Wendy reviews BoyMeets Boy Meets Boy (Mad About the Brit Boys Book 4) by JL Merrow and Josephine Myles. (Published March 12, 2016. 57 pages)
This is my multiple authors week review. We were provided a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.
Anthology introduction by Josephine Myles (taken from the ebook):
I do love a good threesome.
Err, a fictional one, that is. Because there is such a thing as too much information, and I don’t know about you, but I sometimes I prefer not to know what people get up to behind closed doors.
Okay, so that’s a lie. I’m a writer and we’re notoriously nosy people. I’ve always been one for peeping into people’s houses—winter evenings are perfect for this, especially in December as most folk like to keep the curtains open to show off their Christmas trees. However, I’ve only once been rewarded by spying a couple shagging, and I suspect they were exhibitionists anyway as they were doing it by a busy pub.
But I digress; this is less about my voyeuristic tendencies and more about my love of a fictional ménage. Just what is it that appeals about a good threesome? Okay, so there’s all the smutty possibilities that suddenly become apparent when you add in a few extra limbs, appendages and places to shove said appendages—but it’s not all about the sex. To be honest, writing ménage sex scenes tends to give me a headache what with having to make it clear to the reader who is doing what to whom, and it’s especially complicated when all three participants are the same gender.
What makes a threesome really interesting to me as a writer is thinking through all the emotional entanglements—ones that can be brought to the surface even by a seemingly casual encounter, such as the one in my story for this anthology. Indeed, I so enjoyed the process of writing this story that I ventured into writing a full length ménage romance, which allowed me to explore the dynamics of a three-way relationship in more depth.
While Jamie has never written a novel length ménage romance, I’ve always loved reading her m/m/m shorts. Incidentally, two of the stories here were first published in an anthology of threesome shorts from Dreamspinner Press back in 2010, and that was our first ever joint anthology credit. I still remember how privileged I felt to have a story in the same anthology as her! And although we’ve had many joint anthology projects since, she’s still a writer I’m thrilled to team up with, honest guvnor (I have to put that in or Jamie will punish me! [Jamie: This is true])
We might not write many short stories these days, but we haven’t run out of old ones to republish just yet, so keep your eyes peeled for at least one more Mad About the Brit Boys anthology.
Happy reading,
Jo x
Josephine Myles, February 2016
Good men come in threes!
Three’s definitely not a crowd in this trio of contemporary erotic male/male/male ménages with a very British flavour from gay romance favourites Josephine Myles and JL Merrow.
Let your fantasies run wild as you take in the fit bodies down at the gym, or enjoy a very special birthday present from a loving partner. And even a trip to the dentist can be enjoyable with the right sort of distraction!
These stories have all been previously published, but are now available exclusively in this anthology.
Excerpt from Getting a Filling by JL Merrow
“You,” Colin said decisively, prodding Ivo painfully in the ribs, “are the world’s biggest wuss.”
Ivo glared at his lover. “Excuse me? I think you’ll find, actually, I’m being extremely brave here. I’m not trembling in fright at home, pretending it’s all going to go away. Oh, no. I’m here. Standing tall—”
“Sitting on a comfy chair, actually.”
“—and facing up to my fears. I think you’ll find that’s the very definition of bravery.”
Colin made an annoying sort of tsk sound with his tongue. “And I think you’ll find that most grown men in your situation would not call this anything even remotely like bravery. Especially seeing as you dragged me along to hold your hand. You’re not marching into battle, Ivo. You’re not about to have experimental brain surgery. You’re not even going bloody bungee jumping. You’re at the dentist’s! For a check-up. How terrifying can it be?”
Ivo was wounded. “I had a bad experience at the dentist’s when I was little, I’ll have you know. It scarred me for life.” He shuddered at the memory. “You never saw the dentist I used to have to go to. His surgery was in a big old house like the one in the Amityville horror films.”
“A perfectly ordinary terraced house in the High Street, no doubt.”
“Well, it looked scary enough when I was a kid. All Masonic patterned tiles and Gothic windows. And the dentist was an absolute ringer for Vincent Price. It was bloody terrifying, seeing him looming over you with a drill.”
“Well, it should have taught you not to eat so many sweeties, then, shouldn’t it?” Colin said with the smug air of one blessed with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to sugar and naturally strong teeth. “If it wasn’t for your chocolate addiction, we wouldn’t even be here. I’ve never had to have a filling in my life.”
“Which is why there’s nothing intrinsically manly about you being so bloody blasé about trips to the dentist. You’ve never had reason to be scared.” A shiver ran through Ivo’s frame. “All the times I had gas at the dentist’s, feeling that horrible taste in my mouth and wondering if I’d ever wake up…”
“You can’t feel a taste, Ivo,” Colin put in dismissively, picking up a battered copy of Reader’s Digest apparently for the sole purpose of dropping it again with a shudder.
“Maybe I’m synaesthetic,” Ivo muttered sulkily. “Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it isn’t a perfectly valid—”
“Would you like to come in now, Mr Eccles?” The nurse smiled around the waiting room door. Ivo felt a sudden flash of loathing for her, with her starched white uniform and her perfect nails and her friendly manner. He took a deep breath. No. The nurse was not the enemy.
Merely a collaborator. Ivo wondered what she’d look like with that artfully highlighted hair shorn off and a badge of shame hung around her neck reading Dentist Lover.
“Mr Eccles?”
Scrambling to his feet, Ivo squared his shoulders. He might be heading towards unimaginable terror and suffering, but by God he’d show some good old-fashioned British backbone. Unfortunately, his voice didn’t seem to be playing along. It came out in a bit of a squeak. “You’re coming with me, right, Colin?”
Colin sighed. “If I have to.”
As Ivo walked into the surgery, the smell hit him. A mix of antiseptic and that horrid pink stuff they made you rinse your mouth out with after they’d finished their sadistic little round of torture. And a faint whiff of mint. Uniquely dentist, it transported Ivo back to his childhood and his mother’s harassed voice, promising him a whole box of Smarties if he’d only, please, just try to be good at the dentist’s this time.
“Ivo, you’re hurting my hand,” Colin hissed in his ear. Ivo let go hurriedly.
And then he looked at the dentist, and all his anxiety seemed to drain away. Right along with most of the blood in the upper portions of his body. It seemed to be heading south so fast Ivo was vaguely surprised he didn’t keel straight over on the floor, leaving just his dick standing up and waving enthusiastically. The dentist was absolutely bloody gorgeous. Well, what could be seen of him was, at any rate. Green eyes twinkled above his surgical mask, and dark, almost black curls poked out from under his cap. The whole effect was Pan, gone middle-class professional. Ivo found himself wondering if there might be two tiny horns nestling in those curls under the cap. And as for the rest of him… His tight white tunic (and how come Ivo had never realised just how sexy a tunic could be?) seemed to strain to contain his muscular chest, and his trousers clung lovingly to rock-hard thighs.
Ivo heard Colin’s sharp intake of breath and knew his lover was just as affected by the sight as he was. It was one of the many reasons he felt so lucky having Colin; they had very similar tastes in men.
“Ah, Mr Eccles? If you’d like to take a seat.” The dentist waved politely at the chair, which looked more like a couch in its present semi-reclined state. Really, you could get up to all sorts of things in a chair like that.
“Ivo,” Ivo told him as he moved forward, drawn by the lure of that mellow voice. “Please, call me Ivo.”
A trio of contemporary erotic MMM ménages.
Kit Bag
Kit is a small man who works at the gym. He has been eyeing two large hunks of muscle bound gorgeousness each time they come in. He fantasizes about everything that he wants the two to do to him as he works out ways to watch these men close up. He’s decidedly submissive and dreams of these guys taking him over and over, even though he doesn’t know for sure if they are together. He is turned on by every drop of sweat that they drip.
I liked how Kit made up names for these guys, Black Muscle Vest and Grey Sweats. Super cute!
The two men, Harry and Sven have been watching Kit as well. Once their workout for the day is over, and everyone else is gone, Harry convinces Kit to take a look at a problem in the locker room. The problem turns out to be Sven’s hard on. Things heat up quickly and the result is super-hot sex that has them all living out their fantasies. I don’t want to give everything away, but the ending is sweet.
Well written erotica and just the right amount of depth with the characters to give you a good picture of who and what they are while being a short story.
Unwrapped: The Birthday Gift
This story has the birthday boy Dave and his partner Mark out for a night of Birthday celebrating. All while keeping an eye out for a potential third man to join in and help Mark give Dave the Birthday gift that he really wants.
As the night goes on things aren’t looking very good for Mark’s fantasy present to happen. Just as they are thinking about giving up, Dave sees him… Pedro. It doesn’t take long for the three to go back to Dave and Mark’s apartment and start some real celebrating.
The three men mesh wonderfully together sexually, even as Dave questions if he and Mark should go through with the threesome. Once they are comfortable with what they are doing the sex scenes are so hot, very descriptive and just what erotica should be. This story also has an unexpected twist, that addresses some difficult issues beautifully.
Getting a Filling
This last story is about Ivo and his boyfriend Colin. Ivo had a bad experience at the dentist as a young boy and can’t quite seem to get over it as an adult. He enlists his boyfriend Collin to accompany him to the dentist and hold his hand. Colin is a bit unsympathetic about Ivo’s fear, but does go along with him because he’s a good boyfriend.
Once they are in the dentist’s treatment room, and Ivo gets a look at the dentist, his fears start to abate and he and Colin begin to flirt right through the visit.
Several weeks later they unexpectedly meet the dentist (Ted) at a club and pick up right where they left off except this time Ted can flirt right back. They soon decide to get together and end up back in Ted’s dentist office. They begin to replace Ivo’s bad memories with sexy erotic ones.
This was also a well written story for being so short.
I liked every one of the three stories and can testify that the sex is steamy and you don’t want for anything but more stories. The characters all have enough depth to feel realistic and you don’t need more background to get a good idea of who they are.
I give this anthology a 8/10 rating
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JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy, and her novella Muscling Through and novel Relief Valve were both EPIC Awards finalists.
JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers’ Circle and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.
Jo publishes regularly with Samhain, and now has over ten novels and novellas under her belt. Her novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion, although she prefers to leave the “boring bits” of the ebook creation process to someone else. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the demands of a preteen with special needs and a soon-to-be toddler.
Website and blog: http://josephinemyles.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles.author
Twitter: @JosephineMyles
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