Title: Just Lucky That Way
Author: Andy Slayde & Ali Wilde
Length: 140 pages
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m paranormal

Blurb:  Just because Zed Roxbury is hearing voices doesn’t mean he’s insane.

And if he is, all of his friends are joining him. Surely doing a favor for a friend should bring good karma, but a fun 4th July holiday turns into much more than anyone could have anticipated when bad luck dogs Zed. And the voices are just a small part of it. Could the opal brooch he finds have anything to do with it? Or perhaps it’s just Zed’s irresistible allure…

Maybe the past should stay buried.

Review:

I liked some things about this story, and others left me a bit cold. I liked the whole ghost storyline, with the ghost of a woman murdered who decides that Zed is her ex-lover and she intends to do anything to have him stay with her forever as he promised. She was not some benign spirit, she damn near killed Alex a time or two. I even liked Zed and Alex as a couple but I felt there was so much more to their story. I think it would have been as interesting as this story.

They had been friends since childhood and it seems Alex was straightish, he dated women and Zed basically whored his way through life, drugs, alcohol and ultimately a suicide attempt, because he was in love with Alex. They’ve now been together for about 6 months and Zed, and Alex, are deliriously happy. However there kept being references to something that happened at Christmas, I wasn’t sure if that was when they got together, but it seemed like group sex or something unusual and it was referred to several times and I really wanted to know what happened.

This book also had a lot of their friends as they were all out at Phil and Tania’s helping them clean up their new farmhouse and camping and I wasn’t exactly sure who was who except that Rhys and Zed had had a thing at some point which was still a bit of a sore spot for Alex, although maybe that was the influence of the ghost, but Rhys didn’t seem to think that hanging all over Zed was a big deal and no one worried about anyone hearing them or seeing them have sex. I don’t remember being that open with my friends at 23, maybe I just come from repressed stock.

So while I enjoyed the ghost story aspect, I really wanted to know how Zed and Alex got together and the whole drama of their story getting to their HEA, even with a ghost trying to break them up. I do enjoy the authors’ work though, I find it easy to read and the whole spooky atmosphere and Zed’s panic, and eventually the others, was done well.

The authors’ let me know there is a freebie extra for this story. So go and check it out. As well, it seems my questions about how they got together will one day be answered. Those answers were in some previous shorts that are no longer available at Torquere so hopefully they will get them gathered up and out to us eager public who want to know how Zed and Alex got to their HEA.