All Work And No Play

Title: All Work And No Play
Author: Anah Crow and Dianne Fox
Cover Art : Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Buy Link: Buy Link All Work And No Play
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Length: 6,000 words
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 rating stars

A Guest Review by Raine

Summary Review: A brief look at a significant pressure point in an existing relationship.

Blurb: Joshua has planned every detail of the vacation he’s going to take with his partner, Ciro. All Ciro has to do is show up. They’re headed for Dear Lake, Michigan, a tiny town built around a modest resort that’s been serving up peace and quiet for more than fifty years.

Showing up is harder than it seems. The day their vacation begins, a big client finally decides to move ahead with a project Ciro has been trying to get for months. Joshua is livid, angry enough to leave without him, but there’s nothing Ciro can do about it.

Or is there? Alone in his office before the meeting, Ciro finally sees that he has his priorities mixed up. This meeting is important, but not more important than Joshua. He postpones the meeting, to hell with the consequences, then takes off for Dear Lake to make things right.

But when he arrives, the cabin they were meant to share is empty and Joshua is nowhere to be found. Is Ciro too late to fix what he’s broken?

Review:

This short story is described as an Amber Kiss on the publisher’s website. This is actually a very accurate description of the length and impact of this slight work.

It is a look at an episode within an existing relationship which is clearly going to impact on the relationship’s chance for the future. It is written as if we already know the characters, and this familiarity had me searching to see if this was a catch up piece from another longer novel, or an escapee from an anthology. On the cover it says A “Dear Lake. Michigan” Story I couldn’t find anything else about these stories, perhaps this is the first and explains why there were glimpses of interesting secondary characters at the resort. It would be better if I had more information to share with you.

The writing is, as always with this partnership, very smooth; any back story is slipped into the story very subtly, no lumps of information here. As in the Working Stiffs series, there is a look at class and also an age difference hinted at between the two guys. Joshua, in particular is brought to life very skillfully and is someone I’d like to have got to know better. Ciro is perhaps less attractive as a character and exists more as the object of Joshua’s love and frustration.

I suppose when you are reading a short story it is a bit redundant to bang on about length, but that’s not going to stop me. Although this does achieve a complete picture of the disruption and brings a resolution to this part of Ciro and Joshua’s relationship, overall it just felt insufficient — a chapter from a book the authors have yet to finish.

I have always really enjoyed their other work. Personally, I prefer the contemporary work rather than the fantasy. The, very long and — for me — totally perfect Slow Bloom is absolutely my favourite M/M novel and a constant reread. Unexpectedly, this short story left me underwhelmed.