Rule of Three by Kelly Jamieson - B Very good m/m/f menage story where the characters actually talk about their relationship, their plans and (begin to) address potential traps which may arise. Most of the book is spent developing the relationship and changing it from an m/f/m to an m/m/f. As unrealistic as I gather they are (I understand from Twitter - my source of all the important information - that polyamory is mostly a couple who each (or maybe just one) have separate relationships with others - a triad is apparently kind of unusual), m/m/f are my favourite type of menage stories. I felt there is more "equality" to the relationship where all three feel love and sexual desire for the other rather than the concept of the 2 guys "sharing" the woman. The most unfortunately named Dag* is Chris' best friend from college. He has been out of town, having left after realising his unrequited love for Chris would remain so. He believes Chris is relentlessly straight. Even though they have shared a lot of women together, there has never been any touching of man bits. Chris and Kassidy have been dating about a year and have just moved in together. They are very much in love. Kassidy develops feelings for Dag, he develops feelings for her and Chris eventually recognises his feelings for Dag. Lordly it is a sexy book. I devoured it in virtually one sitting. The writing was good; Ms. Jamieson has a very entertaining style. I would have liked more about their life together as a triad, a bit more about some of the practical difficulties and how they would deal together - this stuff was only just brought up at the very end and, while there were discussions, I wasn't sure how it would work in practice and I wasn't sure if Chris would actually talk more about his feelings (something he struggled with the whole book). How would Kassidy's parents react? What would happen if there was some jealousy which arose? Are interactions between 2 of the 3 okay or do all 3 have to be there? To be fair, this was the getting together book, not the how it works book, but I can't say I wasn't curious. Anyways, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
*I don't know if it means the same thing here as in the US, but a "dag" is a bit of sheep's dung caught up in the wool around their rear end and it's NOT what I want to be thinking of in a sexy book. Especially a sexy book where there's backdoor activity, if you know what I'm saying.
Hotel Pens by Geoffrey Knight - B Very good m/m short about travel writer, Joe Jordan, who broke up with his lover some time ago and has been lonely ever since. Because of his job, he's always in hotels and he's a keen collector of their pens. While in New York for work, he meets Claude, a French ex-pat who is living at the Beacon Hotel and translating m/m romance books into French. Claude courts Joe and teaches him a thing or two about love, himself and New York by writing various messages in pen on Joe's body in a kind of scavenger hunt. I found the writing overall to be engaging and sensitive and I liked how as Joe rediscovered New York, he rediscovered himself also. I was also happy that Joe had things to offer Claude and it wasn't all one-sided. The story was very short (56 pages) and ends in a HFN ending. I wondered what would happen to the couple after - Joe is still a travel writer after all, but maybe there will be further stories for these two? The author is Australian but I think he's definitely been to New York, there is a great sense of place in the book.
