Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Short Stack
SERIES: Short Stack #1
AUTHOR: Lily Morton
NARRATOR: Joel Leslie
PUBLISHER: Lily Morton
LENGTH: 9 hours, 48 minutes
RELEASE DATE: December 11, 2025
BLURB:
What happens after the happy ending?
Drawn together for the first time, this is a collection of Lily’s short stories about the much-loved men from her Mixed Messages and Finding Home series. Follow them through awkward marriage proposals, birthdays, a fraught babysitting job, and a very drunken Eurovision Song Contest party.
It includes stories previously written for her website and readers’ group, along with deleted scenes and four brand new and exclusive short stories—Bad Valentine, Marrying Jude, Babysitting Billy, and House Hunting.
REVIEW:
Some of the 19 stories here were part of Lily’s newsletter or available on her website, but the four mentioned in the blurb are new. All are focused on the couples from the Mixed Messages and Finding Home series. I loved this because not every short was the perfect scene. There were troubles, arguments, and misunderstandings that made the characters even more real. Of course, the trademark Lily humor and snark were present, and I loved revisiting these guys.
On a purely petty level, Goodbye Fletcher, is my favorite because I have always hated him with Gabe and was glad to see this happen—he and Patrick (formerly with Zeb) tie for biggest jerks. In Bad Valentine, Gabe gets a look at himself, and it isn’t a flattering look. Luckily, he has his best friend, Henry, to gently remind him of important things. I adore Henry in everything. The people in these stories are connected, so we get to see them in other couples’ books, which I like.
The stories are grouped by couple, so in order: Dylan and Gabe; Jude and Asa; Henry and Ivo; Oz and Silas; Milo and Niall; and Gideon and Eli. Dyland and Gabe have the most stories (6), while Milo and Niall have just one. Some are deleted chapters of their books and some are new scenes. I liked both. “What happens after the happy ending?” is fitting. But absolutely spoilers for the books, so you need to listen to this after reading. Just a few mentions – I loved how far Gabe has come. “To me, love is just something that ends up with someone being destroyed” and now, “Who needs candlelight and roses? We have scrambled eggs and Lemsip.” He finally gets it! Things that show how much he loves Dylan shine through in Babysitting Billy and Gabe Does Eurovision.
In Jude and Asa’s Green-Eyed Monsters, this time it’s Asa who makes the mistake, and I just thought, you are so stupid. And funny how Malachi shows up here and he is so bitchy (as usual) but also fairly nasty about Dean. In Dean’s story, The Sunny Side, Mal is bitchy but an amazing friend to Dean. We also get a cameo from Max (After Felix), so it’s a nice reunion. I loved Niall’s Birthday, because we get to see Milo really has come into his own.
Joel Leslie is my favorite narrator, and he never disappoints. While here the accents are English, I’ve heard him speak with an Australian accent, an American accent, and every time the characters are defined enough that you don’t have to wonder, “Who is speaking?” You can tell! He does his usual amazing job here.
All of it is summed up with a quote from the Lost Weekend. “It’s quiet joy and laughter and happiness that warms your belly.” That’s all these men in a nutshell. And snark.
RATING: 
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