J.R. Lawrie

Books: Romance | LGBT

Let Your Heart Be Light (2019)

This is a collection of three short stories, two of which are about the same couple.

Kind Of A Big Deal For Services Rendered The Farringdon Club

This first story is "Kind Of A Big Deal" features Zack, who is a stand-up comedian, and Richard, who is a civil servant. Kind of a big deal, even.

Jesus. Zack had never scored an own goal in flirting before. It left him a little dizzy.

"For Services Rendered" is the second story, about David (an ER doctor).

Then, halfway through a desperate cup of tea, Pervert of the Day walked in. Or rather, he limped in, gave a bare minimum of details to Linda, and declined to take a seat.

David has had a crush on one of his upstairs neighbors, but figures he's too old. Except that his neighbor has also been crushing on him.

He'd always reminded Julian rather fondly of a badger: pleasingly older with some extra weight, enough to make him cosy in bed in the winter; dark hair just turning, silvering with touches of grey; deep, guarded brown eyes.

The final story, "The Farringdon Club" goes back to Zach and Richard, and takes place a year after their engagement. Richard lets Zack loose on his private club.

The entire room seemed to be hanging on this single conversation. Some people hadn't turned their page in five minutes. "So," he chirped, "new topic. Do you think I'm the first ever Farringdon member with nipple piercings?"

As a nearby diner began to choke on his soup…

This story actually made me laugh out loud.

All three stories were lovely.

Zack is the perfect chaotic good trickster figure. He loves his sisters and his nieces and isn't afraid of hard work. There is no harm in him, but a lot of fun, which you can see that Richard very much needs.

David and Julian were sweet, each crushing on the other but neither quite knowing how to move beyond passing greetings.

This are holiday stories, so there is absolutely no angst, just happiness and cheer, and in the case of Zack–a good deal of mischief.

Lovely.

Publisher: Carnation Books

Rating: 8.5/10