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The Eastern Gate
Iosif guards the Eastern Gate of the Empire of Rowlen. It is a quiet, boring snow ridden place where nothing ever happens. The only good thing about his posting is Yegor, the sweet, handsome schoolteacher he's been flirting with the past few months.
Then Yegor fails to show on time, and when he does finally show, it's with rumors of strange men hunting an imperial tsarevich said to be traveling in that area…
Then Yegor fails to show on time, and when he does finally show, it's with rumors of strange men hunting an imperial tsarevich said to be traveling in that area…
18 pages, ebook
First published January 20, 2022
37 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Megan Derr
284 books2,950 followersMegan is a long time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.
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patreon.com/meganderr
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meganaderr@gmail.com
@meganaderr
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
April 21, 2025
I see you too seldom, and this makes me blue / Everything I do, darling, is done, yes, for you (The Letter – Aretha Franklin).
So I’ve been thinking, pondering even, that I would never be able to make one of those “Help me pick my next read!” polls. One, because I don’t know how, and two, I know myself too well and I'd just end up ignoring the results and instead of reading the very popular Hunger Games 5: The Hungriest Game, I’d go out of my way to read something obscure or old like... the "Harry Hole” detective series or something. And since we're still in this vivid That's So Raven premonition for some reason, I can see myself then writing a review with an opening line saying that I was totally disappointed that the book didn't have any jokes about Harry Hole's hairy h- …you know what? Never mind, I'll leave that for later. Stay tuned for my Harry Hole review. Tadaa~aa, The Eastern Gate by Megan Derr! Sure, it's a little obscure and a little older, but that just means that it's right where I want to be. What can I say, it seems like I can't completely shake my hipster origins, so why try to fight it? And it's cool because I liked it well enough. Sorry, I know I'm not really radiating enthusiasm. I mean, I did though, it’s good... enough. Damn, I can’t help but feel like I need to add an “enough” at the end every time! But saying it’s good enough makes me sound a lot more negative than I actually feel and I don’t want to misrepresent myself. Let's be real, this book definitely isn't bad enough to warrant a smear campaign from me. Besides, at only eighteen pages, you'd think it’d be pretty hard for someone to form an opinion either which way because there shouldn't be enough time to even get annoyed by anything before reaching the credits! I mean... I managed, but it's whatever. The thing is, there's a double-edged sword thing going on here in that you can sense the same authorial DNA threading throughout the story right out the gate (ha ha that’s a word in the title), and I consider that a good thing and a maybe not-so-good thing. It’s good (enough) because it shows that Megan Derr has a particular style and anybody who loves her stuff will also really love this, but it also means that if you find said style to be somewhat dull and lifeless then… well, you get it. Not as much of a win for us latter folk. In other words, I'm selfish and I want every book catered to my specific tastes! I don't know if this gives me enough credentials, but I’ve read both The High King's Golden Tongue and Tournament of Losers, and while they were both impeccable in terms of writing and lore, I still felt like there was a missing spark of electricity in them that held me back from loving them the same way I do with the works of Ginn Hale or Foz Meadows. This author's "Frankenstein's Monster" hasn't quite come alive for me yet. With The High King’s Golden Tongue especially, when it wasn’t killing me with its brochure prose, it was beating me over the head with how annoying I found the characters! Yeah, I know that this is a review for a different book and it's not fair to go into it with strong bias, but I unfortunately quickly found out that my opinions for this short story were very much one and the same as with all the other works by this author.
Ugh, I always feel really bad showering my reviews with my negative disposition for books that I thought were totally fine because whenever I close my eyes afterwards, I see myself as that food critic from the movie Chef. You know, the the guy who writes an unfairly bad review for Jon Favreau's food and causes him to rush out to him and have a meltdown out in public. All screaming and acting a fool? Yeah, despite the fact that there's always a small part of me that finds the idea of swinging at a hornet's nest very alluring (that's why I'm always talking about Marvel movies), when the dust has settled, I never actually want to be the guy getting screamed at. Because I'm a coward, sure, but also because I'd feel bad about inadvertently hurting someone's feelings. Don't want that! I mean, none of this is to say that I think I’m some kind of famous critic or anything, as I’m allergic to the word “influencer,” but if I always seem like I’m constantly undercutting every point I make immediately after I say it, it's only because I’m always trying to be careful with my word choice. Back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum swinging, always holding my hands up in attempt to placate an angry mob. Sheesh, I err on the side of passive voice, that's for sure! So yeah, now that we’ve finally made it to the to the second paragraph, I guess I should probably get to talking about what the story was. The Eastern Gate! By Megan Derr. Let's flip to page one, we start seemingly mid-story with our main man, Iosif, as he's mid-lament, drowning in self-pity over the the fact that he’s been placed on guard duty at the most boring and miserable of the several towers that border the kingdom. Sorry, I guess "The Kingdom" sounds kind of vague and generic, but never let it be said that this story skimps on the details! In the first two paragraphs alone, we're actually given the mammoth's share of all the specific names and it goes in depth into all the provinces that are peppered throughout the land. Wait, I sound kind of sarcastic here. My bad, I'm just lazy and have a terrible memory so "the kingdom" will have to do for now. Besides, I have a natural inclination towards being catty when I'm talking about something I didn't love love. Brat Summer! ...Probably too late for that, huh? I missed the train on that one. Let me try to salvage this though, I don't think The Eastern Gate is bad because it's about a detailed fantasy world that, to my knowledge, we'll literally never see again, but I would have liked it more had the plot spent more time working on improving the chemistry between our two main leads. That's a compliment, right? That I liked the characters enough to where I wanted to see more of them? All I know is that Megan Derr is nothing if not incredibly detailed in her writing, leaving no stone unturned.
“The only bright spots to his dark, cold days were the letters from his mother and sisters, which usually came with puzzles and books and sweets, and Yegor.”
Anyway, I don’t blame Iosif for his incessant whining one bit because I can relate (that's kind of what this review is. Hm, much to think about), but also with the biting cold, poor company, and dull landscapes, what else is man to do other than stir in self-pity!? I've never really been one to be impressed by cold, snowy scenes. Slip and sliding all over the place? Yuck! There was this one game called Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I tried to speed-run through the whole thing because while the story was fun, I didn't like how the entire story took place on an ugly snowy mountain. Let's go somewhere warm instead! "Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya!" What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Iosif's one saving grace in this forsaken land is that he’s happened to start up a tender, yet new, romance with a lovely teacher named Yegor. "Time stands still when you're a-waiting, sometimes I think my heart is stopping too. One lonely hour seems forever. Sixty minutes more to wait for you." My only problem with this set-up is that I really liked it and then it was thrown out the window right quick. I was gearing up for some The Holdovers type shit! You know, where we're all trapped together with people we don't like, then we all learn a valuable lesson about keeping an open mind and learning to loo~oove. But nope, because the story was written in such a specific and careful way in order to hide an eventual twist, it made the the prose come across as deceptive and somewhat shoehorned in retrospect. And it didn't help that this emphasis on hiding a big reveal ended up making the story as a whole seem silly rather than clever. There's a character death in the game Dragon Age: The Veilguard that has a similar vibe; a fan favorite character dies early on in the story and the game tries do a little Sixth Sense thing where, through the main character, we still see them without knowing that they're toast. Then, as you can probably guess, the big reveal at the end is that they were dead the whole time. But because all of the dramatic weight of the story hinges on the "dead all along" angle, both the characters and us, the players, weren't able to properly remember the character with the fondness that they deserved. The focus is shifted to the prospect of the cheap shock factor thing rather than lending itself to the wider narrative. I mean, the main reason why I even picked this up so soon after learning of its existence (like, four days ago) was mostly because of the fact that… I really like towers and bridges and the like. It seemed like a good setting for a slow-burn romance, but also, like... wow, cool buildings! I like watching building tutorials on Sims 4 while knowing full well that I'll never be able to make something that nice, but it's nice to look at though! And look, I don’t play Minecraft, but I was watching a YouTube video of some dude building a whole village on a bridge in the game and I thought, “woah this is the coolest thing ever, if only there was some kind of book out there that featured this kind of stuff!” And here we are. Megan Derr, The Eastern Gate!
Otherwise, like I mentioned, I just like the idea of two guys stuck in a freezing tower because I’ve always really enjoyed smaller character studies. My favorite Denzel Washington movie is Fences, and because it was originally a play, the entire thing is people talking to each other and arguing and all that. I love this book that's made up entirely of text messages called Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson. And I can't forget to mention this great movie called Before Sunset, dialogue heavy and all the better for it! Though I'm sure everybody already knows my opinions on it because I never stop talking about it. Dialogue is king, in my opinion. And in that regard, I was a little saddened by The Eastern Gate (by Megan Derr), as the plot was surprisingly involved, with a bunch of extra information that left me wondering where any of this was going. Like, considering how short this was, I was mostly just waiting for things to get back on track, you know? There’s magical action, secret royalty, heavy info dumps, and you know what? To that end I thought it was doing a little too much. The thing is, short stories can often feel like an English 101 writing exercise, you know “Write a short scene between two characters. Cars are especially helpful for this exercise because it forces characters to interact with each other.” and all that, but even though it might seem amateurish, I’ve always preferred that style of writing to the alternative; a mess of ideas and thought experiments that don't quite fit together. I know I’m in the minority here, but had this been twenty pages of just Iosif and Yegor talking to each other while stuck in some shitty tower then I would have walked away a happy man. I mean, that’s not to say that I dislike action… just as long as it’s in short bursts. There was an episode of Samurai Jack where Jack had to infiltrate a tower full of archers, and it was a masterclass in minimalism in that there wasn’t a word uttered throughout the entire episode. Just action and tension and then more action, but done in an artsy enough way so I could still pretend like I have refined tastes. I guess my stance on this story is that it needed to pick a lane; either a dialogue heavy scene or a hair raising action heavy story beat. I stand to be corrected, but I don't think eighteen pages is enough to accomplish both! Okay, I guess that’s it? I don’t really have anything else to say here other than that even though I wish I had liked this more, I have to commend the author for her originality. It really shines through here in The Eastern Gate, and it’s not every day when you can say that an author has both a uniquely striking narrative voice as well as an ironclad grasp on strong character writing. So even though this fantasy wasn’t exactly my fantasy, the fact that Megan Derr was able to blend a mix of complicated exposition, descriptive language, eclectic action, and a gay romance all within fifteen short pages is something to be celebrated. Sometimes good enough is good enough.
It's time to say goodnight / Goodnight, goodnight / P.S. I love you.
So I’ve been thinking, pondering even, that I would never be able to make one of those “Help me pick my next read!” polls. One, because I don’t know how, and two, I know myself too well and I'd just end up ignoring the results and instead of reading the very popular Hunger Games 5: The Hungriest Game, I’d go out of my way to read something obscure or old like... the "Harry Hole” detective series or something. And since we're still in this vivid That's So Raven premonition for some reason, I can see myself then writing a review with an opening line saying that I was totally disappointed that the book didn't have any jokes about Harry Hole's hairy h- …you know what? Never mind, I'll leave that for later. Stay tuned for my Harry Hole review. Tadaa~aa, The Eastern Gate by Megan Derr! Sure, it's a little obscure and a little older, but that just means that it's right where I want to be. What can I say, it seems like I can't completely shake my hipster origins, so why try to fight it? And it's cool because I liked it well enough. Sorry, I know I'm not really radiating enthusiasm. I mean, I did though, it’s good... enough. Damn, I can’t help but feel like I need to add an “enough” at the end every time! But saying it’s good enough makes me sound a lot more negative than I actually feel and I don’t want to misrepresent myself. Let's be real, this book definitely isn't bad enough to warrant a smear campaign from me. Besides, at only eighteen pages, you'd think it’d be pretty hard for someone to form an opinion either which way because there shouldn't be enough time to even get annoyed by anything before reaching the credits! I mean... I managed, but it's whatever. The thing is, there's a double-edged sword thing going on here in that you can sense the same authorial DNA threading throughout the story right out the gate (ha ha that’s a word in the title), and I consider that a good thing and a maybe not-so-good thing. It’s good (enough) because it shows that Megan Derr has a particular style and anybody who loves her stuff will also really love this, but it also means that if you find said style to be somewhat dull and lifeless then… well, you get it. Not as much of a win for us latter folk. In other words, I'm selfish and I want every book catered to my specific tastes! I don't know if this gives me enough credentials, but I’ve read both The High King's Golden Tongue and Tournament of Losers, and while they were both impeccable in terms of writing and lore, I still felt like there was a missing spark of electricity in them that held me back from loving them the same way I do with the works of Ginn Hale or Foz Meadows. This author's "Frankenstein's Monster" hasn't quite come alive for me yet. With The High King’s Golden Tongue especially, when it wasn’t killing me with its brochure prose, it was beating me over the head with how annoying I found the characters! Yeah, I know that this is a review for a different book and it's not fair to go into it with strong bias, but I unfortunately quickly found out that my opinions for this short story were very much one and the same as with all the other works by this author.
Ugh, I always feel really bad showering my reviews with my negative disposition for books that I thought were totally fine because whenever I close my eyes afterwards, I see myself as that food critic from the movie Chef. You know, the the guy who writes an unfairly bad review for Jon Favreau's food and causes him to rush out to him and have a meltdown out in public. All screaming and acting a fool? Yeah, despite the fact that there's always a small part of me that finds the idea of swinging at a hornet's nest very alluring (that's why I'm always talking about Marvel movies), when the dust has settled, I never actually want to be the guy getting screamed at. Because I'm a coward, sure, but also because I'd feel bad about inadvertently hurting someone's feelings. Don't want that! I mean, none of this is to say that I think I’m some kind of famous critic or anything, as I’m allergic to the word “influencer,” but if I always seem like I’m constantly undercutting every point I make immediately after I say it, it's only because I’m always trying to be careful with my word choice. Back and forth, back and forth, like a pendulum swinging, always holding my hands up in attempt to placate an angry mob. Sheesh, I err on the side of passive voice, that's for sure! So yeah, now that we’ve finally made it to the to the second paragraph, I guess I should probably get to talking about what the story was. The Eastern Gate! By Megan Derr. Let's flip to page one, we start seemingly mid-story with our main man, Iosif, as he's mid-lament, drowning in self-pity over the the fact that he’s been placed on guard duty at the most boring and miserable of the several towers that border the kingdom. Sorry, I guess "The Kingdom" sounds kind of vague and generic, but never let it be said that this story skimps on the details! In the first two paragraphs alone, we're actually given the mammoth's share of all the specific names and it goes in depth into all the provinces that are peppered throughout the land. Wait, I sound kind of sarcastic here. My bad, I'm just lazy and have a terrible memory so "the kingdom" will have to do for now. Besides, I have a natural inclination towards being catty when I'm talking about something I didn't love love. Brat Summer! ...Probably too late for that, huh? I missed the train on that one. Let me try to salvage this though, I don't think The Eastern Gate is bad because it's about a detailed fantasy world that, to my knowledge, we'll literally never see again, but I would have liked it more had the plot spent more time working on improving the chemistry between our two main leads. That's a compliment, right? That I liked the characters enough to where I wanted to see more of them? All I know is that Megan Derr is nothing if not incredibly detailed in her writing, leaving no stone unturned.
“The only bright spots to his dark, cold days were the letters from his mother and sisters, which usually came with puzzles and books and sweets, and Yegor.”
Anyway, I don’t blame Iosif for his incessant whining one bit because I can relate (that's kind of what this review is. Hm, much to think about), but also with the biting cold, poor company, and dull landscapes, what else is man to do other than stir in self-pity!? I've never really been one to be impressed by cold, snowy scenes. Slip and sliding all over the place? Yuck! There was this one game called Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I tried to speed-run through the whole thing because while the story was fun, I didn't like how the entire story took place on an ugly snowy mountain. Let's go somewhere warm instead! "Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya!" What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Iosif's one saving grace in this forsaken land is that he’s happened to start up a tender, yet new, romance with a lovely teacher named Yegor. "Time stands still when you're a-waiting, sometimes I think my heart is stopping too. One lonely hour seems forever. Sixty minutes more to wait for you." My only problem with this set-up is that I really liked it and then it was thrown out the window right quick. I was gearing up for some The Holdovers type shit! You know, where we're all trapped together with people we don't like, then we all learn a valuable lesson about keeping an open mind and learning to loo~oove. But nope, because the story was written in such a specific and careful way in order to hide an eventual twist, it made the the prose come across as deceptive and somewhat shoehorned in retrospect. And it didn't help that this emphasis on hiding a big reveal ended up making the story as a whole seem silly rather than clever. There's a character death in the game Dragon Age: The Veilguard that has a similar vibe; a fan favorite character dies early on in the story and the game tries do a little Sixth Sense thing where, through the main character, we still see them without knowing that they're toast. Then, as you can probably guess, the big reveal at the end is that they were dead the whole time. But because all of the dramatic weight of the story hinges on the "dead all along" angle, both the characters and us, the players, weren't able to properly remember the character with the fondness that they deserved. The focus is shifted to the prospect of the cheap shock factor thing rather than lending itself to the wider narrative. I mean, the main reason why I even picked this up so soon after learning of its existence (like, four days ago) was mostly because of the fact that… I really like towers and bridges and the like. It seemed like a good setting for a slow-burn romance, but also, like... wow, cool buildings! I like watching building tutorials on Sims 4 while knowing full well that I'll never be able to make something that nice, but it's nice to look at though! And look, I don’t play Minecraft, but I was watching a YouTube video of some dude building a whole village on a bridge in the game and I thought, “woah this is the coolest thing ever, if only there was some kind of book out there that featured this kind of stuff!” And here we are. Megan Derr, The Eastern Gate!
Otherwise, like I mentioned, I just like the idea of two guys stuck in a freezing tower because I’ve always really enjoyed smaller character studies. My favorite Denzel Washington movie is Fences, and because it was originally a play, the entire thing is people talking to each other and arguing and all that. I love this book that's made up entirely of text messages called Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson. And I can't forget to mention this great movie called Before Sunset, dialogue heavy and all the better for it! Though I'm sure everybody already knows my opinions on it because I never stop talking about it. Dialogue is king, in my opinion. And in that regard, I was a little saddened by The Eastern Gate (by Megan Derr), as the plot was surprisingly involved, with a bunch of extra information that left me wondering where any of this was going. Like, considering how short this was, I was mostly just waiting for things to get back on track, you know? There’s magical action, secret royalty, heavy info dumps, and you know what? To that end I thought it was doing a little too much. The thing is, short stories can often feel like an English 101 writing exercise, you know “Write a short scene between two characters. Cars are especially helpful for this exercise because it forces characters to interact with each other.” and all that, but even though it might seem amateurish, I’ve always preferred that style of writing to the alternative; a mess of ideas and thought experiments that don't quite fit together. I know I’m in the minority here, but had this been twenty pages of just Iosif and Yegor talking to each other while stuck in some shitty tower then I would have walked away a happy man. I mean, that’s not to say that I dislike action… just as long as it’s in short bursts. There was an episode of Samurai Jack where Jack had to infiltrate a tower full of archers, and it was a masterclass in minimalism in that there wasn’t a word uttered throughout the entire episode. Just action and tension and then more action, but done in an artsy enough way so I could still pretend like I have refined tastes. I guess my stance on this story is that it needed to pick a lane; either a dialogue heavy scene or a hair raising action heavy story beat. I stand to be corrected, but I don't think eighteen pages is enough to accomplish both! Okay, I guess that’s it? I don’t really have anything else to say here other than that even though I wish I had liked this more, I have to commend the author for her originality. It really shines through here in The Eastern Gate, and it’s not every day when you can say that an author has both a uniquely striking narrative voice as well as an ironclad grasp on strong character writing. So even though this fantasy wasn’t exactly my fantasy, the fact that Megan Derr was able to blend a mix of complicated exposition, descriptive language, eclectic action, and a gay romance all within fifteen short pages is something to be celebrated. Sometimes good enough is good enough.
It's time to say goodnight / Goodnight, goodnight / P.S. I love you.
April 18, 2025
I really needed something very short and beautiful. Since there aren't that many authors who can pull it off ... Megan Derr. And the story did exactly what I needed. A short moment full of happiness and satisfaction.
As a bonus, since it was already the warmest day of the year, it was quite nice to read something frosty.
A really well-made story that immediately opened up a huge world and completely captivated me.
Iosif had a border to ruthlessly defend from hungry reindeer. ❄️🤭❄️
As a bonus, since it was already the warmest day of the year, it was quite nice to read something frosty.
A really well-made story that immediately opened up a huge world and completely captivated me.
Iosif had a border to ruthlessly defend from hungry reindeer. ❄️🤭❄️
May 18, 2025
Lovely short story.
One of my favourites by Megan Derr.
One of my favourites by Megan Derr.
November 12, 2022
3.5 Stars
Sweet short story with a side of love and magic!
My one wish: that it had been longer so the ending didn’t feel rushed.
Sweet short story with a side of love and magic!
My one wish: that it had been longer so the ending didn’t feel rushed.
Read
April 19, 2025It seems that there is actually a “too short to rate it” rating 🤷♀️
I mean… it’s 18 pages. And I remember rating stories of similar length. But here… idk. Maybe because it has fantasy elements, and you can’t really build a world AND have some kind of relationship development on 18 pages. The world itself feels kind of 18th century Russian inspired, but with a bit of magic (it’s cold, it snows, you have a “Tsarevich”, and characters named Igor, and Yegor, and Iosif. And talismans, and throwing fire at your enemies).
I won’t spoil more, because then you wouldn’t have any incentive to read it 😅 it’s… ok, but not enough to make me keen for more.
I mean… it’s 18 pages. And I remember rating stories of similar length. But here… idk. Maybe because it has fantasy elements, and you can’t really build a world AND have some kind of relationship development on 18 pages. The world itself feels kind of 18th century Russian inspired, but with a bit of magic (it’s cold, it snows, you have a “Tsarevich”, and characters named Igor, and Yegor, and Iosif. And talismans, and throwing fire at your enemies).
I won’t spoil more, because then you wouldn’t have any incentive to read it 😅 it’s… ok, but not enough to make me keen for more.
February 6, 2022
I was delighted with this story, nevermind that it was so short!
Loved the surprise, unexpected reveal of Iosif's secret toward the end. I didn't see it coming, so that made it all the more entertaining. Well done, if a bit too short. I love a Megan Derr short, though, because no one else can so effectively deliver a snapshot of the characters and plot with a twist in under 100 pages (or was it less than 50?) and still have it be satisfying! Five stars!
Loved the surprise, unexpected reveal of Iosif's secret toward the end. I didn't see it coming, so that made it all the more entertaining. Well done, if a bit too short. I love a Megan Derr short, though, because no one else can so effectively deliver a snapshot of the characters and plot with a twist in under 100 pages (or was it less than 50?) and still have it be satisfying! Five stars!
June 30, 2022
A sweet short story, albeit a bit rushed and slightly confusingly written at some key moments
February 20, 2022
You should see that goofy smile on my face...
March 30, 2025
Good
3.5 stars
This was a good short story. I would have liked it to be a little bit longer.
I wanted to know more about two MCs and also the brothers as their interactions were funny.
3.5 stars
This was a good short story. I would have liked it to be a little bit longer.
I wanted to know more about two MCs and also the brothers as their interactions were funny.
February 12, 2022
This is definitely a 5 star read, but I do very much wish there was more. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but since this was only released about a month ago, I'm sure there will be more!
You can definitely feel the love budding between Iosif and Yegor (they even already have pet names for each other, so cute!).
I also wasn't expecting that Iosif would end up being the tsarevich (I totally thought it was going to e Yegor, just like the bandits did), so that threw me for a loop (and I was glad Yegor was able to forgive him for essentially lying to him - it was lying by omission, but still lying - because they belong together.)
You can definitely feel the love budding between Iosif and Yegor (they even already have pet names for each other, so cute!).
I also wasn't expecting that Iosif would end up being the tsarevich (I totally thought it was going to e Yegor, just like the bandits did), so that threw me for a loop (and I was glad Yegor was able to forgive him for essentially lying to him - it was lying by omission, but still lying - because they belong together.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2022
I liked it. It was short with a little twist and I did like the pair. It was just really short.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2022
The Eastern Gate is an MM romantic fantasy. HEA.
1POV, 3rd person, past tense. This kindle edition 18 pages, 20th January 2022.
This short story is like a tantalizing glimpse, a lure thrown to fans to make us wait for more.
Nicely written and glad to have it, but I want more!
1POV, 3rd person, past tense. This kindle edition 18 pages, 20th January 2022.
This short story is like a tantalizing glimpse, a lure thrown to fans to make us wait for more.
Nicely written and glad to have it, but I want more!
January 29, 2022
This was a great short story. I think that this would be a very cool world to visit. Would love to read more about it and Iosif.
September 14, 2022
Wanted more Yegor.
This was sweet, despite the attack that happens in the middle. The twist was a little jarring, but I enjoyed Yegor.
This was sweet, despite the attack that happens in the middle. The twist was a little jarring, but I enjoyed Yegor.
June 26, 2022
And then there was Yegor, sweet and beautiful and like no one Iosif had ever met.
This was a cute short story - perfect for a little vacation into a fantasy world when your short on time! I was surprised at which one of our main characters was actually
Megan Derr can do more with 19 pages then many authors can do in 300. She will always be an instant-read for me!
This was a cute short story - perfect for a little vacation into a fantasy world when your short on time! I was surprised at which one of our main characters was actually
Megan Derr can do more with 19 pages then many authors can do in 300. She will always be an instant-read for me!
April 11, 2023
This was okay. Megan Derr has written far better short stories. This just showed hardly any interact between the MC & LI, we just got told about how kissable his lips were instead.
January 27, 2022
Hmmm
This is, I suppose, a short story. Only it doesn't feel complete even for that. I feel like I clicked on the sample button, and now I want to buy the rest of the book. Why are the brothers there now? What did the bandits want? How will the teacher do going forward? What is the story behind D becoming one of his father's favorites?
Five stars because I can't post a written review without stars and I didn't feel like trashing the rating when I'm the first to review it. I really love Megan's work, so I'm completely flummoxed by how unfinished this feels.
This is, I suppose, a short story. Only it doesn't feel complete even for that. I feel like I clicked on the sample button, and now I want to buy the rest of the book. Why are the brothers there now? What did the bandits want? How will the teacher do going forward? What is the story behind D becoming one of his father's favorites?
Five stars because I can't post a written review without stars and I didn't feel like trashing the rating when I'm the first to review it. I really love Megan's work, so I'm completely flummoxed by how unfinished this feels.
April 7, 2022
I liked this story, but sadly it was too short to be enjoyed properly. We only just dipped our toes into the world that the author imagined but before we could dive in the story was already finished. I thought that the idea was great, but I could not get a proper feeling for either of the characters. I will admit I was surprised by the prince, I did not see that one coming.
Themes: single POV, military, royalty
Themes: single POV, military, royalty
February 12, 2022
With far too many ideas - several unresolved/unanswered - crammed into a very short narrative space, this played as a mash-up of various recent fantasy tropes: we have a distant snow bound border gate (Game of Thrones?) and bursts of convenient magic (Wheel of Time?), all peppered with pseudo Eastern European types and capped with an unlikely romance.
So, what's not to love?!
The fact that this wasn't developed into a fuller, more considered novel/novella is a shame; allowed to breathe, this could have been much more satisfying than it was. As it is, a staccato of revelations isn't really the kind of storytelling and world-building that works for me. I'd suggest that Megan Derr rethinks this, perhaps revised from the teacher's perspective, allowing him to experience the reveals in an expanded and more fulfilling narrative, rather than what feels like a pretty rushed synopsis.
So, what's not to love?!
The fact that this wasn't developed into a fuller, more considered novel/novella is a shame; allowed to breathe, this could have been much more satisfying than it was. As it is, a staccato of revelations isn't really the kind of storytelling and world-building that works for me. I'd suggest that Megan Derr rethinks this, perhaps revised from the teacher's perspective, allowing him to experience the reveals in an expanded and more fulfilling narrative, rather than what feels like a pretty rushed synopsis.
April 1, 2025
Iosif is one of three guards at the very quiet Eastern Gate of the Empire. They sees a handful of people daily, and one of them is Yegor, a handsome schoolteacher who travels through the gate once a week between schools. Lately Iosif and Yegor have been flirting, and last week they had their first kiss... which Iosif thought was pretty hot. But now Yegor is hours late to pass through and Iosif is wondering if he was wrong about their attraction being mutual. Except when Yegor does show up, he tells of strange armed men chasing one of the princes of the realm... and they're headed to the gate. At that very moment seven strange men burst out of nowhere and threaten the two men. Oh no, what's a warrior to do, but protect his new lover?
This does have a nice twist, but I felt it was handled very poorly in this way too short story.
2 stars.
This does have a nice twist, but I felt it was handled very poorly in this way too short story.
2 stars.
March 15, 2022
When you are designated to monitor the gate where nothing ever happens it can be a boring life but thankfully your love of your life has been passing this way for a while and so it is potentially going to allow you a chance to see him more but will seeing your love be enough to outweigh the boredom of the Eastern Gate or will it bring excitement of its own?
This is a short story but very well written and draws you in very quickly and keeps you interested throughout which is exactly what you need with a short story of this style. The fact that the love interests are both male is not overly pushed as it is something which is perfectly normal and I think for me this helps the book to work so well.
This is a short story but very well written and draws you in very quickly and keeps you interested throughout which is exactly what you need with a short story of this style. The fact that the love interests are both male is not overly pushed as it is something which is perfectly normal and I think for me this helps the book to work so well.
December 11, 2022
This is a tiny little story. Iosif works out at the Eastern Gate, a desolate wasteland of a location where almost nobody ever passes through...except for Yegor, Iosif's crush who passes through twice a month. This time, after Yegor's arrival, the Eastern Gate is attacked by people looking for Tsarevich Demyan, who they believe to be Gregor. Iosif manages to destroy them with a handy little spell that frankly, takes all the tension right out of the conflict, and then all is well and Iosif's secret is revealed.
A little too short to accomplish much, but it's cute and sweet.
A little too short to accomplish much, but it's cute and sweet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2022
All Is Quiet on the Eastern...
What a fun little read!
A boring assignment has become less so for Iosif. He has met a traveling schoolteacher, and they have finally admitted to being attracted to each other.
It is so quiet here, that when Yegor is two hours late, Iosif begins to worry. But the wild tale he brings, causes worry of another sort.
A charming little tale!
What a fun little read!
A boring assignment has become less so for Iosif. He has met a traveling schoolteacher, and they have finally admitted to being attracted to each other.
It is so quiet here, that when Yegor is two hours late, Iosif begins to worry. But the wild tale he brings, causes worry of another sort.
A charming little tale!
March 29, 2023
I understand it’s a short story, but I have read short stories with more developed storylines than this. By the same author! The odd names were tolerable but using words and terms of endearment that are possibly foreign, she should’ve at least included a little glossary somewhere. And the story is short and undeveloped, it actually takes place over 2-3 hours.
July 4, 2023
3 stars only because it was too short
As usual a lovely little story that I wish was longer.
I really want to read more about this family. The idea of a king with so many children and that he adores the younger ones and does not not consider them unworthy like most story kings do is a wonderful change.
As usual a lovely little story that I wish was longer.
I really want to read more about this family. The idea of a king with so many children and that he adores the younger ones and does not not consider them unworthy like most story kings do is a wonderful change.
December 22, 2023
A surprising little read
(SPOILERS)
I have to say but I wasn't expecting Iosif to be Demyan as I thought it would be Yegor instead so surprise for me. Still it was a wonderful read and I can honestly say that I fell in love with the setting, the characters and the plot. I hope we one day see more in this world as it has so much potential.
(SPOILERS)
I have to say but I wasn't expecting Iosif to be Demyan as I thought it would be Yegor instead so surprise for me. Still it was a wonderful read and I can honestly say that I fell in love with the setting, the characters and the plot. I hope we one day see more in this world as it has so much potential.
March 22, 2024
I'm giving this 4 stars but I think it's probably a solid 3.5. The story itself is good. For being only about 20 pages it has an unexpected plot twist and the romantic subplot is well developed. It doesn't feel rushed. This book is like a peek through a frosted window. We get a glimpse of this amazing fantasy world that Derr has created but don't actually get to walk along it's paths.
April 15, 2022
not even a novella
I’m not sure what the point of this little thing is… It’s not even developed enough to be a novella. I think it’s the first chapter and a novel perhaps? Otherwise it has no point, it’s poorly written, hard to follow, and frankly, boring.
I’m not sure what the point of this little thing is… It’s not even developed enough to be a novella. I think it’s the first chapter and a novel perhaps? Otherwise it has no point, it’s poorly written, hard to follow, and frankly, boring.
July 14, 2022
2.5 stars.
While I was entertained by the atmospheric quality of this story, there is no foreshadowing for the reveal, and thus the author did not understand the assignment, not just to entertain, which she did, but to satisfy, which she failed.
While I was entertained by the atmospheric quality of this story, there is no foreshadowing for the reveal, and thus the author did not understand the assignment, not just to entertain, which she did, but to satisfy, which she failed.
January 31, 2023
3 stars
A good short read had a good romance and magic plot though I found there was a few floors.
However it's still a good read and should not be missed.
Pros
Good mixture of magic and romance
Okay character build and story flow.
Cons
No erotica
Felt rushed in places and a tad confusing.
A good short read had a good romance and magic plot though I found there was a few floors.
However it's still a good read and should not be missed.
Pros
Good mixture of magic and romance
Okay character build and story flow.
Cons
No erotica
Felt rushed in places and a tad confusing.
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