Genre: Paranormal
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
Having a psychic ability should make life easier, but it isn’t always the case.
In this box set, you’ll meet three men with amazing abilities that could’ve made their lives great, but instead of making things easier, they cause trouble. Either they have to hide what they can do, or they can’t control it. But maybe there is happiness to be found even for an out-of-luck psychic?
Contains the stories:
How to Hook a Vampire: A vampire on guard. A psychic on the run. A cabin with one bed. Jameson trusted the wrong person and hides in his uncle’s fishing cabin. Harland comes back after having fed only to find his home inhabited, and no one is happier than him that he didn’t snack on the sleeping man when it turns out he’s his boss’ nephew. But how long before danger finds them in the cabin?
The Bear Claw: In a world where everyone is either dominant or submissive, Shiro doesn’t have many choices. As a sub, any dom coming to his bakery can give him orders. Pitch wants a mate, but he won’t settle for anything but a true mate. As an alpha shifter, he can have his pick, but his true mate is hiding in the kitchen of a bakery and refuses to see him. How many cups of coffee will it take to lure him out?
Batshit Bassel: Some people perform miracles, others serve soup. Bassel is a psychic with no control over his powers. He’ll never work wonders, but he can serve soup. Thor lost his sister and became the guardian of his nephew, but his life doesn’t have room for a cub. Bassel aches for the little boy cloaked in grief and the growling bear he lives with, but will soup be enough to ease their sorrows?
The Review
You need to know I’m a nit-picking so and so, so when I say this collection is rather good, I really mean it is VERY GOOD! The three stories included here are set in the world of psychics, shifters, vampires and witches.
These stories have unconventional main characters. They are powerful psychics, but only when correctly utilised, which sadly they are not until they are. They are victims, too, but here we get to watch them find their place in the world at the side of a paranormal mate, who will defend them against those who would take advantage of them.
How to Hook a Vampire is set in a world where vampires, amongst other paranormals, are viewed by some as a valuable commodity. Jameson is a psychic on the run from a gang. He has been tortured in the past, and will not let it happen again. He heads to his uncle’s cabin in the middle of nowhere to hide away. This proves to be a surprise for vampire Harland, who is also hanging out in the cabin. The story follows them as they get to know each other, and strive to avoid the dangers they face.
The Bear Claw is a bakery / cafe run by widower Shiro and his best friend Astra. They are both submissives, trying to make a living in a dominant run world, where submissives are at the mercy of dominants, both legally and romantically. What makes their lives more problematic is the fact that they are psychics and non-shifting shifters. As they are both single and unmated, they are at risk of having their lives turned upside down by unscrupulous dominants. Things get complicated when shifters Pitch Rhys and Lyra Murray come into their lives. As the vultures start to circle around Shiro and his bakery, he finds he may have to take a risk and trust that Pitch will have his back.
Batshit Bassel tells the story of psychic Bassel, bear shifter Thor and his young nephew Dag. Bassel has been abused verbally by people who do not really know him – consequently the nickname Batshit. He has no filter, and whatever he is thinking just spills out. As he is such a sweet guy, all that comes out is innocent but confusing for those around. He runs a soup booth located outside a nightclub called ‘Come Inside’. Bassel has a mixture of empathic and precognitive abilities that he cannot really control. He does what he can, which includes selling wholesome soup to brighten peoples’ day. He also hands out free bowls of soup to the down-and-out and the hungry. That brings him into contact with Thor, when he starts giving soup and comfort to Dag. A connection builds between the two, and it ends up being a very good thing for all concerned when one of Bassel’s visions proves correct.
The characters in all three stories are great and varied. There are some dark moments, but the light shines out in the end. Lovely stuff.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.
