Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Help, My Boyfriend’s an Alien!
SERIES: Mad About the Brit Boys #3
AUTHORS: J.L Merrow and Josephine Myles
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 80 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2016
BLURB:
Love—and desire—that’s out of this world…
It’s time to suit up, take those protein pills, and boldly come where no man has come before. Take a trip to the future, or do your bit for inter-planetary relations with some close encounters of a very unusual kind.
In this erotic science fiction triple feature you’ll meet a cat that’s anything but cute and cuddly, take a pill that’ll make you fall in love—for a night—and discover desire that transcends the limitations of a human body. It’s a brave new world as you explore the unknown in three short stories that push the boundaries of love in ways both thoughtful and tongue-in-cheek.
These stories have all been previously published, but are now available exclusively in this anthology.
Better Than Cola
Human social etiquette. Physical contact. Pronouns. They’re not easy to handle, when you’re a swarm creature with a composite mind, newly fitted into a male human body. Especially when you find your body reacting to the human man assigned to help you acclimatize…
Insta-Love™
Skip likes to party, and he likes loving men. What he doesn’t like is the morning after, when the effects of the Insta-Love™ mood patch have worn off and he’s left with an awkward social encounter. So when he wakes up next to a naked bear of a man, his first instinct is to kick the stranger out. But Wildman has other ideas, and Skip may have to learn how to snuggle.
Gifted in Tongues
Space pilot Torvald “Spitz” Spitzbergen wakes up in an alien jail with a hangover, no clear memory of the night before – and a six foot ginger Felid as a cell mate. How is he going to get out of this one? And more importantly, will he get a chance to check out the Felid’s legendary talents first?
ANTHOLOGY REVIEW:
I usually enjoy science fiction stories a lot so I was more than willing to give this one a try. The concepts were all great and while the stories were, on the whole, enjoyable, they didn’t seem as well developed as others I’ve read by these same authors which was a little disappointing. If you’re looking for a quick sci-fi read with a side dose of romance, this may be something you want to check out but if you want some short stories with more depth to them, I’d probably look at something else.
Better Than Cola by J.L Merrow: 3*
I found the idea of this story intriguing but was just left wanting so much more. There wasn’t a great deal of information about Summer’s people, which was a bit disappointing, but with a short story I still found that acceptable. The interactions between the two main characters were fine but again, I wanted more. I’ve read short stories that read as complete tales and the length was never a detriment before but here it just really was; things just happened way too fast to get much enjoyment out of it but the concept was still really good. If it was expanded this could be a great story.
Insta-Love™ by Josephine Myles: 3*
This one was just kind of okay for me. Skip doesn’t really know how to feel anything without the help of some sort of drug to help him get there and while I found the idea of the upgrades and various products kind of interesting, it was also fairly sad as well. I like that Wildman was more than willing to help Skip feel and do things without something in his system messing with his emotions but regardless of the connection he said he felt between them, I wasn’t really feeling it. The connection just wasn’t there for me and the short length was a real detriment to the enjoyablility of this story as well.
Gifted in Tongues by J.L Merrow: 3.5*
The best story in the anthology, this one also felt the most complete to me. I really liked how you got to see so many different aliens and the entire setting really brought home the sci-fi aspect for me. While I still didn’t feel as much of a connection between the main characters as I would’ve liked, I do think they paired well together. The ending was great and made me smirk a little but I still wanted more. It would be easy to write a sequel with these characters if the author were ever so inclined, and I would totally read it if that ever were to happen, but the story ended well and while I would like more, I wasn’t as disappointed with this story as I was with the previous two.
RATING: 
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