Don’t Name the Puppy was written for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s 2014 Love’s Landscapes event. It is told in third person through the eyes of Scott, a grad student.

The story starts with Scott walking down to breakfast at the house he shares with other roommates to find eighteen-year-old Travis sitting at the table eating Scott’s cereal. Scott has a roommate Paul, and Travis was Paul’s one-night-stand that Paul is no longer interested in after popping his ass cherry. Travis strikes me as naive and friendly like a lost puppy (hence the title), possibly hoping for a relationship with Paul. It’s implied that Travis was a virgin when he met Paul. Travis was f***ed, but hasn’t f***ed.

After Paul gives Travis the brush-off, Scott finds Travis outside, his eyes red like he's been crying, and he's watching some feral kittens. Travis enlists Scott’s help to rescue them. From this point the kittens are a reason for Travis to visit Scott. However, Scott still thinks that Travis is interested in Paul.

It turns out one of the reasons Travis’s hints of interest weren’t working on Scott, was because Scott likes to bottom and he likes aggressive men. It takes a while for Travis to figure this out but Scott and Travis go their separate ways before they meet again.

I didn't understand why Paul wanted to hook up with Scott after Travis left. Paul encourages Scott to go to the club and appears to be making a move on Scott. Why? Because Scott is emotionally vulnerable right now? Then all of a sudden Travis is at the club going after Scott. How did he know Scott was at the club? Was Travis hanging out at the club during the last two weeks? This whole sequence of events confused me.

The thing I didn’t like about this story was that Travis had to change a large part of his self in order to be with Scott, and that Scott didn’t seem to be all that keen on being with Travis other than as a friend. I never quite bought the turnaround with Travis’ actions at the end, nor Scott’s change of heart. However, this is a cute story with kitties and a silly hat. I give this 3 stars
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3.5 Stars ( )