Temperature's Rising: A Midsummer's Night Steam [Paperback]

In "Temperature's Rising; Midsummer Night's Steam" we have 4 authors contributing one story each to the anthology. There is no common theme other than m/m romance and there is no common tone to the four novellas either.

In "Taboo Desires" Cole Winchester is in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend who has lately been insisting that they get married and start having children. Something holds him back, perhaps the growing feelings that he is more interested in Dick than in Jane. He breaks up with his girlfriend and takes a long walk on the beach where he literally stumbles over Eric Radcliff, the younger brother of his best friend in high school. He remembers Eric as the little kid who hung around when his brother and Cole hung out. But Eric's grown up too and looks delicious. Sixty-six pages isn't much to develop characters and get a plot going to a conclusion so everything is hurried. They get it on, like what they feel, get caught by the former girlfriend, and Cole, Eric and the novella climax together. The End.

In "Custom Ride" K.A. Mitchell introduces Ryan who then meets Jeff in the garage where Jeff repairs and restores muscle cars. There's more character development here than in the first story and also some background that explains the motives and behaviours of the characters. Ryan and Jeff are attracted to each other but there is a big problem: Jeff has an ex-wife who has main custody of their daughter and Jeff doesn't want to do anything that could jeopardize his access to his daughter. Steamy sex and more difficulties beset the relationship but in the end it all works out. This is a nice read, with easy to like characters.

"Catching a Buzz", the third novella in the book, wasn't entirely my cup of tea. I couldn't really figure out the motivations for the characters so a lot of what went on seemed contrived simply to allow the author to include some hyper-steamy m/m sex scenes. That's not inherently bad, and by the end of the 64 pages one kind of likes the two main characters but perhaps there was just a bit too much kink going on for me.

At 53 pages "Nut Cream", the fourth novella is also the shortest. The setting is the southern outskirts of Calgary and the characters are werewolves. Perhaps because I used to know that area of the world very well, this immediately caught my interest. Besides, the whole idea of werewolves is kind of fun. We have Toby, a half-human/half-wolf young man in his mid twenties who's just coming into his mating season. He's been slow to mature because one parent is human and is experiencing all sorts of new sensations and emotions as his body is telling him that it's time to mate. Cliff is Toby's older brother's best friend--boy, have we run into that scenario before, haven't we--who paid little attention to Toby while they were younger but who now senses that Toby is his mate. This is a fun romp through the valleys and parks of Fish Creek Park. The two men mate, fall in love, face adversity together, and are bonded for life. What more could anyone ask for in a novella? In many ways this was the most fun to read of the four although probably, "Custom Ride" was the most fully developed of them all.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, why not. It's not great literature but the stories are light and fun reading. The characters are all likeable enough and the outcomes of each tale--they live happily ever after--are what every romance lover expects.