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Pour Some Sugar On It (2011)

by M. Rode(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1610401441 (ISBN13: 9781610401449)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Torquere

review 1: I picked up this anthology from TQ because I tend to like their anthologies. They often provide a good mix of stories and have a solid set of authors who contribute. It didn’t take me long before I realised that maybe this anthology wasn’t quite to my taste and also that many of the stories were very similar.The general premise of the anthology is that of stories which contain some sort of confectionery or sweet food stuff. This ranged from chocolate, candy or even honey. This is all well and good, but I’m not wholly fond of stories where food is used as a sexual enhancement and since quite a lot of the stories revolved around a sex scene where food is drizzled over one of the heroes and then licked off by the other, then I spent most of the time reading those storie... mores shuddering about how terribly sticky it all was. Those of you, however, who love stories where the heroes cover each other in food as a form of sexual play will probably like the stories a great deal!Having said that, there was one story like that in the anthology which I did enjoy, possibly because it was such a fun and over the top scenario, I couldn’t help giggling at it. The story was The Candyman Can by Rob Rosen and tells of a steamy hot encounter in a sweet shop. The various inventive uses for the sweets such as candy bracelets and lollipops meant that I don’t think I shall ever be able to view those sweets in the same light again!Not all the stories used sweets as sexual aids though and I found that those were the stories I enjoyed the most. For example, Favorite Dish by Cari Z was a follow on story from Wanting More, which can be found in the DSP Sindusty 2 anthology. I loved the original story and was very pleased to revisit the characters of James and Alex, and to get to see some of their HEA. In this story the sweet stuff was a caramel apple pie that Alex bakes for his friend Johnny so the focus was more on the couple and how they are coping with the fact that James has to work away so much. Great stuff.Another story which is possibly my favourite from the anthology is Going to Eleven by Lee Benoit. It featured a young man, Chip, who has had a string of real bad luck with boyfriends and how he meets shy berry farmer Bartholomew. I loved the ever-optimistic Chip who was determined that each new boyfriend was ‘the one’. He contrasted nicely with the steady and sensible Bartholomew and I was cheering them (and the cat) on all the way.As I said earlier, one of the problems with the anthology was that many of the stories were just very samey. Nearly all the stories are short – at about 10 pages or so – and each story involves at least one, if not two sex scenes. This left very little space for plot and most of the stories were structured so that the main focus was on the sex scene. This didn’t mean that the stories weren’t well written because many of the better stories managed to fit in enough characterisation for it to be a romance rather than just dressed up porn. One such story was Banana Ice-cream by Emily Moreton which told of two ex-army men who take a short holiday because one of them is suffering from a stressful time at work. This was a follow on from a previous short story by this author but I still got a good sense of how much the men loved and cared for each other.So whilst I can’t say that any of the stories in this anthology were badly written, quite a few were easily forgotten. It means that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this anthology to the readers of this site, but some of you may still enjoy it, especially if you like sticky sweet stuff mixed in with your sex scenes.
review 2: Sweet Tooth by Julia Talbot – This is a continuation of You Don’t Need a Doctor from the Healing Hearts anthology. It shows Andy and Shiloh a year later preparing for their anniversary and Andy’s decision to have some fun with chocolate and strawberries in bed rather than go out. There’s a lot of humour in these stories and it was fun to see the guys after further down the road.Going to Eleven by Lee Benoit – Chip sees a cute berry farmer at the farmer’s market but is in a relationship, boyfriend #9. But not for long. He runs into Bartholomew again when he’s with boyfriend #10. When that goes bust he finally tries to convince Bartholomew to be his next boyfriend. But he’s not interested in being a number. It takes Chip a while to catch on and Bartholomew has never even had a #1, but they were a cute couple.One Foxy Man by Misa Izanaki – This is the story of how Aoi and Itzuki met in the Body Shop world. It likely won’t mean as much who are not already familiar with the couple (who are actually in a menage at this point – this is going back in time). I love these stories though.A Prince Among Princes by G.R. Richards – At the annual convention of the Association of Gay Princes, Julian usually ends up with a waiter or two but when he meets a Prince he never saw before, he’s fascinated and decides to spend time with Chase instead, later finding out how far Chase went to have a chance with him. I could just imagine all these gay princes, dressed like out of Disney swishing around the convention. A cute concept.Drink Deep From the Cup of Victory by Gabriel West – I read this one last because a) it’s kind of historical fantasy and b) it was the longest. I wasn’t sure at first but as I got into it I was totally hooked. It’s set in an ancient time of warriors (think the Trojans, or ancient Rome, it’s not really clear) and Leandros has led his men to a successful victory and has retired to his tent with his chariot driver Aeton who is also his lover. This short covers so much and I think so well, Aeton was rescued by Leandros after being raped and he still deals with the fall-out of that event and what he can and can’t do in bed and how Leandros deals with it so sensitively, it deals with their necessity to have wives/heirs and how much they hate even thinking about each other with a woman and what they have to do to perform. It’s very lyrical and romantic and the love between the two is just immense and comes through. Oh honey is involved as well. This one really touched me, even now thinking about it after I get a bit teary. (sap that I am) I’d say the anthology is worth it for this story alone.Best Birthday Ever by Heidi Champa – Marcus agreed to let his friend have a birthday party for him even though he’s mourning his break-up of 3 months. However when he sees David the caterer he’s intrigued. And David promises the birthday cake called “Better than Sex”. Later Marcus makes David prove it. A cute little story and hey, a man who can bake a chocolate cake is all kinds of win in my books.Favorite Dish by Cari Z – Alex is a chef whose lover James is out of town for business for three weeks. To kill time and distract himself Alex cooks/bakes up a storm for everyone around him. Lots of descriptions of wonderful pies and wonderful food. James then manages to sneak home a couple of days early where they have a wonderful reunion. I’m not sure if this is an existing couple but I’d love to know how older lawyer James and younger chef Alex got together.The Candyman Can by Rob Rosen – Chad’s driving down to his nephew’s bithday and stops impulsively at a candy store on the way to pick up some treats. When he meets candy shop owner Glenn, all thoughts of kids’ candy fly out the window. He hangs around until the shop closes and he and Glenn use candy in ways that would make Willy Wonka cringe. Just a hot steamy little piece with a suggestion of more in the future.Banana Ice Cream by Emily Moreton – Mal and Owen are long-time lovers who run a surf school and Mal is a surfer. Mal was away for a competition and Owen is stressed about work stuff and Mal “forces” him to get in the car to go for banana ice-cream. Really he has booked them a cottage on the beach for a few days to completely relax and unwind and there is ice-cream in the hot tub, although it’s not banana. A nice story of Mal recognizing Owen’s stress and making and effort to see that his man gets a break. You could tell they had been together a long time and knew each other well.Chocolate Dreams by Kiernan Kelly – Alexander is a chocolatier extraordinaire and he knows it. He prefers to run a small shop where he can do what he wants but he has hissy fits on a regular basis and burns through apprentices. Thomas is a mechanic, but he’s desperate for a job even though he knows nothing about chocolate. Turns out he’s the only one not freaked out by Alexander’s tantrums which annoys Alexander to no end. Eventually kinky things with chocolate happen in the kitchen early one morning with a bit of a battle over who is the alpha male.Brownies: A Hammer Story by Sean Michael – I don’t follow the Hammer stories as a rule so this will be of more interest to those who know the characters. Subs Tanny and Jim spend the day making brownies and a mess. When their masters come home, Tanny pushes his until he’s taken to the bathroom for a little punishment. Jim is freaked out and thinks Marcus is angry at him. I don’t know the story here but Jim and Marcus are not obviously into the hard-core stuff which freaks Jim out and there is a very romantic/sexy time on the couch as Marcus convinces Jim he’s not angry with him. As I said, those who know these characters will enjoy it more.So on the whole all of the stories are cute and sweet in different ways. I did notice some editing errors, a few more spelling mistakes than I usually find, but not excessively so as to detract from the overall reading. But as I said, I think it is worth it alone for Gabriel West’s story and for those who follow series like The Body Shop or the Hammer books it’s nice to visit old characters we enjoy. less

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