Reviewed by Vicki

 

TITLE: Not in the Stars

SERIES: Mischief Corner Anthologies #4

AUTHOR: Toni Griffin, Mathilde Watson, Freddy MacKay, Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: Mischief Corner Books

LENGTH: 138700 words

RATING:

 

BLURB:

Not in the Stars
By  Toni Griffin, Freddy MacKay, Mathilde Watson & Angel Martinez
Release Date: April 5, 2014

Since the dawn of human expression, man has gazed up at the heavens in wonder, inspired by the wheeling of the stars to explain his surroundings. While our perception of those surroundings have changed, from thinking of the Earth as a flat, stable plane to realizing we’re falling through space in a tiny atmospheric bubble, our wonder remains constant.

Space stations, alien races, far-flung planets—join the Mischief Corner authors as they explore the possibilities the stars might offer. The catch? Returning to mundane old Earth might be harder than you think.

Finding Connor: The Borillian Twist, Book 1 – Toni Griffin
Mark, a RAAF fighter pilot, is on leave for the first time since the aliens decided to say ‘Hello’. He meets Connor, a numbers man for a casino, at a gay bar and danced the night away. Their one night together changes their entire lives and what people think they know about life on Earth.

The Usual Conventions: Unconventional Romances 1 – Mathilde Watson
When Chris meets the alien—man—of his dreams, “Ensign Brodeich Geinn” aka actor Brody Gates, it’s as one of the coordinators for the first annual OBX Science Fiction Convention in North Carolina. To his delight, Brody seems to return his interest, albeit in typical alien “Brodeich” fashion. Awkward alien or not, Chris is more than willing to play out any sexual fantasy for his SciFi crush, especially when Brody fumbles over the simplest of human conventions.

Feel Me – Freddy MacKay
One terrorist blast changed Master Tobias Zimmer’s entire existence, relegating him to being nothing more than just a “Coppies” because of the metal replacing his flesh. As the once future Shogun of moon colony Orion 1, he now idles his time away keeping tabs on the Loyalists while his father and brother broker negotiations with the Earth Consortium.

A confrontation with his childhood enemy, Dr. Thorsten Nordenfelt, sets into motion events that cannot be undone and puts Tobias’s sheltered heart at the center of the colony’s attempts to free itself from the repressive Earth’s rule.

Shax’s War: Brimstone 3 – Angel Martinez
The boys desperately need a vacation. With the not-quite-ill-gotten gains from the Frog incident, Shax takes the Brimstone’s crew to the exclusive resort planet, Opal. What could possibly go wrong there?

 

REVIEW:

Should I admit I’m reading this anthology for Shax? Hmmm… I’m NOT going to skip ahead to his story! I will respect the hard work the other three authors have put in to their stories and read them!

 

Finding Connor: The Borillian Twist, Book 1 – Toni Griffin

Wow! Connor and Mark are yummy! Mark is a pilot on leave for the first time in six months and he is horny. He and his buddies head out for a night on the town, planning an evening of burgers, booze and sex. Connor is recently recovered from a sickness, and goes out to a club to celebrate his friend Angels birthday. He spies Mark getting off his motorcycle and falls in lust!

 

They dance, flirt, and go back to Connor’s apartment to continue their evening. Much naughty sex is had! Unfortunately Mark gets recalled in the middle of the night and leaves… Connor is certainly disappointed, but that’s what happens with a one night stand. Connor continues on with his life, but something is off. Has the one night with Mark changed him forever?

 

So this is hard… There is a BIG thing that happens, it’s a huge part of the plot, and I do NOT want to give anything away. It is a fantastic plot, I’ve read attempts at this concept before, but they don’t always work for me. This one does! Very well! The aliens coming to earth works, it’s not cheesy like it could be, and the big thing this causes is plausible. In this world anyway.

 

I enjoyed this story, it was well written, with a fun and quirky plot, great characters and hot sex!

 

The Usual Conventions: Unconventional Romances 1 – Mathilde Watson

This is a fun story as well! It starts off with a handful of actors from a cancelled Sci-fi show at a convention. Not particularly unusual, or is it? Not all is as it appears with the three “actors”!

 

Chris who is working at the convention, is so happy to meet his crush Brody, or Brodeich the character he plays. Then he finds out the attraction is mutual, and Brodeich begins to court Chris. Brodeich is pretty clear in his intentions toward Chris, in his own mind anyway. Unfortunately he hasn’t quite gotten a grasp on human mating rituals. Chris is interested, but has no clue what Brodeich is really offering him. There are several wonderful moments of misunderstanding between the two, a very hot couple of sex scenes, and a great revealing of Brodeich’s true appearance!

 

This was a small but well done plot, it all takes place at the convention, although there is some nice background story to the characters that is revealed as the story unfolds. It is well written and clever, I loved Brodeich! I liked Chris just fine, but we don’t get to know him as well. Brodeich and the others are wonderful characters! I enjoyed this story quite a bit!

 

Feel Me – Freddy MacKay

Wow. That was an unexpectedly deep and dark story…. Almost steampunk, but not… Sci-fi, but slightly old school feeling, with hot sex! Tobias is the son of the leader of Orion 1, the first colony on the moon. Thorsten is the obnoxious son of the opposition faction. There is a very deep and complex story going on, the drama between earth and the colony, government and loyalists, plus the drama between Tobias and Thorsten. Lots of opposition everywhere. Tobias and Thorsten eventually come to an understanding and there is a lovely romance between them. And some hot sci-fi sex. Then there is the ending. Amazing. Freddy has created a great world for this book, an elevator to space, a moon colony, replacement body parts, all with an odd steampunk feeling to it. I totally bought it.

 

It made me cry. It was not at all what I was expecting and I won’t say why without ruining the story for anyone, but damn! That was awesome. I think…. Still teary eyed!

 

On to some Shax now.

 

Shax’s War: Brimstone 3 – Angel Martinez

What a mess these boys make of a nice simple vacation! Ness tries to be helpful and save a human from dying and ends up in LOTS of trouble! Of course Shax comes to the rescue and saves his baby!

 

The boys are back, Shax and Ness, who have some nice naughty sex in this story, Verin and Corny, and Ivana. They have a dramatic and traumatic adventure, meet some fantastic characters, and gain some shipmates. The plot is great, dark and scary, I can’t say what happens without giving things away, but it is the most complex of the three Brimstone stories. It’s the darkest as well, which is just fine, I loved it! And we got a great addition to the odd critters in these stories! Should I say? Nope, you have to read it to find out who Leopold is.

 

If you’ve read the other Brimstone stories you need to read this one, I think you’d be ok reading it if you haven’t. You may not totally get the humor of these boys, and the connection between them, but you’ll still enjoy it! Great writing, great plot and fabulous characters!

 

Overall comments

These are four wonderful stories. All are well written, with creative plots. I was familiar with Angel, and I freely admit I asked to review it for the Brimstone story. I was certainly happy to read the others, but…. I was all about the Shax! That being said, I was enchanted by Toni and Mathilde’s stories, they were very enjoyable. I liked Angel’s Brimstone story just fine, and got what I was looking for with it. Then there is Freddy’s story. Holy snotball. That was such an amazing and unexpected story, I was blown away. It started off ok, interesting world and characters, but that ending. Unbelievable. I’m still thinking about it two days later. Not to take anything away from the other authors, I swear I enjoyed their stories, but Freddy stole the show!

 

If you are a fan of any other these authors or of m/m Sci-fi books, get this anthology. It’s well worth the time and money. I would have given four stars (which is a GREAT rating btw) but Freddy bumped it up four and a half.

 

BUY LINKS:  Mischief Corner Books Amazon Are