This review originally appeared in slightly different form at BDSM Book Reviews.
This collection of four previously published short stories features an entire panoply of things that go “bump in the night”, from ghosts to vampires to shape-shifting creatures. The stories are varied, but there is something of a common theme of finding love in unexpected places.
In “Haunted” a ghost returns to a costume shop near where he died each year on the anniversary of his demise, on Halloween, to make love to the shop’s owner. On his latest visit, our spook realizes that his lover continues to age while he remains forever the young man he was when he died. Things go a bit awry for Billy of ”Billy and the Ghosts” when a dare seems to send him back in time to gold rush Virginia City, and into the arms of a male prostitute who bears a striking resemblance to Billy’s crush.
An incubus does the one thing his kind should never do in ”Dream Lover”, he falls in love with a human. It’s a very dangerous situation, especially for the man involved. The same could be said for the vampire in ”Bound by Blood”. He falls for a young man he has just fed off of, in a rather unusual way.
The characters in each of these stories are remarkably well developed given the short format. You will easily finish one or two of these in a single reading session. The writing flows well and moves the plot along at a good pace, giving you just enough to information to spur your imagination without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail.
There’s nothing particularly kinky about any of these stories, unless you consider making it with a ghost or a shapeshifter kinky. In fact, the shapeshifter story, “Dream Lover” is the only one with even the slightest mention, in passing, of anything remotely un-vanilla.
For a quick, entertaining, Halloween read, “Bump in the Night” is pleasant enough. None of the stories is particularly memorable, but as light erotic thrillers they fit the bill.
“Bump in the Night” is available from Amazon