Reviewed by Vicki
AUTHORS: J.P. Barnaby, Sara York, Ethan Stone, Brandon Witt
PUBLISHER: Stiff Rain Press
LENGTH: 164 pages
BLURB:
Family Lines by Sara York
Brett Nash is a successful author, but his past still haunts him. Being kicked out of his home at the age of sixteen has left him distrustful of others. When Daniel, his stepbrother, shows up at HomoEroticCon, Brett has to decide to stay or leave. Worse, his publisher traps them in a room together; forcing Brett to talk to the one man he’s never stopped loving.
Fanboy by Brandon Witt
HomoErotiCon was only a conference. Just four days. Nothing more than a long weekend. Hooked from the first moment he picked up his first gay romance novel, Sampson Pruitt fantasized about living a life like the ones he read about on the page. The novels made him hope he might be able to truly break free, and discover the courage to leave the secrecy of his life. Maybe even meet the author of his dreams. Just four days. For this Fan Boy, four days might be enough to change everything.
Caught Between a Cock and a Hard Dom by J.P. Barnaby
Brandon Lennox doesn’t like people. When his lover and Dom signs him up for an author conference in Austin, Texas, his social anxiety goes into overdrive.
Well, until the hot boy in the tight little Robin costume shows them both just how much of a boy wonder he is.
Muse by Ethan Stone
Micah Shea is nursing a broken heart when he arrives at HomoErotiCon. He just wants to chill out, have fun and get laid a time or two. The weekend starts out well with a fun encounter with a bellhop and an invite to an orgy. However, at the party Micah’s world is turned upside down when he sees a man who is the exact embodiment of a dream he had years ago—the guy who became his muse and the star of his books.
At first Micah is drawn to Trevor because of the resemblance, but the more Micah gets to know Trevor the more he genuinely likes him. The sex is awesome but they have more than just a physical connection.
It all goes to hell when Trevor learns the truth and Micah has to convince him he isn’t a stalker—before the end of the conference.
REVIEW:
I’ve been curious to read this since I first saw it, I had a feeling it was sort of set at a Gay Rom Lit type of convention, only naughtier. I just got back from my third GRL and I can’t help but set this book at that site, and I’ve seen and/or met several of these authors. It’s making me laugh as I read them!
Muse by Ethan Stone
Well. That’s a fun way to start off this anthology!
Micah is an author of gay romance novels, who has recently been left by his lover. He his attending HomoErotiCon, in the hopes of getting laid, and maybe promoting himself as well. He does in fact have lots of sex over the weekend, starting less than an hour after he arrives at the hotel! He heads to an orgy for the evening, and meets a man that closely resembles the main character from his novels. They spend the weekend fucking in inappropriate places, and a very odd situation comes up regarding their pasts and how they sort of intersect.
Ethan gives us a fun and fluffy story, that seems completely unrealistic. It’s fairly typical of short stories in anthologies, all sex and no plot. But I enjoyed it, the little twist to it was interesting, and the sex was hot!
RATING: 
Family Lines by Sara York
Brett Nash is an author with a dark past. He was kicked out at sixteen and has been on his own ever since. He has a decent career as a writer but has trust issues and doesn’t like the crowds and fans of the conventions he attends. He’s at HomoErotiCon because his publisher makes him go, but it’s very hard. Especially when he runs in to his former lover/step brother.
So there is a lot of drama crammed in to this short story, and it didn’t work for me as well as it could have. I wasn’t clear about why Brett was so angry at Daniel, it seemed like an overreaction to drama that happened when they were teenagers and got caught by their parents. Brett got kicked out, Daniel didn’t. I understand it put Brett down a bad path, but I couldn’t see why it was Daniel’s fault. Anyway, it was a bit much. Brett freaks out several times, Daniel stalks him around the convention and there is a really wierd blow job in the spa. But they do work their shit out at the end…
It was an ok story, just maybe too much for a story this short to contain. I either wanted more or less. Give me a longer story, show me what happened so long ago, make me really invested in them, or just keep it a short and fluffy story. I didn’t care about them one way or the other.
RATING: 
Caught Between a Cock and a Hard Dom by J.P. Barnaby
CRACK! That is the sound of a home run hit! Damn. JP knocked it out of the ballpark with this story! (Yes I’m watching baseball. Well, it’s on but I’m reading.)
Brandon and Sean are in a long term, committed D/s relationship. Sean, the Dom, owns a software business, and Brandon, his sub, writes romance novels. They are the perfect example of a functioning D/s relationship, Sean is strong and outgoing, Brandon is gentle and introverted. Sean helps Brandon find the inner strength he needs to be a successful person, and especially a successful author. Pushing him out of his comfort zone and in to HomoErotiCon….
Along the way we learn more about them as a couple, and see them have beautiful, hot sex. Only slightly kinky, just enough to be extra yummy but no hard BDSM. Once they get to the con, Brandon has some moments of freaking out, but Sean calms him down, and they find a tasty treat to share for the evening. Then we get one of the sweetest and hottest threesome I’ve read!
This is the perfect blend for a short story. Enough background to make the characters interesting, but not so much it bogs it down. Only a little drama in Brandon’s freak outs, but an interesting storyline none the less. Then there is the sex. Yum. A little kinky, a threesome, committed lovers, it was excellent. Great characters, a simple but thorough plot, and wonderful sex!
RATING: 
Fanboy by Brandon Witt
Well, this one has some naughty sex! But that’s about it…. Samson is a reader, going to his first HomoErotiCon, hoping to have sex, and he does. Several times, both with partners and without. There was some naughty dirty talk, and some nasty sex that was a little much for me.
Samson was ok as a character, he’s from Kansas, from a small town, hiding his true self from his family, just the type of character I find interesting. He’s at his first con, and is very shy, been there done that! Now this is going to sound wierd for me, but I didn’t really like the sex scenes. There was no connection between him and his partners. I don’t necessarily expect love in such a short story, but there was barely any connection, flirting, anything between any of them. It was clinical feeling to me. I was uncomfortable with the last sex scene in particular, it was a lot of kink for someone that hasn’t built up any type of trust with a partner.
I liked the concept of Samson as a person, I liked the potential of the story with him meeting his favorite author, and I appreciated the sex as being kinky and some people will like it. But it wasn’t my favorite story. I haven’t read anything else from Brandon Witt, I need to now, I don’t know that this was the best place for me to start…
RATING:
Overall I enjoyed this anthology. I loved the setting, having just been to a much less kinky version of this convention, it was fun for me to read it. I am familiar with several of the authors through social media and seeing them at GRL, which added to the fun of reading their stories and picturing them. I liked how the stories intertwined, having common characters. I liked the differences in the stories even though they were set in a common location. I liked the cleverness of the authors in using real authors as well as fictional authors. For the most part I liked the sex scenes. I liked the writing even though I didn’t alway care for the stories, these are all good, experienced authors, who gave us some fun stories!
I had a wide range of ratings, so I’ll average them for the overall rating of 3.5.
AVERAGE RATING: 
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