Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Foolish Encounters – A Rainbow Gold Anthology
AUTHORS: Amy Lane, Angel Martinez, Tali Spencer, Tinnean, Elin Gregory, J.C. Wallace, & Freddy MacKay
PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press
LENGTH: 353 pages
BLURB:
An accident, a chance encounter, a thought blurted out, a boat blown off course, a change in direction that suddenly runs into the line of fire – the smallest misstep can change everything. These foolish encounters are the moments around which lives pivot and sometimes spin out of control. Join us for tales of imprudent choices and bad decisions that can lead just as easily to hilarity as they can to tragedy.
REVIEW:
A Message from the Home Office – Angel Martinez
Uh, what? A cobra shifter, who can only come while he sings? Yup! Angel Martinez…. I’m pretty sure I can say this is the only time I have read about a snake masturbating against a soap holder while singing!
What an awesome little story! Sci-fi but paranormal. Shifters from space spying on humans. A snake shifter falling in love with a dik-dik shifter. Yes, I did go Google to see what a dik-dik looks like! The plot is pretty basic, as it needs to be in an anthology. Sissal is stationed on Earth, living in a cabin alone, watching the humans. The home office sends him an assistant unexpectedly, who turns out to be a dik-dik shifter named Rcrred. Or Richard as they decide his human name should be. Yes, a dik-dik named Dick! There is a little drama, Richard is very cute and seriously neurotic, there’s a little sex, a lot of humor, and a good ending! Great start to this anthology!
RATING: 
Shredding the Heart – J.C. Wallace
This one was a sweet simple story about stalking and love…. Nicholas is a skateboarder, practicing in the park each morning. He notices a very attractive man jogging in the park each morning, and for some time watches him and tries to catch his attention. But nothing works! One day he gets a little assertive in his stalking and his skateboard hit the pretty man in the head! Off they go to the hospital. But this finally gives Nicholas a chance to meet Quinn.
There is some dating, getting to know one another, but Quinn has some serious trust issues. It takes time but they finally get together. Only to have it go all wrong…. I liked this story, it was a little basic, but that’s ok considering the length of the story. The writing was fine, the characters were ok, and the story was good. It’s not overly exciting, but it was good. It had lots of details about skateboarding tricks and such, not something I’ve really paid attention to, so that was different for me. It also fit the theme of a foolish encounter leading to a connection!
RATING: 
The Lunar Imperative – Elin Gregory
Oh that was cool! Another shifter in outer space story…. A shuttle lands with a few men in it, on their way to find Sheill, a Very Bad Man. Haken and his crew are Vargan, which seems to be a sort of shifter. Haken has a plan to infiltrate the community Sheill is hiding in, but things don’t quite go his way.
It’s a short story, with a lot of history and world building crammed in, but it worked for me. I had to go back over a couple of things when I got lost, but that’s ok. Haken has a crew member that he feels some attraction to, that’s the little bit of connection in the story, however there is no “romance”, and very little sex. Some implied, but not actual sex. Again, that was ok! The world was interesting, the characters were as well, it felt like the beginning of a story and relationship I’d like to know more about. I liked it a lot! Great writing!
RATING:
Blue and Green Persuasion – Tinnean
Another sci-fi story! I liked this one, Tinnean gave us some great characters, and included a lot of background in the story. I wish the ending had been a little longer, there is a lot of story, then it ends a bit abruptly.
So there is a transport space ship full of refugees in cryogenic tubes, with a crew caring for them. They all ended up spending 600 years in space, trying to find a new home after they got bumped through a rift in space. Very Star Trek! Generations have passed with new crew being born and raised to their jobs, with this whole bunch of refugees sleeping away. As this story starts they have run out of time and resources and are about to all die when they find a potential planet to check out. Hart, the one remaining scout, is sent down to the planet. He has the ability to hear a language and be able to understand and speak it. He finds the planet is perfect, but has some sentient beings already there. I’ll stop there! It’s a cool story, but needed to be longer I think. It’s a great world, but there are things left with no resolutions. I liked it though! Quite a bit…
RATING:
Well Hello, Eight Eyes – Tali Spencer
This is an odd story…. Tanner is out in his boat on Lake Michigan and gets caught in a storm and wrecks. He is rescued by a group of seriously strange people, who take him to an island. Cory, one of the inhabitants, convinces the others not to kill Tanner, and takes him back to his cabin to care for him until the mysterious Jonas gets there and can take Tanner back to the main land. Tanner and Cory bond over beans and hot chocolate, then things get strange!
I liked the story, the characters were interesting, and it left me wanting to know more about this world!
RATING:
The Fenestra Penetration – Amy Lane
Yes! Hot, sexy, and funny. Perfect! Steve the delivery driver takes a box with the name Geoff and Johnnies on it to the home of Gordie, the lonely horny man… Steve happens to know that boxes from Geoff and Johnnies contain all sorts of toys for horny boys. He is greeted by a sexy and sweaty Gordie, and a little flirting happens. Then a little individual enjoyment of toys for horny boys. Then another box and some actual horny boy on boy action!
It’s Amy Lane, so it’s a quirky fun little story, if you know her at all, you’ll recognize the character names from Amy’s real life and chuckle a bit more. Great little story!
RATING: 
The Nut Job – Freddy MacKay
What a fun story! This one ties in to the first story in this book, This is following Spence the Captain of the ship that drops Rccred off on Earth with Sissal. Is starts up just as Spencer is heading out of the area as fast as he can so Sissal can’t make him come back! Turns out they aren’t going far, just up the Canada to harvest nuts. I’m not really sure why, but there they are! So Spencer is a giant squirrel, his crew is made off several odd and cool beings. They all head in to the woods to pick nuts and it goes to shit. They run in to a crazy red neck hunter looking for big foot. One of them gets shot, Spencer finds another human, and we get a fun and fast paced story with a few fun puns!
It was good, no real romance, no sex, but just a good adventure story with some unique characters. I liked it!
RATING:
OVERALL REVIEW:
I liked this anthology! I liked the uniqueness of the stories, and the theme of odd, foolish encounters. There are a wide range of stories, sci-fi and contemporary, some humor and some sadness, some sex, and some love. Well worth reading!
OVERALL RATING:
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