Theme Week Love is an Open Road
Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Line of Sight
SERIES: Don’t Read in the Closet 2015, Love is an Open Road
AUTHOR: Jenn Burke
PUBLISHER: M/M Romance Group
LENGTH: 57 pages
BLURB:
Betrayed by his alien partner, it takes intergalactic cop Cailad kar Natoth a full year to accept that he’s stranded on Earth. Rescue just isn’t going to happen. He’s now Cal Smith, a bartender of all things— but the situation could be worse.
Out from under the pressure of regulations, he has a chance to explore the emotions he’s always kept tightly controlled. Ryan Cameron, the man who offered him shelter and a job when he needed it most, once held up the chance to be more than friends— and now that Cal’s sure he’s staying, it’s time to take him up on it. Maybe they can see if the lust and desire ricocheting between them is the start of something more.
But Ryan’s lingering grief over the death of his husband five years before— and an unexpected visitor— might steal their future before they have a chance to build it together.
PHOTO DESCRIPTION:
A shirtless man stands in hip-deep water, staring up at a sky colored orange and yellow by the setting sun.
This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group’s “Love is an Open Road” event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.
This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.
REVIEW:
The twinkling stars mocked him. They popped into existence, carefree, unstoppable. If he were in a better mood, he might even admit they looked nice, the Milky Way all laid out across the indigo darkness of space. They looked gentle, welcoming, like they wanted him to be back amongst them.
The fuckers lied.
It has been a year since Cal crashed down to Earth. Since then he has not heard a word, or seen a sign, that he has been missed back home. And if no one is going to come pluck him from this third rock from Sol, then maybe he should stop waiting for them. And then maybe he could finally take up the offer Ryan–the man who runs the local bar–made to share his bed. If no one in the stars wants him, maybe someone down on Earth will.
I recently read Chaos Station, the first book in Jenn Burke’s Chaos Station series, and I quite enjoyed it. So when we went searching thru the long list of stories written for GR’s M/M Romance Group’s LOR collection, I was drawn to this short story of her’s.
I’ve always been fascinated by aliens-on-Earth stories. I love the blend of scifi and contemporary settings. Plus, the whole “surprise, honey, I’m an alien!” scenes are fun to read. For the most part this story is about life moving on–and Cal giving up his place in the stars to find a home here on Earth. He has already spent a year here, already struggled thru anger and grief about his partner and what she did to him. Hope isn’t so much centered on getting home, but instead on building a new home on this strange planet. Despite a few scifi gadgets–nanites in his blood, and a holographic interface–Cal is living a pretty normal life.
The relationship between Cal and Ryan is almost one step forward, two steps back. And while that can get frustrating for Cal (and the readers), I think Ryan’s grief and reticence to start over was very well written. Until the very end, a lot of this story deals with what these two guys want–and feel they can give.
For a short story, this was really good at building up a world and circumstances that I could believe. I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend you pick this one up. With it being free, who could say no?
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