Title: A Special Birthday
Author: Helen Louise Caroll
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary M/M, Paranormal, Fantasy
Length: Amber Kiss (6K words)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
Summary Review: A Special Birthday restored my faith that short stories can be done well. The author uses her talent effectively and mixes in all the ingredients at her disposal, with help from a little magic, to make this an enjoyable, delightful experience.
THE BLURB
Can an old wooden box and a mysterious game help two men find passion?
John has been lusting after his co-worker for years, but nothing will make Ray give up his “No Affairs With Co-workers” rule. But tonight John has a special birthday planned for Ray, and John’s hoping he’ll get his birthday wish.
Even though Ray would like nothing better than to give in to the passion he feels for John, he’s been burned before. But can he keep his “hands-off” resolution, especially after John presents him with an item he located in an antique shop…an ancient box that contains an extremely arousing game?
THE REVIEW
John and Ray were co-curators at the Dowe Museum and since they started working together three years ago John was attracted to the stocky, dishwater blond with the shy grin and had been trying to get into his pants, but Ray had been burned before by a co-worker, and even though he also liked John a lot he was not taking any chances this time. Since it was Ray’s birthday John thought he had an ideal opportunity to make some headway and score a few brownie points with the man of his dreams, but what to buy? He was debating with himself between sex toys and a gift certificate when he saw an antique store and decided to step inside to see if something would catch his eye within the time he had to spare before getting back to the office.
When John entered the store it seemed as if time itself had stopped as the elderly owner directed him to the back. After going through a lot of the junk on display he saw a different aisle, and a box on a marble-topped table drew him to it. When he lifted the box it was very light and there were strange carvings on it that seemed like human figures. He opened the box and was assailed by a seductive scent which made him think of many things, including sex with Ray. Naturally he decided to purchase the box and give it to Ray for his birthday in hopes that it would have the same effect on him.
Ray was not around when John went back to the office and he wondered if he would appreciate the gift – maybe he should have purchased a gift certificate or the sex toys, but he knew in his heart of hearts that the toys would have embarrassed Ray who was a very private man. He thought of getting rid of the box but was strangely drawn to it, and it had a weird effect on him sexually. Then Ray returned and the birthday celebrations began several hours later when they had completed work for the evening.
At first Ray wasn’t sure that he wanted to spend his birthday with John. He thought the man was sexy but he was very concerned about sending him the wrong signal, even though he had fantasized about him frequently. However, the Chablis that John had bought set the stage and when Ray opened his present he was in for a shock as the magic of the box turned the celebration into a sexual feast, and he realized at last that John was not at all like his former lover.
Helen Louise Caroll did such a fantastic job with 6K words that I will be checking to see if she has written any novellas or novels. She has a wonderful sense of style and her prose and dialogue which set up the tension between her two characters were so well done that I was totally immersed in the story. The plot was fairly simple but the execution was marvelous. The level of detail for such a short story was extraordinary and I wondered whether the author worked in a museum. And the sex – the anticipation alone was worth the price of the book.
I have often complained that most short stories are unsatisfactory; the insta-love in these books make them unbelievable and not credible. In addition, the endings are always rushed because the writers run out of whatever word count they had. In this case, when the characters who had been colleagues for 3 years crossed the sexual threshold, it was an inevitable stage of their relationship and the author made it seem like the natural conclusion.
A Special Birthday is a terrific story and I’m sure its magic will work for you.
