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Archive for the ‘Comedy’ Category

Trick & Treat by Rob Rosen

Posted in Authors: P-R, B, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, tagged , , on February 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Box of ChocolatesTitle: Trick & Teat
Author: Rob Rosen
Length: 3,600 words (16 pdf pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m contemporary humour
Rating: B

Blurb:

A plan for a chocolaty surprise Valentine’s gift goes horribly, if not hysterically, awry as David tricks his boyfriend, Jay, into posing for an erotic mold—which is not at all easy to do when your boyfriend doesn’t know he’s posing for it. Not easy, no, but certainly fun, especially when it’s cast in the middle of the woods on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Though when the gift eventually arrives, wrapped in red silk, it’s not sent to the right house, nor eaten by the intended recipient. Still, these two have enough love, if not certain large appendages, to share, and it’s a happy Valentine’s Day ending for everyone, just the same.

Review:

This was an amusing quick short that kept me entertained. David has come up with this brilliant plan for Valentine’s. He’s going to make a cast of Jay’s penis, then get chocolate penises made as a gift. Of course, he can’t tell Jay WHY he wants the cast. First he tries a documentary about an artist who memorializes celebrities penises and breasts using molds. But rather than intrigue Jay, he thinks it’s weird. The next stop is a trip to the local sex shop, where he ponders whether one of the dildos is bigger than Jay. Jay is having none of that. He’ll prove that he’s bigger than that stupid dildo, and is determined to do so immediately, however David convinces him they should go for a picnic first. When things are getting hot and heavy, he convinces Jay to do the mold, just to make SURE he’s bigger. Then when he orders the bouquet, all goes awry when they call asking for MRS. Jackson, and Jay ever so helpfully gives David’s mother’s address. Ack!

This is very much a light and fluffy piece. It was fun to watch Jay get all puffed up and determined to prove he was bigger than the toy. And David’s reaction when he realizes his family, who thought his gift was hilarious, and delicious, received a bouquet of his boyfriend’s penis, was very cute. You don’t know anything about David and Jay, they are in an established relationship, and obviously love each other and they banter back and forth showing the familiarity between the two, not worried about offending a new boyfriend.

The author also writes humourous moments quite well that aren’t over the top, but make you smile:

He didn’t let me finish. Instead, he marched up to the cash register, slammed the dildo down and waited for me to join him. “We’ll take this,” he said, pointing to the phallic piece of pink latex, “and that,” he added, grabbing the lube from my hand.

The guy at the register, accustomed to seeing horny and/or nervous customers, not angry ones, rang us up lickety-split and sent us on our merry way.

So if you’re in the mood for a Valentine’s story which doesn’t fit the schmoopy mold, and will leave you shaking your head and smiling, this is the one. Puts a lighthearted edge on the sometimes-syrupy holiday.

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Once Upon a King by Jambrea Jones

Posted in Authors: J-L, C+, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, tagged , on November 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Title: Once Upon a King
Author: Jambrea Jo Jones
Length: 12,000 words (55 pdf pages)
Publisher: MLR Press
Genre: m/m historical fantasy humour
Rating: C+

Blurb:

Flair Coruscate maybe be king of the dragons, but he doesn’t want to rule in the bedroom. Sometimes, it isn’t good to be the king. Saber Von Stein just wants to live a normal human life in the magical kingdom, but a curse has him hunting out an audience with the king in hopes of escaping the clutches of an evil wizard family. With a little Fairy Godmother magic and a royal ball can the King and the human have a happily ever after?

Review:

This is a follow-on to a free story Once Upon a Dragon that was written requiring certain prompts. I did not realize this when I started, but realized it seemed familiar. It’s not necessary for you to read the other story first, but it can’t hurt.

Flair is the new king following his father’s death and he’s miserable. He’s really a bottom, but no one would dare top the king, and to top it off, his father passed some kind if bizarre law that all servants have to drop their pants and be ready at any time for the king to have their way with them. He soon finds out a wizard family has petitioned him, because a dragon ate one of their family members (see previous book) and, oops, that dragon was his brother.

The brother is sent off to find the happy couple from book on,e to act as witnesses. The human mate from book 1 has a brother, who agrees to go with them and beg the king for leniency. Only now the king’s officials have said they will only repeal the law Flair hates, if he choses a mate at a ball. Before long, thanks to the family fairy god mother, Saber finds himself naked at the ball.

This is a story meant to be taken as extremely over the top. It’s a farce of a take on a fairy tale. Flair was amusing, though as he hates his current circumstance, from the weird laws, to his inability to get laid, and to the clothes he hates that always seem to leave him exposing himself. It was nice that while Saber may have been 100% human, he had a dom edge over dragon shifter Flair, which gave Flair exactly what he was looking for.

So I think this is a fun lark, as long as you take it all a bit tongue in cheek and over the top. But I do think that reading the first book would be useful and it’s a free download, so you get twice the fun for one price.

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Sex and the Single Zombie by Cassandra Gold

Posted in Authors: G-I, B, Comedy, Contemporary, Paranormal, tagged , on November 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Title: Sex and the Single Zombie
Author: Cassandra Gold
Length: 13,000 words (  pdf pages)
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: m/m paranormal comedy
Rating: B

Blurb:

Part of the Tales Of The Arisen  series…….Caring, professional SWGZ seeks open-minded SGM for dating and possible LTR…

Since his death two years ago, zombie Peter Reese’s love life has been nonexistent. His attempts to meet a regular “live” guy through a blind dating website-without revealing an important detail about himself-have all blown up in his face. Now, his current blind date with “Shane1990″ seems destined to end the same way, until the handsome guy inexplicably decides to give Peter another chance. Can Peter prove that nice zombies don’t always finish last?

Review:

This is a very sweet story, which zombie could be a substitute for any feared/maligned minority. Peter’s ex left him when he became an Arisen two years ago. Luckily this happened well after the “zombie apocalypse” and there are now laws protecting the rights of the Arisen, however people still fear them. Peter’s trying an on-line dating site, but he has not revealed his true status, and the first two dates didn’t go well. While Shane is shocked at first, but Peter’s surprise he hangs around and after a couple of phone calls, Shane invites Peter to join him and his friends at a local club. Peter is excited and nervous. Being Arisen means that he moves more slowly than others, so a dance club is not idea, but he likes Shane.Things go well with most of Shane’s friends, however the one guy lets fly some really awful slurs and verbally attacks Shane for being with a “zombie”, but Shane sticks up for him, shocking Peter.

Both characters here are typical of those of the author. Nice guys,  you like a great deal and want to find their HEA. Peter likes his job as a pharmacist and he’s making the best of his life as an Arisen. He has to eat a lot of protein to keep his body going, preferably raw protein (I found this a little off-putting) and candy and he’s trying to remain optimistic about finding someone who likes him for who he is and can look past his physical status. Shane was shocked and then curious, but willing to be open about Peter’s life.

You don’t find out nearly as much about Shane except that he went through a bad break-up because the story is told from Peter’s POV, but  you get enough to know he’s a nice guy. So while there’s not a lot of conflict here, except for Peter’s internal fears that Shane will find him too repulsive, or Shane’s friend being a jerk, it’s a very sweet read with two nice guys finding each other. When you are in the mood for a feel-good read it’s a great choice.

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The Mask by Clare London

Posted in Authors: J-L, B-, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, tagged , on October 30, 2012 | 4 Comments »

Title: The Mask
Author: Clare London
Length: 6,079 words (17 pdf pages)
Publisher: JMS Books
Genre: m/m contemporary humour
Rating: B-

Blurb:

There’s a mixed reception for Joey and his friends when they go trick or treating at the exclusive Grosvenor Square Hotel — everything from hostility to humour to handfuls of caramels. They’re a motley crew — a swamp monster, a vampire, a red devil, and a ghost in a less than flattering sheet. Joey’s costume is uncomfortable and daft, his friends are unruly, and he’s tired of everyone dismissing his best friend Gaz’s awkward stutter. The novelty of the quest soon wears off.

But when Gaz goes missing, Joey learns some home truths about his apparently shy friend. And when they knock at the final door, a horrific masked figure tricks Joey into finding maybe the best treat of all — that romance has its own, often startling disguise.

Review:

This was actually an interesting read for me, having stayed at the hotel that the guys go trick-or-treating at, but obviously not on the sixth floor, since my room was the size of a broom closet. :-) The guys have decided for a lark to go trick-or-treating on the expensive suites floor of high-class hotel. They have done up their costumes to the nines, save for poor Gaz, who because they ran out of funds and time, is now using the classic sheet with holes cut in it for a costumes.

The joy in this is the encounters the five of them have on the floor. From doors slammed into their faces, to dog bites and not so subtle come-ons by the residents. It’s not quite the experience they had hoped, especially as Joey had ‘heard’ that Tom Cruise sometimes stay at this hotel. During a break, they suddenly realize that Gaz has disappeared. Joey assumes he was upset for some reason. They are best friends and have been for years, doing everything together, sharing everything. However his ignorance of the situation finally forces one of the guys to blurt out that it’s obvious he can Gaz are practically married and that Gaz wants him, but they didn’t want to say anything until they two of them had figured it out.

In typical guy fashion, Joey was totally oblivious, but now that they point it out… One last try at the trick-or-treating gives them a real surprise at door 666, when Joey is kidnapped by a monster, and the others take off leaving him to the mercy of the creature… who happens to wear the same boots as Gaz. This was a lot of fun and it was nice to see Joey finally grab a clue. My only couple of niggles was I wasn’t quite sure why the friends were so determined to keep quiet about the obvious attraction between the two. Given how they behaved, I didn’t think keeping their mouths shut would be a big deal. Still, it’s a fun Halloween romp that will leave you with a smile.

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Birthday Burglar by K.A. Merikan

Posted in Authors: M-O, C+, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, tagged , on October 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Title: Birthday Burglar
Author: K.A. Merikan
Length: 6,000 words
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: m/m contemporary romance
Rating: C+

Blurb:
Jamie was the captain of his high school’s football team. Neil was the weird goth transfer student. And yet, they fell in love and have been together ever since. Three years later, their relationship is strong as ever, but living together made the couple’s love life somewhat predictable.

Today, it’s Neil’s birthday and Jamie’s determined to make it unforgettable. And what could make his boyfriend happier than an unexpected sexual role play? Probably only a Bull in the closet.

Review:
This fun humourous story begins with ex-football jock, Jamie, preparing for a birthday surprise for his lover, Neil. Jamie is worried that after three years together their sex life is losing their spontaneity and so decides to role play a birthday burglar. He’s got a surprise present too in the form of a puppy. It’s all so perfect, surely nothing could go wrong!

The story begins well with Jamie’s excitement about Neil’s birthday being rather infectious. Jamie reminded me very much of a puppy himself as he’s a little rambunctious, impulsive and over-enthusiastic, but also rather cute and endearing. He means well with his plans but it’s pretty clear that he’s maybe not the brightest button in the box and hasn’t thought too far ahead about how Neil might feel about the role play and the puppy. It was easy to like Jamie, but even I shook my head a little at his plans.

The story moves onto the burglar scene and all goes as I expected. This then leads into the start of a very hot and sexy sex scene which showed how attracted these guys are to each other and made me wonder why Jamie felt their sex life needed a lift! I was caught up in Jamie’s excitement and love for Neil and all seemed to be going well.

**Spoilers in this next bit**

It was after the discovery of the puppy that things got a bit squicky for me. There was a humourous turn to the sex scene which involved the puppy being present in the room whilst the pair continued to have sex. Some of this was used to comedic effect but then the scene shifted back to the intensity of the sex.  The presence of the puppy acted a bit like a cold shower for me and I found myself worrying about the puppy – what it was doing, why it was making whining noises, whether it would wee on the carpet or try to rip down the curtains or even hurt itself – and this just distracted me from the erotic romance on the page.

So whilst I liked Jamie and Neil and thought most of the story amusing, the ending left me cold. However, I fully admit there will be many readers who won’t mind the puppy bit at the end, and may even find it very funny. In which case, this story may well be to your taste and I’d recommend it to you.

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Rockin’ Headboard by Jamie Lowe

Posted in Authors: J-L, Comedy, Contemporary, D+, Erotica, tagged , on October 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Title: Rockin’ Headboard
Author: Jamie Lowe
Length: 15 pdf pages, 3500 words.
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m contemporary erotica
Rating: D+

Blurb:

Harper and his boyfriend, Max, are excited to have a brand new headboard. But in the process of trying to break the headboard in, they both end up with injuries that threaten to kill the mood. It will take a lot of stubbornness to keep their enthusiasm with bumps and bruises.

Review:

This was a cute idea for a short story and I really wanted to like it more, but thin characterisation, clunky writing and some jarring details prevented me from getting into it.

Harper and Max are a young couple who are just starting to get domestic and spending their money on new furniture rather than beer. Details of their lives beyond this are absent, and the story consists of the two of them having sex on their bed to test out whether the new headboard makes any noise. It’s the neighbourly thing to do, apparently, but the headboard has other ideas.

This is essentially a short piece of erotica with a comic touch, and I do enjoy those kinds of stories. Not everything has to have an involved plot or deal with big issues. I don’t even need romance in my m/m stories. However, I do need characters who feel like real people, and unfortunately Harper and Max never came across this way. Partly this was just because so little detail was given about them, including any kind of physical description. I knew more about what the headboard looked like than either of the protagonists. We are informed that Max is sexy and beautiful—several times—but other than that nothing more specific than his flat stomach.

The banter between the guys is entertaining at times, despite the rather clunky writing (successive sentences starting with the same words, repetition, confusing sentences), and the story would have been heading for a C grade if it weren’t for two things. First, the use of terms like “ouchies” and “boo-boos”, which was no doubt meant to be playful, but made Max sound like a little girl. Indeed, I did find myself questioning Max’s masculinity at several points. If it weren’t for the mention of his dick towards the very end of the sex scene, he could quite easily have been substituted for a woman.

The second thing that really threw me out of the story was the point where Max threatens the headboard. That was quite an amusing moment, but when Harper starts to worry about his boyfriend really being an axe-murderer, it just became too ridiculous. It made me think that they really didn’t know each other well at all, if Harper could seriously entertain such a thought. I get that the author was aiming for humour here, but it seriously misfired for this reader.

If you’re in the mood for a very short and cute story about two rather similar guys, and if you’re not fussy about elegant prose or bothered that one of the guys thinks the other is a murderer, then you’ll probably find this a pleasant way to spend half an hour. I can’t really recommend it to anyone else, though.

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Opening Doors by Joshua Skye

Posted in Authors: S-U, C, Comedy, Contemporary, Paranormal, tagged , on October 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Title: Opening Doors
Author: Joshua Skye
Length: 12,969 words (35 pdf pages)
Publisher: JMS Books
Genre: m/m contemporary humour paranormal
Rating: C

Blurb:

While preparing for the annual scouting jamboree, a good-looking and lovable goofball makes an appointment to get the required physical. But instead of going to his family physician, he goes to see a new doctor.

After a series of humorous and sexy examinations, he leaves with a whole new outlook on life.

Blurb:

I think how much readers will enjoy this story depends largely on your sense of humour and ability to see the story as a lark rather than as a serious contemporary. I think I fell somewhere in the middle. Our unnamed narrator is 18, getting ready to graduate and more concerned with hanging out with his friends and having sex with his girlfriend than being a grown-up, however hounding from his parents forces him to make an appointment for a physical with a new doctor. The whole experience is weird and awkward and becomes even more so when the doctor comes on to him and he suddenly realizes the idea of having the doctor have sex with him is not a bad idea, however just as he’s reaching climax in the doctor’s mouth, the nurse (and presumed wife of the doctor) enters, leaving it awkward all around. However our guy is now determined to befriend the only gay kid he knows at school and get some.

Some people may find the whole idea of a doctor taking advantage of an 18 year old patient off-putting, but as I said, if you take it as a serious contemporary that will likely bother you, but it’s meant to be a bit of a lark and his embarrassment about what’s happening and his ready acceptance of it takes it a bit into the fantasy zone. Our narrator is young, he’s crude, he’s a boy. Probably anyone who has or has hung around with many teenage boys could relate. His crude language and thoughts make him very much a teenager. However there was an undercurrent of nice guy. Yes, he was befriending the gay guy to get laid, but he also told his friends to back off and grow up when they started giving them a hard time, and he finds he really does like Jacob and maybe there could be more than just a one-off, but both of them seem happy to start there, until our narrator’s parents end up home early. Awkward.

There is a paranormal aspect at the end which I won’t reveal, but I was left with a bit of a blinky response. I so did not see it coming and to be honest, I thought it was really odd and didn’t work for me at all. I thought the story could have gone a lot of different ways and once you got past the doctor/patient scenario, I would have been happy to read more about our narrator and Jacob and whether they move forward as boyfriends, but then … boom, surprise, the end.

So my reaction was mixed. I did like our narrator, I kind of went with the flow with the doctor scene even if it was a bit confusing, there were some amusing parts, and he was definitely not a 40 year old in an 18 year olds body, but the ending just threw me off and left me going “wow” but in the “what was that?” way rather than “amazing” unfortunately, it didn’t completely ruin it for me, but I think a lot of the potential was lost due to the ending.

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