Title: Smoke Signals
Author: Meredith Katz
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Length: 83 Pages
Category: Urban Fantasy
At a Glance: If this story had bit more page time to develop, I feel it would have been really top notch.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Mike St. George figured that working customer support during the Black Friday sale at SmokeSignals, a game distribution company, would just feature the usual sort of problem customers. He wasn’t expecting an aristocratic, self-centered dragon to demand the company send someone to his house to install games in exchange for gold. And he definitely wasn’t expecting that to somehow put him in charge of working with and protecting the digital side of the dragon’s hoard of games.
But with a possible promotion in his future, Mike’s ready to take on anything. And while the blue-blooded Zali’thurg might be egotistical and prideful, Mike’s wrangled worse customers on a regular basis. At least this one’s cute, albeit in an ‘apex predator’ sort of way.
Review: What to do when a full-blown dragon shows up in the lobby of your gaming company’s call center and you are tasked with finding out what will make this unique customer happy! Thus began the novella Smoke Signals by Meredith Katz, complete with a hoarding dragon who loves gaming and the human technical adviser who would be responsible for keeping him happy and up to date on the latest games. The premise of the story was really quite cute, with the idea of a dragon not necessarily hoarding gold, although he did, but it was not his main focus—games were. Mike discovers this extends to all kinds of games, from board games to computer ones. The dragon, or Zee as Mike eventually calls him, is absolutely fascinated with online apps, and Mike is tasked with downloading hundreds of them on the dragon’s home computer. However, that’s not all the dragon wants.
The more time Mike spends with Zee the clearer it becomes that the dragon also has a more than casual interest in Mike himself. But Zee is rather awkward at confessing his emotions and reluctant to expose the fact that he wants Mike to be his. As the two fumble with their attraction for each other and setting appropriate boundaries so that Mike’s life isn’t consumed by the intense dragon, both discover that with a little compromise they might just make this relationship thing work.
There were some very cute moments in this story, particularly when it came to Zee trying to make Mike aware he liked him. The level of miscommunication that takes place for a good portion of this novel made it both funny and frustrating in turns. To see the magnificently groomed dragon shifter become flustered and literally run and hide from Mike made him a very sweet character. Add to that the unique anatomy of the dragon in his human form and you have a very interesting love story all the way round. Unfortunately, those moments were often overshadowed by what felt like a real lack of development when it came to the characters themselves. Because we barely got to know Zee, I felt that Mike did an awful lot of guesswork when it came to seeing the dragon’s real feelings and made some mental leaps that were pretty huge when it came to deciphering Zee’s real motives. I also felt the story resolved much too quickly and a bit too neatly. One moment Zee was offended by the idea that Mike had no idea he was attracted to him, and the next, they were making out and talking about their future and moving in together.
This story needed a bit more page time to develop, particularly when it was so obvious that communicating clearly was not Zee’s strong suit. If there had been more time for the two men to grapple with their feelings and the idea that a dragon, who was more than a bit controlling, could allow his lover to have some freedom and independence, I feel this story would have really been top notch. As it is, Smoke Signals felt incomplete, and that led to Meredith Katz creating a rather cookie cutter paranormal offering rather than breaking the mold and taking us somewhere new.
You can buy Smoke Signals here:
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