Brief Encounters

Title: Dead Cow Pants
Author: Julia Talbot
Length: 3,200 words (14 pdf pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m paranormal shifters
Rating: C+

Blurb:

Returning from a foray into the world beyond pack lands, Shay is heartsick and skinny. His best friend Dar knows he just needs confidence, and thinks leather pants will do the trick. Shay might just the only werewolf on earth who doesn’t like leather. Is there anything Darius can do to get Shay to wear dead cow pants?

Review:

There was nothing particularly wrong with this light-hearted little short, I just felt a bit dropped in, as if I was missing some key background. Shay had left the pack which is very unusual, and returned looking very thin and beaten down, but refuses to talk about it. He’s staying with his childhood friend Dar (Darius) who is trying to convince him to wear leather pants, however Shay, unusual for a shifter finds the smell funny (I’m with ya Shay) and keeps refusing.

Finally, after dancing around their attraction, which Shay is certain is all one-sided, Dar makes his move and claims his mate. You get the impression that Shay left because he felt his feelings for Dar were unreturned or that being gay was a bad thing, and yet Dar asked his alpha for permission to be with Shay and it didn’t seem to be an issue, so I was curious why Shay really left and what happened to him in the city.

There’s not much too this, just a sweet little friends to lovers story, or reunited friends to lovers I suppose. The sex is pretty hot and steamy, and the author has a way with playful accessible shifters (there is no shifting in the story itself) that make them quick light reads. However I was left wondering if these were characters I’d seen before or if I was missing out on something. However it was an enjoyable, if not excessively memorable, little short that fans will probably enjoy.