Title: Dapper Gentleman
Author: J. Rocci
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Short Story (13 pages / 3100 words)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by jeayci
Review Summary: A charming short story about a special evening for a wonderful couple.
Blurb: Delaney Bixby owns and runs his own barber shop, The Dapper Gentleman, which prides itself on offering an upscale grooming experience to a very select clientele in New York City. When Delaney is closing up shop one night, a special customer drops in for an after-hours shave that leads to slow dancing and professions of love.
Review: A charming short story about a special evening for a wonderful couple. I loved the rituals and traditions these guys had, as a couple and individually. It gave a strong sense of history and continuity, even in so few words. It was also wonderfully romantic.
J. Rocci has a real talent for introducing an established couple and making me feel like I’ve known them a lot longer than a few paragraphs. She conveys a lot of information with few words, so even though the story was very short it was very satisfying. Highly recommended.
Oy, it is tempting, especially since I only read shorts from authors I do not know if somebody whose tastes I know liked it :). So I guess I have to, but oy so short.
Sorry for not replying to this sooner, I’ve been more than a little under the weather and got waaaay behind. 🙁
If it makes you feel any better, I picked this story because I’ve loved almost everything else I’ve read by this author. And they were almost all short stories, which as you know aren’t usually my favorite. There were a few that didn’t work as well for me, but even those were 3-stars. 😎
If you want to start with a novel by her, I loved, LOVED Pretty Pleasures. But I warn you, I’ve been eagerly waiting ever since for her to write the promised sequel and it’s been a couple of years already. :grumble: