Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
Jeremiah Crawford’s need for coffee leads to a chance meeting with Trey Damone and his son Mikey. Mikey’s psychic abilities are obvious to Crawford, who wants to help the child learn to manage his powers. And Trey’s need for someone to care about him and his son is even more obvious.
Trey Damone brought his son to Boston to escape Mikey’s mother’s family–a cult-like group who want to take Mikey away from Trey. Trusting his new neighbors wasn’t easy for Trey. Trusting the man he randomly meets in a donut shop will be harder, especially when Trey isn’t only keeping Mikey’s secrets anymore. He has a secret of his own now: a month ago, he was changed to a werewolf while trying to save his son. If Trey tells Crawford the truth about himself without his Alpha’s permission, the penalty could be death.
Crawford hates secrets, even though he’s keeping one of his own: His employer is a sorcerer. And while Crawford’s life isn’t at risk if he tells Trey the truth, he won’t betray his boss. He trusts Trey and wants to earn Trey and Mikey’s trust, but can he and Trey build a relationship based on the secrets they have to keep?
Portions of this book were originally published as a short novella by MLR Press in 2013. This version has been significantly revised and expanded from the original.
The Review
Chance Met is one of those books that drives you mad at the same time that it intrigues the hell out of you. It drops a conclusive fact, and then counters it, only to tie it all together later on.
I found myself asking “What does that mean?” And then when I got to the end, I found Chance Met is part of a series – Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat. I’ve even read the first instalment but that didn’t help me much, as that was quite a frenetic experience with kidnappings, rescues and veganism. This installment has a different feel – calmer and more considered.
My main issue with the writing was that no one here says something once if they can say it twice or more.
This is a love story with a happy for now ending, between psychic Jeremiah Crawford and single dad Trey Damone, a recently turned werewolf with a psychic young son. The growing relationship between Crawford and these two is what kept me reading. It’s all about trust, respect and acceptance, and how these are not always easy things to give.
There’s also an expectation of wrongness and danger that does not materialise here. The ending is not really conclusive as there are loose ends (and all that wrongness) that still need a resolution.
If their story continues, I could be persuaded to indulge in a sequel. This is a story with some legs, but they don’t come without a few scratches or bites. I just need to read it with a little literary calamine lotion.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.