4 out of 5 stars
Ebook. 44 pages. Published November 18th 2019 by Smoking Teacup Books
Blurb:
It’s a perfect Yuletide Eve, with snow drifting down and all the bells ringing. Martin’s had a long day’s work and wouldn’t mind spending the night in bed with a willing — well, anyone with a pretty face, really. Just as he resigns himself to sleeping alone, a mysterious young lady traveler reveals herself to be no lady at all, in more ways than one.
This is an M/M romance short story with explicit scenes. It takes place in the Goddess-Blessed universe, an alt-Regency world in which people and places are much the same but pagan gods and goddess are real, present, and often inconvenient. Although it features a character from Yuletide Treasure, it doesn’t contain spoilers and stands alone.
Currently this short story is only available for free download on Prolific Works.
Likes:
- Short and sweet.
- Didn’t take long to get to the smut.
- Martin is bi.
- Martin doesn’t have a perfect body.
Dislikes:
- Took me a moment to remember who Martin was.
- Neither an was goddess-blessed.
- Cliché setup.
This was a fun short story. It had more funny moments and smut than I expected, but no one was goddess-blessed. That made me wonder if the story could have just been set in the normal Regency period, then I remembered that the goddess-blessed universe is infinitely more tolerant of same-sex couples.
It’s been a bit since I read the main stories, so it took me a page or two to remember who Martin was. Not that it really matters. This short story is very self-contained. And considering how short it is, it managed to pack a lot in, including sexual tension and tons of smut. That being said, it’s still a short story, and has a relatively open ending.
The ‘boy disguised as a girl’ setup is cliché, but it works for the story. I especially loved the realization that Noah and his sister must have spent their nights in the similar situations.
I do think this story does a few things the main books don’t. For one, Martin is bi, and it’s mentioned multiple times. But it isn’t treated as something negative, in the way Tom’s was. Tom was portrayed as an asshole. Martin “liked girls curvy and willing, and lads slim and willing, and he wasn’t fussed about which fell into his lap on any given day” yet there was no sense of judgement about that. Which I liked. I also like that Martin was bashful because he didn’t have a perfect body, and that the awkwardness of post-sex cleanup was addressed.
Overall, this was a fun, smut-filled read. Plus it was free, and you can’t beat that. I would absolutely read more short stories or novellas set in this universe.
Check out the reviews for the series books – The Replacement Husband, The Reluctant Husband, and Yuletide Treasure.
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