Once Burned by Emery Sanborne

This story really surprised me. From the blurb and also from the title, I was expecting quite an angst story about a "burned" firefighter (bad pun intended) who fights with all his force to not fall in love for the newbie at the station; obviously the fight would be lost since the beginning and if we were lucky there would have been a lot of sex and so on... so more or less a standard story, a right dose of hot romance, but nothing special... and instead it's way more funny than that.

At first Andreas comes out as the good boy of the story, his Uncle Ed, who is also the Chief of the station where he works, asks him to babysit the new man, a "young" boy with the reputation of being an adrenaline junkie. I was just imagining my may / december relationship, with an hot young pretty thing, when Bobby appears on the scene: 16 years as marine and 2 as firefighter, Bobby is at the same level as Andreas, and above all, he is not the trouble seeking they were expecting. Instead, the first time they go out together, it's Andreas who gets involved in a bar fight.

Bobby is plain and direct since the first moment: he likes Andreas, they are both single, why not give a chance to the two of them? No strings attached, no word of forever love, they are two adult men who can be buddy friends with benefits. And it's exactly like that between them, there is an easy behavior, a communion of intent and idea without no one of them speaking the words. It's hot and funny sexy, easy and enjoyable, so easy that Andreas and Bobby slip from buddy friends to lovers to partners wihout even realizing it.

I like the feeling of the story, I like how Andreas and Bobby are both enough adult to realize what they have and don't be scared by that. The squabbles between them are real fun and the story was fun as well to read. Andreas' past burns are so insignificat in comparison to what he found now, that almost slip into oblivion without notice.

A Voice in the Dark by Jamie Craig

When Pepper Espinoza and Vivien Dean write alone, I noticed a trend in their writing, Pepper Espinoza I believe is the light side (even if in The Obsolete Man she proved to be able of a little angst) and Vivien Dean is the dark side, preferring the paranormal side of romance. When they write together they are a mix of both. A Voice in the Dark is not paranormal, it's the classical firefighters story, but it has its right dose of angst, being at the same time light enough to make you smile, see the supporting character of the mother.

In the prologue Anthony and Dan met in the worst possible way, Anthony the victim of a very bad accident and Dan the firefighter on the site. Dan helps Anthony to go through his nightmare being the voice that comforts the scared man. And unfortunately the voices become the most important things for Anthony, since he looses his sight in that accident. The authors decide to not show us all the trial through Anthony for sure was in the year following the accident, probably since this is a novella, and there was not enough space, and probably since they preferred to focus on the romantic relationship.

When Anthony is better, means when he is comfortable with his blindness, he decides to go thanks Dan for being that comforting voice in the dark. Fate wants that both Anthony than Dan are gay and single, and it doesn't take much time to realize that they are good one for the other.

I like that for Dan, Anthony's blindness is not consciously a problem, but that for real he starts the relationship dealing with Anthony in a different way he would do with another man. And I like that Anthony explains the "problem", that he doesn't like to be treated in a different way, without being snarky and without being angry with Dan. Both heroes are so nice that they are almost too good to be true.

Quite obviously Dan and Anthony's sex scenes, especially the first one, are quite heavy in "tactile" details, every movement is described as to provide for the lack of sight of Anthony, and so the reader is on with him for the ride, being overwhelmed, but in a very nice way.

There is not much drama, just the right dose you will expect for a story with a firefighter in it (who has ear to understand, understand...), but overall, this is more a nice romantic story of boy meets boy, boy likes boy and boy lives happily ever after with boy.

Usually I don't like double anthology, I always end liking one story more than the other. Instead in this one, I wouldn't be able to say what story I prefer: they are so different in tone and style, even having similar setting, that are both high in my satisfaction level.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/596802.html

2,5 stars


Once Burned by Emery Sanborne - 2 stars

A Voice in the Dark by Jamie Craig - 3 stars ( )