Hero in Me

Title: Hero in Me
Author: J.B. McDonald
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 20 pages
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Jenre

THE BLURB

Zach’s career as a police officer might be over, but his instincts haven’t left him, along with the hard lessons he learned on the job. Zach just wants a nice night out, but his sharp wits and nagging conscience drive him to rescue a handsome young man from a bad situation. Will seems just like Zach’s type, except that Zach doesn’t get involved with victims. But Will isn’t quite the victim Zach would like to make him out to be and, before Zach knows it, his personal principles are pitted against Will’s fantastic body and determined spirit.

THE REVIEW

This short story begins with a tense opening. Zach is sitting in a bar, minding his own business whilst also checking out a hot guy at the bar. He notices that even though the guy has only had one beer, he seems almost incapable of standing. When the guy weaves his way to the toilets, closely followed by two other men, Zach’s suspicions rise and he follows them into the men’s room to discover the that the young man has been drugged and the other two men are getting ready to rape him. Zach rescues the man, called Will, and takes him home after discovering that he is too drugged to tell Zach where he lives. The next day Will wakes up and hasn’t a clue what’s happened except that he has woken up on the sofa in some very hot man’s apartment. Zach tries to resist Will and do what he feels is right by him. However, he didn’t count on Will’s determination to be no-one’s ‘damsel in distress’.

When I first started to read this story I thought it was going to be another one of those ‘alpha man rescues pretty beta man and then takes care of him for ever and ever’. I was surprised and delighted when the story took an unusual turn in that Will is not your typical beta. For a start when he first wakes up he’s not too flummoxed by being in a strange man’s apartment. He even entertains thoughts of seducing Zach at first before the full story of why he is there comes out. Zach, however, is more concerned with making sure that Will is OK and fussing over him, much to Will’s exasperation. He constantly tells Zach that he can look after himself and only agrees to press charges against the men and visit the hospital to check that nothing bad happened to him after Zach nags him and agrees to come with him.

I liked how the tables were effectively turned as Will turns out to be the more aggressive of the pair. He knows what he wants, that being Zach, and sets out to get him, riding roughshod over Zach’s protestations. It was all great fun.

If I have any complaints at all it would be that Zach was just a bit too much of a goody-goody and also perhaps too overcautious. Another slight niggle is that quite a lot of Will’s problems are solved off page in a way which I considered to be perhaps a little too easy. However, that didn’t spoil my enjoyment in this charming story with unusual characters and I highly recommend that you read Hero in Me.