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Review: 2016 Top Ten Gay Romance by Various Authors, Edited by J.M. Snyder

2016 Top Ten Gay Romance brings together the best-selling short stories published by JMS Books that year.

From first love to true love, from submission to sensual, from heat to sweet and everything in between, the couples in these stories are sure to keep you turning the pages as you fall in love with them.

With stories by Becky Black, T.A. Creech, Rebecca James, Shawn Lane, J.L. Merrow, A.R. Moler, Terry O'Reilly, Michael P. Thomas, Tinnean, and J.D. Walker, this head-over-heels collection goes beyond bedtime reading. Whether happily ever after or happy for now, there’s an ending for everyone in here!

Contains the stories: Me and My Big Mouth by Becky Black, Captive by T.A. Creech, Love Lost, Love Found by Rebecca James, Accidentally His by Shawn Lane, A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips, and Thou by J.L. Merrow, For the Last Time by A.R. Moler, First and Goal by Terry O'Reilly, It's Not Yule, It's Me by Michael P. Thomas, In His Line of Work by Tinnean, and And This is Ed by J.D. Walker.


Whoa. The broken hearted rating has been brought out.
I promise I didn't just use it because I felt it needed dusting off instead I've used it because I don't know how to rate this anthology. I has myself a dilemma.

The risk with reading anthologies is in the likelihood of every story being a 4 or 5 heart read. Sometimes a reader can get really lucky and find anthology gold, I know for the most part I expect there is going to be a couple of stories that don't work for me. The problem with this anthology is there was only one story that really did work for me, and that is the JL Merrow one, A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips and Thou. It was a five heart read as far as I was concerned, and that alone made me glad that I'd had the chance to read this anthology. Unfortunately all the other stories rated between a 1 and 3 heart rating for me. Do you see my dilemma? If I average out the ratings it would come up at about 2 hearts.

But...
But... A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips and Thou is not to be tarred with that rating brush. It was a read most excellent, written with the subtle humour and wit that JL Merrow always brings to her writing.

For me the other stories have blurred into one. No characters stood out, no storyline captured my attention. Is it worth buying an anthology just for one story? I don't know - that is your choice to make. For me though, I'm glad I read it. It's also worth noting that, whilst I am a JL Merrow fan, I'm not always the biggest lover of her shorter stories, they don't always click with me. This one, though, really did.

A copy of this anthology was given in exchange for an honest review.
For more information see Goodreads.

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