Review: Exes by Kade Boehme

Exes by Kade Boehme
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Exes was a simple, sweet and fluffy friends-to-lovers story with a HEA and a medium spiciness level.

Wesley and Bryce have been friends since college. They were even more for a while, but have settled into best friends and lovers occasionally. Their friends call their little group of cohorts "The Exes" as at some point they have all dating one another. That's actually how Wesley and Bryce initially got together since they both dated Dabney at different points in time. Being bi gives you a bit more choice in partners, but it's still a small community.

Bryce is a bit of the party-boy of their group and Wesley is a bit more settled, so they play off each other well. But lately it seems as though Wesley is being a bit grumpy and in response Bryce finds himself trying to be the life of the party more than normal.

Even inviting a third back after their night at the bar doesn't end up playing out as it used to. Instead of Wesley and Bryce having sexy times with some temporary playmate, it somehow just doesn't happen.

Bryce doesn't know what's going on with Wesley, but he feels like he's losing his best friend. They talk about everything, so to have Wesley not share with him just feels wrong.

Then Dabney reveals that Wesley is interviewing for a job a few hours away. Shocked that Wesley is planning on moving away and didn't even say anything, Bryce knows he needs to find out what's going on.

While Bryce is still trying to figure out what to say or do, the pair go on their annual trip to the cabin. Sex, sun, and fishing is the normal pattern while there, but Wesley seems in a strange mood and Bryce is trying to understand why his best friend is leaving him.

The story might seem like it's potentially angsty, but instead we get a touching, sweet story about one friend wanting a relationship while the other is frightened of taking on more responsibility. Is it time for these two friends to become more? Or for them to leave the gray area of a relationship behind and move on?

This is an emotion-based story, not an active, action-backed one, and unlike many books about emotions, this one is low-angst. It truly was just a simple story about two guys who realize it may be time to grow up and that relationships change over time.

It is a HEA and has a few really nice sex scenes. Not enough to turn this into porn, just enough to spice things up.

I really liked Wesley and Bryce. They were perfectly age-appropriate, just a couple of younger guys no longer in college, but not quite fully settled down yet. That confusing in between time where you're starting to get tired of being with someone new all the time and just want to come home to someone who knows you.

Their rule about "no macho" bs and insisting on talking things out is so awesome. These aren't too-dumb-to-live guys, they actually understand that discussing things can fix problems.

There are a couple minor issues of confusion with the descriptions of the secondary characteristics. Not enough to really be huge, but enough to just make one pause and try to figure things out. Wesley's dads are gay and one of them is called aba which is a Jewish term for father. At another point Dabney's current spouse is spoken of as one person, then later it is another. Not that important, just can be a bit confusing trying to figure out what's up with the people. They have little page time in the book though, so it doesn't really matter. And I've heard the issue has been fixed in some editions.

So, if you want a sweet, short read about two guys trying to figure out when things changed and where to go from here, this one if for you. It's just a light read to make you smile.

Also, I'd love to see a prequel for this one, even just a short story of Bryce comforting Wesley after him and Dabney broke up. It would be so cute to see him come to terms with his sexuality.

Review: Warming Up To the Ice Dragon by Charlie Richards

Warming Up To the Ice Dragon by Charlie Richards
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warming Up To the Ice Dragon is an even shorter version of the standard Charlie Richards' romance.

On what was supposed to be a fun trip to go skiing with his friends, Stefan has an accident. Alone and frightened, he thinks he may die until he's rescued by a knight dragon in shining scales.

Kazeem has been looking for his mate for a long time, and to find him in such a way is surprising, but he has no time to ponder fate as he must hurry to ensure Stefan survives.

These two have some issues. Stefan knows nothing of paranormals. Kazeem isn't really good with humans. Will Stefan's suspicious friends make Stefan discount the mate-pull and run away?

I really like a lot of Charlie Richards' books, but they consistently have the same flaws. The actual story being rather abbreviated with an overwhelming amount of unnecessary sex scenes to flesh out the book, in addition to an abrupt ending. This novella had an even shorter story and more abrupt ending than most. Luckily for the reader, it also had other consistencies from this writer--good and interesting characters and interesting story lines that are otherwise well-written.

Stefan and his friends are a fun bunch of guys and it's easy to picture them together as buddies. Kazeem strikes a interesting contrast with his brusque and hermit-like nature. All the main characters are just right. Well-developed and complex enough to tell they have backstories.

The setting of this one was rather bland. I guess it was a rather typical ski area and typical hospital? It sometimes seems like the writer doesn't picture her settings at all as otherwise her very competent writing would do a better job of conveying them.




The story wasn't overly complex but it was plenty for such a short tale. A really interesting take on the getting hurt while skiing bit. And it was a bit surprising at times.

The ending was like many of this writer's books, a sudden stop that didn't have enough information to leave you feeling finished. It almost felt like there were missing pages as this was even more of an abrupt ending than most of them. I tend to like books that set it up so we can tell that everything has been solved, there are no loose threads, and the couple is going to have their HEA. I didn't quite get that satiated feeling with this one.



Sometimes I get the feeling that it's just that too many books are asked of this writer and that's why they seem to get shorter and shorter with so much sex-scene filler. It sucks because there's so much good writing in there and I love the varied characters (often including POC), and the variety of shifters and really interesting stories make me want to read more, while being a bit disappointed when each one never feels quite complete.

The recently released Spring Fever Anthology has a short story that gives one of Stefan's friends a mate. It too is just a tidbit of a story, but at least we get to see how Stefan and Kazeem are and get a bit more of them.

While this story is listed on both Amazon and GoodReads as part of the Wolves of Stone Ridge series, it shows no connection to it. As with several of the other series by this author such as Kontra's Menagerie, A Paranormal's Love, A Loving Nip, and now Shifter's Regime, I'm hoping the Wolves of Stone Ridge series makes a connection and the dragons show up there later.