Win and Lose

Title: Win and Lose
Author: TC Blue
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M contemporary Romance
Length: 64 pages
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

THE BLURB

When Luzien Bascombe finds himself lost in the middle of more snow than he’s ever seen in his life, he starts to expect things he’d rather not. Like death. What he doesn’t expect is to find someone like Win out there in the middle of nowhere, and he really doesn’t expect to find himself falling for Win so quickly.

Winston St. James doesn’t know what to make of the young man he finds on his doorstep; not even when Luz makes it clear that he wouldn’t mind a bit of fun in Win’s bed. He does know that Luz has a life to get back to, though, which becomes harder and harder to accept. The world is never perfect, so when Luz has to go, he tries to make the best of things. Will Luz and Win get past their old hurts and take a chance on each other, Win or Lose?

THE REVIEW

Luz is an aspiring singer in a pop group. His coach breaks down and rather than stay on the bus as he’s been told, he sets off walking in the middle of a snow storm. Win is trapped in his tattoo shop by the snow.  He hears knocking at the door and goes to investigate. He finds Luz passed out on his doorstep and takes him in. The two men hit it off straight away and have a wonderful few days of smexing before the snow clears enough for Luz to leave.

This short story begins well with some great character building.  Luz is dissatisfied with the way that his life is going.  He likes singing but is frustrated at the lack of commitment from the other members of the band.  He’s also recently gone through an embarrassing break up with the band’s manager which is why he was alone on the second tour bus when it breaks down.  I liked that Luz’s frustration and boredom with his career was the impetus for him leaving the bus and eventually meeting Win.  I also liked that Luz wasn’t your typical pop singer in that it was never something he aspired to and only began singing with a group when he was ‘discovered’.  Win is also stuck in his life.  His last lover left him and he’s bored and lonely so he’s delighted when there’s a spark between him and Luz almost from the beginning.

The mid section of the book is mostly made up of sex scenes interspersed with the two men getting to know each other and I felt that this worked very well in the context of the situation.  Both men are basically stuck in the shop/flat until the snow clears and the telephone wires are fixed and they are both very attracted to each other.  This also allows the reader to get some background into both characters without it seeming forced as there are no distractions to stop the men from opening up to one another.  I liked the ease that the heroes felt with each other, which was  shown through the dialogue and the thoughts of both characters, especially as their time together is without constraints of time, jobs or other people.

It was in the last section of the book where I began to feel a little disappointed with the way that the story was going.  The two men have been stuck for a few days and both want the relationship to continue.  However, Luz has contractual obligations with his band and Win has a shop to run so it is inevitable that they will have to spend some time apart.  Instead of discussing the possibility of continuing the relationship the two men make incorrect assumptions about the other man’s feelings and so we end up with a misunderstanding.  I have to be honest and say that this isn’t my favourite plot device so at this point my sympathy with the characters began to rapidly go downhill.  Then we have the addition of an annoying female (and male) friend and I was all set to strangle both heroes (and their friends).

So what began as a promising tale of finding love in the most unusual of circumstances ended with my frustration over the behaviour of the characters.  All in all, Win or Lose was well written with TC Blue’s usual humour threaded throughout the writing and those readers who don’t mind big understandings may find this book to their taste.  Unfortunately,  I can’t wholly recommend it when two characters who initially seem quite sensible turn out to need their heads bashing together.