Toy Box: Silk

Title: Toy Box: Silk
Author: Rob Knight, Kiernan Kelly, Syd McGinley
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M contemporary Romance
Length: various
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

THE BLURB

Silk. Smooth, cool, and sensual. Strong, yet soft, silk is the perfect metaphor for the erotic. The three stories in the Silk Toy Box promise all of that and more. In Like Silk, Rob Knight introduces us to Randall, the owner of a very successful adult shop. Dan’s his silent partner, in the business, that is. What the two men get up to after dealing with a salesman introducing his new line of ‘silk’ dildos, is anything but silent.

In “Scarred Silk” by Kiernan Kelly, Alec is a fashion model whose career is cut short after a brutal attack. He loses everything that day — his job, his looks, and his lover, Kale. When Kale suddenly appears after a long absence, Alec must find a way to recover his lost memories, and maybe, the heart he’d thought dead forever. Tommy still misses Dr. Fell. In “un bel di vedremo” by Syd McGinley, he tries to compensate for his own ownerless state by pushing Rinnie and Dr. Pol Rønne to deal with their inevitable separation. To crown all Tommy’s worries, he’s preparing for his senior show — can his costume designs solve every one’s problems?

THE REVIEW

This trio of short stories had an interesting premise but ultimately the stories failed to engage my attention.

Like Silk by Rob Knight – 10 pages

This story began quite promisingly with two older men who had obviously been lovers for some time.  One of the men, Randell, owns a sex shop and is listening to a salesman pitching a new product – a dildo called silk.  The sexual tension is high as Dan watches his lover play absentmindedly with the dildo as he talks to the salesman.  At this point I was anticipating a satisfying explosive sex scene to end the story.  In a way that did happen, but it took place in the toilets of a restaurant.  I couldn’t quite understand why the men would choose a fairly public arena (even with the door locked) when they could have just gone home for sex, especially when they had deliberately gone to this restaurant to have sex (and so that they could eat afterwards).  Part of the trouble was, I kept thinking that they had effectively locked all the male diners out of the toilet and what if someone had needed the loo.  Then I worried that all the noise they were making would probably be putting other people off their food and how selfish that was when they could have just gone home.  All this musing on my part rather detracted from the sex scene and made it lose the impact I think it was supposed to have.  There was also quite a lot of misplaced comedy which ruined the sexual tension which had been built up previously.  All in all, a great beginning, with mature men as characters which is unusual, but the ending was a bit of a flop.  Rating 3.5 stars.

Scarred Silk by Kiernan Kelly – 17 pages

This was the best story in the anthology.  It concerns Alec who was horribly scarred after an attack.  He used to be a model and is now taunted on every street corner by pictures of himself taken just prior to the attack.  Alec also has a memory block when it comes to who attacked him and for several weeks after the attack.  Kale was Alec’s lover who was excluded from Alec’s life by Alec’s family after the attack.  He finally gets Alec to accept that it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t there for him and they work together to piece together the terrible memories that Alec cannot remember.  Despite the short format this story worked well.  I liked Kale and his easy acceptance of Alec, despite his scars.  Alec was a little more difficult to like as he was excessively vain and felt that his life was now over.  The two men obviously had a genuine love for one another and once any minor misunderstandings had been cleared up, I was happy that the two men were able to resume their close relationship.  Rating: 4 Stars.

Un bel di vedremo by Syd McGinley – 17 pages

My main problem with this story stems not from the writing but rather that it seems to be connected to a whole host of other stories by this author, non of which I’ve read before.  As a result several characters appear or are mentioned and behave in ways which assume that I know who they are and their background and how they all fit in with each other.  I found it most confusing and slightly annoying that such a story is placed in an anthology.  From what I could gather from the small amount of information in the story, Tommy is a sub who is a ‘guest’ in the house of Pol, a Dom and his sub Rinnie.  Tommy doesn’t currently have a ‘Sir’ and so Pol is looking after Tommy until a suitable candidate can be found.  Tommy is also doing a degree course in costume making and spends much of the story fretting about whether he will pass his course.  I have to admit I find the whole D/s lifestyle thing a bit strange, so coupled with the fact that I hadn’t really got a clue who anyone was, this story didn’t work for me at all.  However, I’m sure fans of the author and those who like extreme D/s stories would probably really enjoy this one and I’d like to stress that the problems in this story are a reflection on me rather than the author’s written skills.  Rating: 3.25 stars.

Overall, I was a little disappointed in this anthology.  This is the first Toy Box anthology I’ve read from TQ and the blurb looked promising.  Ultimately though I felt that it failed to deliver on that promise and I will probably think twice before picking up one of these little anthologies in future.  Having said that, this will appeal to fans of the authors and possibly to those of you who aren’t so distracted by men having noisy sex in public toilets!