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Ugly
Ian feels he has not been blessed with good looks, and his treatment from others lends weight to these beliefs. From a child, where he is teased about his big nose, to his twenties, where his best friend, the handsome Zack, seems to get all the attention, Ian is made to feel inferior. The resulting insecurity means he won't look in a mirror unless absolutely essential. Then one night at Zenith, the local gay club, he locks eyes with Brad. He likes what he sees, but so does Zack. As Zack approaches Brad, Ian's heart sinks. However, there is a small chance Brad will tell Zack to take a hike. Is Ian's life about to change for the better? Will he finally get a chance at love? Or will his so-called best friend Zack ruin everything? Could Zack really be that cruel?
60 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2024
The MC in this single POV novella is such a very sad character. He is physically unattractive to the point of being mocked and talked about behind his back. His total lack of confidence doesn’t help, either. The sad scenes of the betrayal of his only friend, “I hung out with you to make myself look better”, had such a bad vibe.
As I read about Ian finally meeting someone who liked him, an older, handsome man with a lot of friends, I did not feel happiness for him, I thought the boyfriend was playing him, like a bet to humiliate Ian. Ian had the same thoughts and I wonder if the author intended the mood of dread all throughout the story.
It kept building and building, a feeling of something horrible was going to happen when Ian or the new boyfriend flips their twig. I was skimming to get to that awful scene.
Guess what? The new boyfriend wasn’t playing him, he liked Ian, and there is a HEA after a hot sex scene that I totally didn’t enjoy because I was expecting a butcher knife to appear!
Someone else read this story and tell me that you don’t feel a vibe of doom!
I read this story in the ‘2021 Top Ten Gay Romance’ anthology at KU.
As I read about Ian finally meeting someone who liked him, an older, handsome man with a lot of friends, I did not feel happiness for him, I thought the boyfriend was playing him, like a bet to humiliate Ian. Ian had the same thoughts and I wonder if the author intended the mood of dread all throughout the story.
It kept building and building, a feeling of something horrible was going to happen when Ian or the new boyfriend flips their twig. I was skimming to get to that awful scene.
Guess what? The new boyfriend wasn’t playing him, he liked Ian, and there is a HEA after a hot sex scene that I totally didn’t enjoy because I was expecting a butcher knife to appear!
Someone else read this story and tell me that you don’t feel a vibe of doom!
I read this story in the ‘2021 Top Ten Gay Romance’ anthology at KU.
November 12, 2020
I had to add this book to Goodreads, I couldn't provide a cover picture. This is a sweet but rather sad short story about Ian, who is rather plain and has suffered physically and mentally through the years because of it. But he has a good heart and longs for someone to love him for who he is, not how he looks, even his good friend Zack just uses him. It's a lovely story, sad but with an HEA he so badly deserves.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews