Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Trash and Treasure
SERIES: Fox Hollow Zodiac #3.5
AUTHOR: Morgan Brice
PUBLISHER: Darkwind Press
LENGTH: 59 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 28th , 2021
BLURB:
A lonely raccoon shifter. A hopeful possum shifter. Awesome donuts–and true love.
Raccoon-shifter Mico Foley drives a garbage truck in Fox Hollow, a job that keeps a roof over his head while he pursues his true passion—creating art with found objects. He fears he might never find a mate—until he falls hard for the sexy new baker in town. But will a hottie like that fall for a guy like him?
Possum-shifter Jack Hargrave is the new night baker at Bare Necessities Cafe, his big opportunity to do what he loves most—creating irresistible confections. He didn’t move to Fox Hollow to find a mate, but the handsome truck driver who empties the cafe’s dumpster has stolen his heart. Could a hunk like him still care when he finds out Jack’s secret?
Trash and Treasure is an MM shifter romance with a flirty baker, a brooding artist, hurt/comfort, unusual art, a fancy tree house, found family, fated mates and seductive donuts.
REVIEW:
I’ve read a lot of books outside my norm this year. That included the normal number of wolf shifter and big cat shifter tales. There was even a Dino shifter in there somewhere. When I saw the description for this one, I knew I had to read it for completeness. Besides, it would be fun. This little novella is set in the town of Fox Hollow, a shifter-friendly community in the Adirondacks.
One of our main characters is Milo a raccoon shifter. He drives a garbage truck for a living, but is really a “found objects” artist.
He’s crushing on Jack, a possum shifter. Jack works as a baker and is in turn, continually inventing new donut varieties as a means of courting Milo.
Both boys are orphans of a sort and without families. Neither is confident enough to “come out” to the other as to their unique species of shifter. Both sort of assume that the other is a shifter as well, seems like most people in this town are. But neither is confident enough to admit that they’re not one of the sexier ‘apex predator” style shifters.
I knew from the outset that this would be sweet if a bit offbeat. I also wondered just how many fun animal facts would make it into their shifter personas. I wasn’t disappointed on either front. This novella also gave me an excuse to resurrect my copies of The Beatles Rocky Raccoon and America’s Muskrat Love. I couldn’t think of an appropriate song featuring Possums, and Dame Edna was of no help whatsoever.
Strangely the boys shifter personae are handled differently than in many shifter tales. It’s as if their inner animals are constantly weighing in. They have these inner monologues with their furry selves, even when the boys are in human form. It’s a quaint conceit and it’s charming in this context.
At only 59 pages this is a lightning fast read and as an M/M romance it has a guaranteed happy ending. Though there was that one awful moment when I thought it wouldn’t…
Of course, now I’m curious about the rest of the denizens of Fox Hollow. If you’d like a short quick read about some of the odder varieties of shifters, this would be a fun choice. But be forewarned, you’ll probably be as curious as me about the other inhabitants of Fox Hollow.
RATING: 
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