Inhaling Smoke is the story of Austin Moore and his boyfriend Micah as they adjust to the sudden addition of a toddler to their lives. This is told in third person through the eyes of Austin.

Austin is a tattoo artist working at ‘Fiery Squid Tattoo.’ Austin is covered in tattoos and is talkative. Micah is studying art and is shy and quiet.

The other significant people in the story were Katie, Austin’s best female friend, and their son River. They never had a romantic relationship, but Austin donated sperm so Katie could have a baby. Tragedy strikes and Katie dies, and Austin and Micah have to take on the job of raising River.

There are a few things that bothered me in this story. While I think the dialogue worked, when there wasn’t dialogue, the story went into ‘info-dump’ mode and that was boring, unfortunately.

Another thing had to do with inconsistency. These two lines contradict themselves:

”Austin had taught Micah how to touch another person and in return Micah had taught him how to love.”

“They (Micah’s people/family) were tactile, hardworking people with a fear of God instilled in them by the preacher.”

I used only those lines, the part in parenthesis are my words, but Austin is thinking that he taught Micah to be comfortable with touching, but then in the second sentence above, it says that Micah’s people/family, were tactile. If that’s the case Micah would have been very touchy-feely with Austin. He wouldn’t need to be taught to be tactile. So that’s something I had issues with.

I did however enjoy the author’s choice of names. “Fiery Squid Tattoo,” is awesome, also some of the names of the characters, “Soda,” one of the tattoo artists, “Hyacinth” or “Hy” for the boss, “River” for the son’s name.

This story has its sad parts, but also has a hopeful future for Austin, Micah and River. It’s easy and fast to read. I give this 3 Stars
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Interesting enough that I'll be looking forward to reading Micah's POV. ( )

Nice story about the issues and joys when adding a baby to an established relationship. Austin (the tattoo artist) and Micah (a college student getting his arts degree) are very cute together and I'd love to find out more about them. Neither of them expected to have to take care of River, Austin's son through sperm donation to his best friend, but when she dies in a fire, there is no question in their minds about accepting the responsibility. While the reason for having him with them is very sad, the way they work together to give the sixteen-month-old a new home is amazing.

If you like loving couples who find a way to deal with a new baby in their relationship, and if you want to see how they make time for some "grown-up activities", then you will probably like this free short story. ( )