Title: Eyes Wide Shut
Author: Meredith Shayne
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn
One Sentence Review: A good short about how something can change what you feel is important in life.
THE BLURB
Adam Taylor liked working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He didn’t even mind the tiny outback town in Western Australia where he was based. If the downside was doing the regular clinic at the Mount Keith nickel mine where his mining engineer ex-boyfriend Chris Barker worked, well, he’d coped with worse. When a visit from Chris leads to an unexpected encounter, Adam can’t help but hope for things to get back on track.
If Chris couldn’t keep away from Adam, the least he could do was make sure that his redneck workmates never found out. It was better for everyone that way. At least, that’s what he’d thought, until Adam got caught in a mine cave in and Chris thought he was dead. After that, being outed didn’t seem so important anymore. Chris just hoped he’d get a chance to tell Adam that.
This is a Torquere Press Charity Short. All proceeds benefit Doctors Without Borders.
THE REVIEW
The story opens with Adam, a traveling physician with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, heading from his small, quiet town to a nickel mine in Western Australia where he offers routine medical services to the employees. Among the miners is his recent-ex-lover, Chris, a man very much in the closet and concerned over appearances, and whom Adam is worried about seeing again. Chris comes to the clinic, and the two share a steamy, quick against-the-door smexxin session. Several weeks later Chris appears at Adam’s door, and after yet another fight centering around Chris’s fear of being outed, Adam has to leave to attend to trapped miners, only to become trapped himself. Besides himself with worry, Chris now must decide if Adam is more important than appearances and what his work buddies think.
I enjoyed this well-written short, with two likable protags and secondary cast members with whom we spend time (Carol, Adam’s nurse, and Sally, an FRDS pilot). There’s quite a bit packed into the 28 pages— character development, smexxin, some action, angst — and I found the inclusion of the prejudices against the Australian Aborigines that still exist in that country interesting and sad, with a very minor sub-plot around Sally, who has an Aboriginal mother.
The story ends in what I would consider to be a HFN. I am not sure it is going to be as easy as Chris makes it out to be after spending his adult life to almost 40 in the closet, but I am hopeful, and actually, I would gladly read a sequel to find out how these two do if Chris really does come out.
OVERALL
A good story as part of this collection, and recommended to readers of the genre.
I did enjoy this one. A different setting but with problems that plague many couples I’m sure, being in a macho environment day in and day out can’t be easy.
Thanks so much for the review, Lynn! I’m so glad you and Tam enjoyed it. I didn’t plan for this to be anything other than a one-shot, but I’m finding that Chris and Adam are still niggling at me, so I think there will probably be a sequel or two eventually. It seems their story is definitely not over yet!