Review and Giveaway: By Quarry Lake by Josephine Myles

Title: By Quarry Lake

Author: Josephine Myles

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 12k Words

Category: Contemporary, Short Story

At a Glance: I loved this little story for everything it is.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Still waters run deep…

Tommy’s been away from his home in rural Somerset for three years. Long enough to sort out who he is, and to get over the feelings of confusion and shame that blighted his lifelong friendship with farmer’s boy Rob. He’s out and proud, now—and he’s coming home to claim back what he lost.

Rob’s the one who stayed behind, working on the farm with little time for a social life. With Tommy coming back into his world, he could have a lot to gain—and everything to lose.

He’s going to have to take a leap of faith. Straight into the ice cold waters of Quarry Lake.

This story was originally published in 2013 as part of the Summer Lovin’ anthology.

Review: Short stories are a hard medium to build a believable romance in. Solution? Make it a friends-to-not friends-to lovers story. Give the guys a history, give readers a reason to open their hearts to the conflict that tore them apart, and then give readers some playful and sexy moments, set in an idyllic summer place, to watch those two friends begin to reconnect and start over as something more.

That’s exactly what Josephine Myles has done, and done so well, in By Quarry Lake, the story of a friendship gone in the blink of a kiss, then found again in the time it took for one of those friends to grow and to learn who he is. That’s what Tommy Freestone needed after that kiss from his best friend Rob—the kiss that left him shocked and reeling. Just time.

Myles plays this story out like a slow dance to sweet music. By Quarry Lake is a story about making a second chance, not waiting around in hopes that a chance meeting or a stroke of luck will pave the way to a new beginning. It’s a story about the courage to embrace love, and it even offers readers a little reminder that when you give a person a chance to show they love you, they often do that in the best possible way.

I loved this little story for everything it is—Tommy coming home to right a past wrong, and Rob discovering that home is where the love is.

TNA_Signature_Lisa

You can buy By Quarry Lake here:

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About the Author

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She writes for publishers but has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion, although she prefers to leave the “boring bits” of the ebook creation process to someone else. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the demands of a preteen with special needs and an incessantly curious toddler.

Website and blog || Facebook || Twitter: @JosephineMyles