All the authors in the Petit Morts series have their distinctively style, and that of Jordan Castillo Price is to be biting (and yes, considering we are talking of sweets, the pun is very much intended). She has a little horror touch, nothing overwhelming, more or less like an aftertaste, something that is lingering on the palate after you finish to read one of her novella.
Here we have Dominic, forty something interior design photographer, that, mostly due to his work, is used to judge everyone from their looks. It’s not that he is particularly searching for beauty in a partner, but it’s sure that he judges people from their looks and if they are not beautiful, then they are not important, and for that reason, he more or less doesn’t give a second chance or a shot to a long-term relationship. Problem is that Dominic himself is not handsome, actually he thinks he is ugly, and every possible relationship is always tainted from that from the very beginning: since Dominic is ugly, no one can be really interested in him, probably they are with him for a chance of mingle with the very important persons Dominic works for.
Chance, the magic chocolatier that is the common link in all these novella, will give a gift to Dominic, more or less a different perspective, a concept of beauty that is different from the cold interior design style Dominic is used to. Beauty is in the eyes of who is looking, and so if Dominic knows how to look, he will find it everywhere. But he has to be carefully, because beauty is an elusive thing, and if he gets distracted, he can lose that magical deeper sight.
Amazon Kindle: Pretty Ugly (Petit Morts)
Publisher: JCP Books, LLC (October 26, 2010)
Nice and sweet, this novella is also unexpectedly “innocent”; Ethan has lived all his life in a less than 500 people small town and he believes he is the only gay man among them. Not the ideal situation if you want to have a boyfriend, and so twenty something Ethan is pure like the day mum did him, and he tends to fantasize like a teenager girl on “boys”. Ethan’s latest crush is Michael, the owner of the dojo two doors after Ethan’s coffee bookstore, a former soldier who arrived in town six weeks before. Michael is a mystery, and the wanna-be writer in Ethan like the mystery and the man.
Ethan is so naïve that he doesn’t realize that, not only Michael is interested in him as well, but there is another man who is trying to make a move on him. So from not having any prospect boyfriend, now Ethan can pick, and the lucky guy will see his dream comes true.
Usually this series has some paranormal element, something “magic”; Sort of Stranger Than Fiction is instead an “ordinary” story, just boy meets boy, boy gets boy, and happily (for now) ever after. I think than, in the end, I prefer it like that.
Amazon Kindle: Sort of Stranger than Fiction (Petit Morts)
Publisher: JCP Books, LLC (October 26, 2010)
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: JCP Books (May 10, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935540238
ISBN-13: 978-1935540236
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott