Status Updates From Three By Three

Demi-Love: MM from the encouraging gf's POV. Two longtime friends are basically pushed into each other's arms.

Fixation: MMF pairing. Lonely woman burdened with the emptiness of the daily grind hooks up with a married gay couple she knows through her line of work. It was clearly written to end on an uplifting note, but I found the story overall sad. Just as with the first story, the female MC was the insecure and passive character. Which I didn't like one bit.

The New Guy: MMM pairing, two roomates (friends) hook up with a stranger they bump into on the street. I liked it, but the current global BLM protests made me think deeply about how the black man is portrayed in this story.

Assimilated: First story was an MFM pairing. Single POV, a middleaged woman hook up with two guys in their 20s. I liked the start but ended up not liking the main MC.

Okay, that one was hot with the girlfriend directing the action between her guy and his best friend. But it really was just PWP.

Okay, this MMF story was interesting. Brutal, honest...a little sad & pathetic.

I didn't care much for the FMC's attitude (snotty, elitist, judgmental) but no one really deserves to be the pawn in some weird power-based relationship game (?) when they're just looking for an escape...or to belong, to be wanted.

Of course, that bit where Grant shoots her down for being greedy? That's the brutally honest part.

Hmmm. Okay, the story with the 3 guys was more PWP. Hot enough, but nothing at all like the previous one. In some ways it read like a male-gaze fantasy with the dirty sheets & greedy sex...if it weren't for Elliot pining for his friend Mike, that is.

Okay, so it was more the difference between them and Gannon's sex appeal in general, not so much the color of his skin, that Mike finds attractive. *whew* I feel better about reading more of this now...

What the hell? I'm all for including POC (and have been actively looking for POC MCs in my TBR) but this is my second story in one night where it feels like the African American character is fetishized.

The scene only just started so I'm gonna give it a little leeway & not jump to conclusions yet.

But it irks me to think I just raved over the previous story set-up in this book...

MFM (straight) menage is not usually my cuppa - and in this case the sex scenes were pretty much par for the course. BUT OMFG the way the author set up the scenario, how she painted the FMC. I'm just...I'm impressed, honestly.

The desire for a menage, the yearning, the regrets, the fear, the excitement, the worry, the whole build-up to the meet-n-greet with those 2 guys was just PHENOMENAL. And immensely relatable.

DNF