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[The Blog of Sid Love & Dreamspinner Press comes together once again to make this Valentine’s Day a special one for you! As DSP releases each of its books in their “A Valentine Rainbow” Anthology, you get to read their reviews right here from us and also get a chance to win them. A whole set of this anthology plus individual books will given away during this event. And all you need to do is leave a comment to every post that is tagged “A Valentine Rainbow Event” as this one. You will also find it on the Home Page. Contest Ends 15th February, 2014]

Reviewed by Carissa

 

TITLE:  A Cupid’s Wager

 

AUTHOR:  Deanna Wadsworth

 

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

 

LENGTH:  70 pages

 

BLURB:  

 

The name’s Lio, and I’m a cupid working for the Gay Division of the Inter-Dimensional Association of Cupids. An Aztec god, whose modern name, Ethan, doesn’t make him any less scary, just busted me shooting a closeted human with a gay lust arrow. I might find him sexy with all those tattoos and piercings, if I didn’t have a rule against getting it on with other supernaturals—especially ones working for the Straight Division. Now, to save my butt I’ll have to strike a bargain with this tough god. But what I didn’t see coming was my little wager not only risks my career, but places my broken heart completely in Ethan’s hands.

 

REVIEW:  

 

“Involved in every aspect of love, from puppy love and first kisses to weddings, the IDAC is militantly organized.  They take their task of giving the humans love very seriously–like a supernatural FBI, complete with orders, rules, and procedures.

And I just broke about a hundred of each.”

 

Lio’s a Cupid.  No, he isn’t small and chubby.  No, he doesn’t have wings.  And, well, you’re only going to see him naked if you are really lucky.  His job, at the IDAC (Inter-Dimensional Association of Cupids), is to shoot all those lucky gays with lust’s arrow (he’s no longer allowed access to the love-arrows).  When his latest arrow misdirects the love-arrow of another cupid, he knows he’s in trouble.  When the other cupid turns out to be Ethan–he of the most hot godliness–Lio knows he is screwed.  But Ethan seems to know more about Lio than the normal cupid, and he seems to be going out of his way to ‘save’ Lio from himself.  Could Ethan perhaps be a tad less straight than his arrows proclaim?

 

Well, what my last Valentine Rainbow short lacked in sexy goodness, this one sure made up in spades.  Plenty of hot (outdoor) sex, and not a little helping of mystery.

 

While the idea of a modern-day cupid is not exactly a new thing, I did enjoy how this story did it.  And I really liked that it included more than just the Roman (or is it Greek?) pantheon of love gods.  While we didn’t get a lot of the Aztec mythology in this short, it there were some interesting tidbits.  And goth-dressed Ethan was just lovely.  And a little mysterious.

 

I really wish we got more out this story (well the actual story part, there was certainly enough skin and touching to keep me blushing for a while) because there was a lot going on with Ethan, and with Ethan’s connection to Lio, that we never got answers for.  Why does he know so much about Lio?  Why has he been playing it straight?  And what is up with the whole energizer-bunny charge up?  We never really get a clear answer to any of this, and the end sure does leave us with quite a few questions.  And a bit of breathing problem…but really that is not at all a bad thing. 😛

 

This was a very hot and enjoyable short story, and while I would have loved to have a few of our questions answered here, I am kinda hoping that there is a follow up to this in some form.  Lio and Ethan are great (and hot) together, and I’d love to know where they go from here.

 

RATING:  

 

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner