Reviewed by Tammy
TITLE: All That Shimmers
SERIES: A Piece Us Back Together story
AUTHOR: Raine O’Tierney
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 99 Pages
BLURB:
Beau Bell is a former Olympic hopeful, left paralysed from the waist down after a car accident. He has every reason in the world to be pissed off and miserable, yet he’s training for the Paralympics Men’s 100m—S6 division. The chair? Just a part of who he is now. Beau’s attitude is golden. If only he could contend with this one little issue: errant erections and no way to relieve them!
Niksa Meríc is a lonely scientist and really bad poet living underneath the old building where he does his research. Every night he watches his neighbour through his basement window as he undresses in his wheelchair. Although there is no apparent reason for Niksa to be unhappy, he’s struggled with depression his whole life and has tried to kill himself on multiple occasions.
When Beau proposes that his “voyeur” come over and help him experiment with the erections he can’t actually feel, the relationship they build is a sexual one. But the relationship they need is one that will heal each other’s heart as well.
REVIEW:
Beau Bell was training for the Olympics when a tragic car accident leaves him a paraplegic, luckily Beau has both the personality and strength of character that allows him to keep his spirits up and not become mired in depression. Niksa Meríc is the complete opposite of Beau, he suffers from chronic depression and has so far tried to commit suicide four times. The one bright spot in Niksa’s life is watching his wheelchair bound neighbour getting undressed every night.
Beau trains for hours every day at the local pool so that he qualifies for the Paralympics Men’s 100m in the S6 Division. He has the support and friendship of his coach and fellow swimmers but there is one area of Beau’s life he’s not happy with- constant erections and his inability to relieve them himself. Now, before his accident Beau was a total manwhore, extremely good looking and never wanting for sexual partners. But it’s been a year and a half since the accident and his ever ready, psychogenic erections are the bane of his life because he can’t feel anything from the waist down. So starts the exploration to find a way for Beau to have an orgasm!
Niksa on the other hand has been alone practically all his life, his parents sent him to America from Croatia to live with his aunt when he was only two years old. When he was eight his aunt decided he was old enough to know that his parents had died in the war and that was the beginning of his downward spiral into depression. Niksa doesn’t know how to be or keep a friend, he holds on too hard which only pushes his friends away. When Beau decides after a considerable amount of research that what he needs is a partner who is willing to explore all positions and options so he can finally have an orgasm, Niksa is overwhelmed that Beau chooses him. Beau doesn’t want a boyfriend he only wants to get off, at least that’s what he tells Niksa at the beginning and the development of their relationship is amazing with the way Niksa gets through to Beau that he’s fallen in love with him. Nobody has ever told Beau they love him and it makes him think long and hard about what Niksa means to him too.
All in all, All That Shimmers is an incredibly powerful and at times very dark short story. You get to go on the roller coaster that is Niksa’s emotions as well as Beaus awakening that there is someone to love him even though he’s in a wheelchair. I would definitely recommend this story to all m/m romance lovers.
RATING:
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