Indulge Me by Kaenar Langford - 2.5 stars

Dalton's Awakening by Carol Lynne - 3 stars

Lunches in Laguna by J.P. Bowie - 1,5 stars

Raven by Dakota Rebel - 2 stars

Lust in the Afternoon by Cian Fey - 2 stars

Lunch is Served by Jude Mason - 1,5 stars ( )

The common theme of the various stories are the naughty nooners, those encounters you have during your lunch break, instead to eat... quite a good way to stay in shape! Anyway, the 'naughty' in the title, and the situation that usually leads to forbidden lovers, are a sure hints that the stories are mostly light and without angst.

Indulge Me by Kaenar Langford: Keane has an unrequited love for his boss Rayche (side note: but the two are drawn together since both have such strange name? ;-) ); it's months that he lusts for the man and only a brief encounter with a mysterious stranger in a exclusive gay spa broke his involuntary celibacy. And so when he receives an anonymous note inviting him to that same spa for a noon appointment, naked..., Keane decides to give it a try. And when he finds there Rayche, he is not sure that he wants to give on for only a naughty nooner.

The story is light and very naughty, mostly about free sex without two very handsome men; sometime, reading on their hot encounter, I had the impression to be reading a script for a porn movie, but then, that is the purpose, isn't it?

Dalton’s Awakening by Carol Lynne: Dalton is out from a bad divorce: his wife accused him to be gay, even if Dalton never had a gay experience in his life. It's not clear if he thought about it, maybe deep in the closet which is his conscience, some idea wandered in his mind, but he never acted on them. And then he meets by chance Sal, the sexy and gentle owner of an Italian restaurant near his office. Their noon encounters begin to be a necessity for Dalton, who lost all his friends with the divorce. But Sal wants something more from him than a good friend.

The story is really tender; it's clear to everyone that Dalton and Sal are made for each other, but Sal knows that he needs to be careful with Dalton, he is like a newborn baby and has to learn everything again, and above all he needs to trust again. The scene in which Dalton calls on the phone a friend only to be rebutted is so sad but also so right to create the right background for the character.

Lunches in Laguna by J.P. Bowie: apparently Scott is a young and simple man, who enjoys the eye candy of all the men strolling up and down along Laguna Beach; yes, Scott is simple, but he comes out to me as a romantic at heart, willing to fall in love at first sight when he sees Michael, the gallery's owner he spots during a lunch break. That Michael is willing to return the feeling is a dream comes true. But then Michael's past rears its head, and Scott has to decide if he wants for a noon romance to become the love of his life.

Probably the most romantic story of the anthology, I really like the easy feeling between Scott and Michael, the little love tokens the two exchange, like a simple rose bought by instinct. With the one by Carol Lynne, it's probably the story which more is in line with the theme of the anthology. I also like a lot Scott's character, so shy but at the same time so charming, I believe he enchanted Michael more for his awkwardness than for anything else.

Raven by Dakota Rebel: Patrick and Kennedy are two not very old vampires who opened a gay club to have an harem at hand for their needs (at this regard, I don't understand if the two are vampires or incubus, since more than living on blood, they seems to live on sex). Anyway, Kennedy is the indiscriminate of the two, the one for whom everyone is the right one, and instead Patrick is the selective one, maybe also since he has an hidden interest on Kennedy. And when Samson, a man who was sniffing around Kennedy, now tries to same with Patrick, Patrick decides that maybe it's time for him to reclaim his partner, not only for business reason.

The game between the three characters, Patrick, Kennedy and Samson is quite interesting, but probably for a short story is too much. There is a lot happened before and probably there will be a lot after, and on the few pages of the story I have no time to feel for the characters as I would like. And then, as I said, Patrick and Kennedy are more the incubus type than vampires.

Lust in the Afternoon by Cian Fey: this one is really nice and naughty all together. Ted is an IT manager for a gay website which, everyday at noon serves to its customers live peeping shows. But due to a snow storm, only three person are in the building, Ted, Grayson, the art director and Nathalie, the secretary. Obviously Nathalie doesn't have the necessary equipment, and Gray is needed behind the camera, and so Ted wins the today role in front of the camera. Not that it's a big problem for him to have an hard one to show, since he has the hots for Gray since weeks, and when he discovers that the feeling is mutual...

Very nice interracial story (Gray is an African American young man), between the geeky Ted and the handsome Gray; despite working for a gay website, both Ted than Gray are simple guys, I would say also romantic, and they are only waiting for a nice chance to 'come out' to the man who stars in their daydreams.

Lunch is Served by Jude Mason: Philip needs a job, Mark has a job. The problem is that, during the job interview for a waiter job in a BDSM club, Philip was full dressed, and he was able to hide the hard on he had for Mark. But when he starts to work in the club, he finds out that his 'uniform' is a leather harness with a very small leather jock... quite impossible to hide now. Lucky him, Mark seems very interested in what he has to show.

Despite the BDSM setting, I found the story quite funny: Philip is very much distressed from the fact that his body, and in particular a very center part of his body, has decided to have its own mind... well, at least, it gains him higher tips!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1907010955/?tag=elimyrevandra-20