censure, and death. They crack themselves open and dare to be vulnerable in a world that tells them not to. Snyder wants a world in which people can love and be loved without fear.
In the first story, “At Her Service” Snyder envisions a future in which the response to four years of Trump is for the United States to elect an all woman ticket. Vice President Letty Hughes is the first black woman to hold that office and she is having an affair with Secret Service Agent Shahzad Ali Khan. Shahzad is younger than her, Indian and Muslim. The conflict is not over whether they love each other, but over whether her career would survive them going public as a couple. Let’s take that energy into 2020 – a Black woman as Vice President with her much younger Indian Muslim boyfriend. Vote for the candidate most likely to give you that happily ever after.
In the last story, “She’s So Lovely” Snyder was inspired by the 1989 movie Road House (Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott*). Lovely Singh grew up in Southwestern Ohio where she still lives and works as a physicians assistant at the only Planned Parenthood in the area. One of her escapes is the County Line, a roadhouse run by Elliott Ransom and Johnny Teague. Lovely has been lusting after Elliott and Johnny for years, but one night she is particularly tired of being what everyone expects her to be.
Snyder doesn’t ignore the racism and homophobia in rural Ohio (or anywhere in the world), but she gives her characters a safe place to be themselves. This is what she gives all of her characters, and by extension, her readers, a safe space. The threats are out there, but what if we could have a place to be ourselves and people there who loved us as we are? Good romance tells us we are not broken, even if we feel like we are, and we deserve to love and be loved.
One of the things I love best about Suleikha Snyder’s writing is the agony of hopeful vulnerability with which she infuses her stories. Her characters believe in themselves but it feels unsafe for them to be in the world. They take risks on lust and love in the face of possible rejection, public censure, and death. They crack themselves open and dare to be vulnerable in a world that tells them not to. Snyder wants a world in which people can love and be loved without fear.
In the first story, “At Her Service” Snyder envisions a future in which the response to four years of Trump is for the United States to elect an all woman ticket. Vice President Letty Hughes is the first black woman to hold that office and she is having an affair with Secret Service Agent Shahzad Ali Khan. Shahzad is younger than her, Indian and Muslim. The conflict is not over whether they love each other, but over whether her career would survive them going public as a couple. Let’s take that energy into 2020 – a Black woman as Vice President with her much younger Indian Muslim boyfriend. Vote for the candidate most likely to give you that happily ever after.
In the last story, “She’s So Lovely” Snyder was inspired by the 1989 movie Road House (Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott*). Lovely Singh grew up in Southwestern Ohio where she still lives and works as a physicians assistant at the only Planned Parenthood in the area. One of her escapes is the County Line, a roadhouse run by Elliott Ransom and Johnny Teague. Lovely has been lusting after Elliott and Johnny for years, but one night she is particularly tired of being what everyone expects her to be.
She was so goddamn tired of it all. Of the half-assed jokes. Of the half-acceptance. Of being that girl, that woman. The one everybody and nobody saw. The Jim Beam went back smooth. Smoother than her day, her week, her year. Lovely sank against the high-backed stool and sighed like the weight of all that time was in her lungs.
And Johnny glowered at her as he brought the bottle of bourbon back over. “Go easy,” he warned as he poured her another.
“Why should I?” The words were out before she could stop them. Forced out by the assholes picketing the clinic all morning and the bikers who’d stiffed her parents on their room bill last night. And the man in front of her who could barely meet her gaze half the time. “What if I want to go hard, Johnny Teague? What then? What are you going to do about it?”
Snyder doesn’t ignore the racism and homophobia in rural Ohio (or anywhere in the world), but she gives her characters a safe place to be themselves. This is what she gives all of her characters, and by extension, her readers, a safe space. The threats are out there, but what if we could have a place to be ourselves and people there who loved us as we are? Good romance tells us we are not broken, even if we feel like we are, and we deserve to love and be loved.
December 31, 2020
All the love! Even the stories I didn't care for still showed a high level of talent and goodness. Definitely gonna give it a thumbs up on levels. Synder's writing continuously grows and impresses me. My favorite was "In Her Service." A what-if that we all wish was the world in so many ways. And I adored the story about a Bollywood actor learning to take charge of his own life via a really smart, focused intimacy partner. My third fave was a love letter to X-Men. How can you go wrong with it?
I trust what Synder writes after reading several of her stories. I can't wait to read more.
I trust what Synder writes after reading several of her stories. I can't wait to read more.
December 28, 2019
A great collection of interesting, sexy, romantic, short stories
It’s been a long time since I’ve read such an amazing collection of short stories. I was trying to figure out why they captivated me in such a way, and realized that it’s because even though they are short, the stories felt fully complete. The collection reminded me of Isabel Allende’s “The Stories of Eva Luna.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve read such an amazing collection of short stories. I was trying to figure out why they captivated me in such a way, and realized that it’s because even though they are short, the stories felt fully complete. The collection reminded me of Isabel Allende’s “The Stories of Eva Luna.”
May 9, 2021
I think I just found a new favourite author! Absolutely adored every story on here and I fiercely admire Suleikha's writing chops considering the sheer amount of romance, wit, passion, banter, and love she's managed to pack within every story in this collection.
January 11, 2020
Another lovely short story collection by Suleikha Snyder. I love her prose and intimidate stories.
January 13, 2020
These short stories were all super hot! I highly recommend this collection if you want just a quick fix of something dirty and fun :)
November 19, 2020
I’m a fan of short stories and Suleikha Snyder is very good at writing them. The stories are sexy, hopeful, and loving.
February 20, 2021
Some of these short stories were incredibly sexy. She definately knows how to write a solid tight plot with sexiness.
March 16, 2021
Exquisite, exotic, erotic writing---and that's not even including the sexytimes!
April 16, 2022
Short story romances, and they work. Sexy and perfect.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews