Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: Mika
AUTHOR: Deloris Reed
PUBLISHER: Deloris Reed
LENGTH: 49 Pages
RELEASE DATE: February 15, 2024
BLURB:
Mika is a man who dresses as a woman and who teaches women how to pleasure men. He’s also an artist who prefers to make his meager living illustrating erotic books of poetry intended for consumption by women. Apparently he’s been sold by his benefactor to a powerful but doddering old lord only to find that the old man has died and his strikingly beautiful young son is now the lord. When Mika’s true gender is revealed the young lord is disgusted but becomes fascinated.
The lord pursues the young man despite Mika’s protests that he will not sleep with men.
REVIEW:
I chose to review this as a bit of a pig in a poke. The author was mysterious about what the book was and did not provide a blurb. Moreover, this was not yet commercially available and had yet to be reviewed by anyone.
The tale has a “fantasy/sword and sandals” mythos about it but doesn’t really expand on that much. That’s part of the problem. While the writing isn’t inept, it’s not detailed enough to be gripping and the story-telling isn’t ideal. It begins with the most tense part of the story leaving the reader feeling left behind. While I read on partly out of a sense of obligation and partly out of a sense of curiosity, I was hoping that the blanks would be filled in. Unfortunately, for the most part, they were not.
In it’s present seven chapter form this book doesn’t seem up to current standards for M/M literature. The story requires more detail, a clearer intro, and a better denouement. The fantasy aspects aren’t very well fleshed out and there’s no clearly endearing, or informative aspect that makes me want to pursue this story any further. None of the sex is graphic so this isn’t really an erotic tale, either. I have a Forrest Gump philosophy about short story collections. They really can be a box of chocolates, but so far this one is mostly carob and no truffles.
RATING: 
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