Long Summer Nights: First three stories
May. 10th, 2022 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI was offered a review copy of the LGBTQ+ paranormal romance anthology Longsummer Nights and encouraged to be entirely honest, so I'm going to write reactions as I read.
Thus far I've read the first three stories and the hit rate has been pretty good, considering that I bounce off a lot of paranormal romances and short stories. It's all felt more like AO3 original fiction than commercial (Paranormal) Romance, which for me is definitely a plus.
Heat is on a scale from 0 to 5.
SEEDS OF SOLACE by RIEN GRAY Pairing: F/NB Heat Level: 3
The love interest and relationship felt like paper-thin devices to write the (more fleshed out) protagonist having cheerfully weird, kinda vague xeno sex. I need more emotional connection even in erotica, and didn't find it very sexy, but I did enjoy the evocative fantasy Southern Gothic weirdness.
ANNIVERSARY by A.K. FEDEAU Pairing: F/M Heat Level: 3
Bittersweet noir about an established couple. A bag of slightly cheesy noir and fantasy tropes, and not a classic romance, but I enjoyed it.
VIRGIN COCKTAIL by FISHER STRUNC Pairing: M/NB Heat Level: 4
Delightful "Oh god they were roommates, and also one of them is a vampire" romance with all the standard AO3 slash tropes, except the bottom is an afab non-binary character and the sex is PIV. I tend to have Messy Gender Feelings about that sort of thing but the blood drinking made up for it >.>
Longsummer Nights was created by VOW, a collective of writers who met working for the US division of the Japanese otome company Voltage. When they unionised Voltage shut the US division down and they've been working on finding new ways to support themselves and other writers ever since. I am thus very happy to discover that I thus far like their writing as well as their politics, and hope they sell lots of books! It's $15US for 15 stories in a variety of formats.
Content note: I quote some violence. Spoilers for all three stories!
I'm mostly reading when too tired toplay FFXIV do anything else so this is a little fuzzy.
I like the cover image of a back with hands grasping at it, even if it implies either monster poly (not a thing in this collection afaict) or a many armed skeleton/vampire/fishperson (a possibility!) There's nb characters, I haven't read much/any speculative nb romance but am very open to the idea!
Ooh heat level markers!
0 - No physical intimacy.
1 - Kissing/touching on page, nothing below the belt.
2 - Implied sexual content / fade to black.
3 - Sex on page, non-explicit.
4 - Explicit sex on page.
5 - Intense, explicit, and frequent sex on page.
The setting is a shared single town, Longsummer, where monsters are known, but still have to hide from the world at large. Looks like there was no other collaboration between the writers in terms of themes/overarching plot etc. Hopefully I won't get jarred by any inconsistencies.
First story! It has title, author, genders of people involved, heat level, and content notes. It's all very AO3, which isn't an inherently bad thing. Has me thinking how I'd feel about these finer grained heat markers for fic I write and read (lol, or scales for other AO3 compulsory info. How major and dead is this "major character death", on a scale from 0 to 5...)
SEEDS OF SOLACE by RIEN GRAY
Pairing: F/NB Heat Level: 3
Ooh this is feeling kinda New Orleans Southern Gothic, as I vaguely understand the vibe. I'm open to it! Coming from a dry climate I find humid/lush places inherently kind of alien and magical. Thus far the prose isn't bad but is aiming for sort of poetic lushness it's not quite hitting.
The non-binary main character River grew up in a Fancy Mansion but left home at 17, and now returns ten years later, after their mother's death, to find it in disrepair. Ok the lushness is working more for me now, the house once a perfect, controlled prison, now a dripping, empty, rotting corpse.
MYSTERIOUS HOT LADY IN THE GARDEN
I hope she starts having more to her than smugness, mystery, and hotness but I can't claim not to be into it.
Ohh River caused the rot with their arrival. This sort of thing has always followed them. The half-dead lemon tree soon becomes heavy with fruit, all made strange by the bites of mites. Lush and gross :D
...ok the LI revealed herself to be a...vampire or something who turns people into stone and River is like...idk some sort of nature/river god or something then they just...started kissing cos they're both monsters who can't safely have sex with anyone else. This isn't so much a romance as a fantasy-xeno PWP (except everything's metaphorical so it's only 3 on the spiciness scale). Which is valid, but even asides from the fact I was in the mood for romance rather than porn, even porn (for me at least) needs some emotional/character hook for me to get into it, as porn or otherwise, and this just...didn't do that for me. Which is a pity since the premise is my jam.
Still, I really liked the way the story didn't distinguish between "good" life (flowers, fruit) and "bad" life (mould, parasites), it's all one big gross lush THING. I might steal that for something ;)
ANNIVERSARY by A.K. FEDEAU
Pairing: F/M Heat Level: 3
Lol a priest in a cassock. Sure, I'm here for Weird Magic Catholics. Though the FFXIV expansion I'm playing right now has weird magic ELF catholics fighting DRAGONS so this may suffer by comparison.
hello
HELLO
VAMPIRE CATHOLIC PRIESTS WITH GUNS LET'S GO.
(EDIT: He's just pretending to be a priest but is definitely an actual vampire and at least works for Catholic priests) Also there's a sort of narrative irony thing with a ballet performance happening in the background which is a bit cheesy but in a way that works for me. OOH I THINK THE PRIMA BALLERINA IS THE FEMALE LI. Also one of her fellow ballerinas has vanished mysteriously!! VAMPIRE CATHOLIC ASSASSIN FALLING IN LOVE WITH AN ANGSTY BALLERINA?? :D :D
*takes a moment to enjoy the story I'm imagining, so I can enjoy the actual story for whatever it really is*
THE BALLERINA. IS A VAMPIRE TOO???
EVEN BETTER THAN MY IMAGINATION :D
Her name is Aida, and she has a male friend who I think is also a vampire, who's been cheerfully keeping track of her every time she has to change identities (but always as a ballerina). I hope this isn't all well adjusted happy vampires with a bunch of vampire friends I am here for the angst and self loathing.
The vampire assassin's name is Hercule and he also has a vampire friend to chat exposition at. Looks like Hercule's past has caught up with him and he will likely soon be dead, it's all very noir. He says he just wants the chance to meet up with an old friend one last time.
Ahh Hercule and Aida have a non-exclusive relationship where they meet up once every three years. Not the sort of story I expected in this kind of anthology but I can dig it. Though I hope there's at least one actual getting together romance in this book.
I experienced a feeling! These two are very much archetypes but they feel real enough for me to be into their whole bittersweet romantic Vibe. I can see the story working well if he really did die but the forward promised happy endings.
FEELINGS
Awww so one of the themes of their conversation was that she is also a hunter at heart, even if she mostly spends her time dancing these days. So after they have bittersweet sex she sneaks out to try and take down the assassin herself, bless.
Aida has solved the mystery and I very much have not, hopefully the narrative will slowly explain it all in words of one syllable later >.>
(A little later she smugly explained the villain's actions back to him to show how clever she is, thank you Aida. It really wasn't a very interesting mystery, but I may as well leave it unspoiled)
Bullets filled with vials of holy water: cool! Knives with holy water "in the hilt"? Confusing. Does a little bit come out with every stab? Is there, like, a squeezy button?
Awww. They defeat the villain together and sail off together into the dawn. That was really great!
VIRGIN COCKTAIL by FISHER STRUNC
CONTENT NOTES This story contains explicit mentions of blood.
Pairing: M/NB Heat Level: 4
Me: Wait are these all about vampires?
Me: Wait never mind I freaking love vampires, carry on
The main character Val runs a bar, is non-binary, and has "nubby horns", and based purely on the last I am imagining them as Karkat.
They go to check on a miserable looking man in an alleyway and the man lunges at them and drinks their blood before collapsing.
100% Karkat reaction to being attacked (though it turns out they aren't really that Karkat-ish, more of a kuudere than a tsundere)
Dude is described as "strikingly handsome enough to cover having a moustache and being dressed in tweed with a bow-tie" which is cute.
Wait, how does Val know he's a man? I definitely understand the appeal of stories where noone ever gets misgendered but the way this sometimes extends to everyone knowing each other's pronouns at a single glance actually makes me a little dysphoric. Ah well, can't please everyone's dysphoria at once.
Lol Val's full name is Valentine de Vyn.
Aww. The dude, Theo, is exactly what he looks like, a sweet nerdy professor, who got turned when he tried to help a scared female student break up with her abusive (and as it turned out, vampiric) boyfriend. He didn't know vampires existed, hooray! Both because it's nice to know such people exist in the setting for stories to play with in general, and because that's a fun perspective for a new vampire character. And even so he just wants to know his student is ok!
I like that Val actually doesn't know much about vampirism, enough to fill in the major blanks and introduce Theo to some nice vampire mentors but they're still surprised/curious about some stuff too, not just a blandly competent exposition dump.
Haha Val notices the vampire mentor quietly noticing that Val is smiling around Theo, something they never do, and has to hide a blush. This goes 100% over the head of Theo who just thinks they are Really Nice And Kind, which just makes Val more determined to make an escape while they can still pull off "Cool and disinterested".
HAAA Theo keeps visiting and Val pretends not to like it as much as they do but then has to prod Theo to admit why he looks pale: Turns out he hates the taste of all blood...except Val's :D
Val's two mother's (one human one demon) tell him demon blood is addictive to vampires :D :D
Val offers to let Theo drink again and HELLO embarassed sexy self loathing I am glad at least ONE vampire romance has it :D
Theo: I already made you drink from me once D:
Val: I could throw you across the room with one hand, you can't make me do anything. I just knew you needed it.
Theo: :O
Val: >.>
THEY ARE BOTH SO INTO IT AND PRETENDING IT'S FINE THIS IS FANTASTIC
Ahaha when it turns out Theo has had trouble finding vampire friendly accommodation Val finds themself blurting out an offer of their guest bedroom. AMAZING.
The dynamic is CLASSIC "OMG THEY WERE ROOMMATES" and I am here for it.
Val has their OH NO I LOVE him moment and freaks out at a Sensible Female Friend who gives a standard "Look I can't say for SURE he loved you back but it seems PRETTY LIKELY given the LONGING STARES and also honesty is good regardless"
And then they declare their feelings and have sex and it's very sweet! I was imagining Val as amab so was not quite ready for them to be afab and the sex to be PIV, but it wasn't inherently bad I just have messy gender feelings about sex scenes involving afab non-binary characters (River felt more assigned-weird-nature-creature-at-birth)
Well! That's three stories down, and I liked two of them a lot and didn't actively dislike the other. Not a bad ratio! This is pretty long and I think I'm done reading for the evening, so I might as well post this now.
Thus far I've read the first three stories and the hit rate has been pretty good, considering that I bounce off a lot of paranormal romances and short stories. It's all felt more like AO3 original fiction than commercial (Paranormal) Romance, which for me is definitely a plus.
Heat is on a scale from 0 to 5.
SEEDS OF SOLACE by RIEN GRAY Pairing: F/NB Heat Level: 3
The love interest and relationship felt like paper-thin devices to write the (more fleshed out) protagonist having cheerfully weird, kinda vague xeno sex. I need more emotional connection even in erotica, and didn't find it very sexy, but I did enjoy the evocative fantasy Southern Gothic weirdness.
ANNIVERSARY by A.K. FEDEAU Pairing: F/M Heat Level: 3
Bittersweet noir about an established couple. A bag of slightly cheesy noir and fantasy tropes, and not a classic romance, but I enjoyed it.
VIRGIN COCKTAIL by FISHER STRUNC Pairing: M/NB Heat Level: 4
Delightful "Oh god they were roommates, and also one of them is a vampire" romance with all the standard AO3 slash tropes, except the bottom is an afab non-binary character and the sex is PIV. I tend to have Messy Gender Feelings about that sort of thing but the blood drinking made up for it >.>
Longsummer Nights was created by VOW, a collective of writers who met working for the US division of the Japanese otome company Voltage. When they unionised Voltage shut the US division down and they've been working on finding new ways to support themselves and other writers ever since. I am thus very happy to discover that I thus far like their writing as well as their politics, and hope they sell lots of books! It's $15US for 15 stories in a variety of formats.
Content note: I quote some violence. Spoilers for all three stories!
I'm mostly reading when too tired to
I like the cover image of a back with hands grasping at it, even if it implies either monster poly (not a thing in this collection afaict) or a many armed skeleton/vampire/fishperson (a possibility!) There's nb characters, I haven't read much/any speculative nb romance but am very open to the idea!
Ooh heat level markers!
0 - No physical intimacy.
1 - Kissing/touching on page, nothing below the belt.
2 - Implied sexual content / fade to black.
3 - Sex on page, non-explicit.
4 - Explicit sex on page.
5 - Intense, explicit, and frequent sex on page.
The setting is a shared single town, Longsummer, where monsters are known, but still have to hide from the world at large. Looks like there was no other collaboration between the writers in terms of themes/overarching plot etc. Hopefully I won't get jarred by any inconsistencies.
First story! It has title, author, genders of people involved, heat level, and content notes. It's all very AO3, which isn't an inherently bad thing. Has me thinking how I'd feel about these finer grained heat markers for fic I write and read (lol, or scales for other AO3 compulsory info. How major and dead is this "major character death", on a scale from 0 to 5...)
SEEDS OF SOLACE by RIEN GRAY
Pairing: F/NB Heat Level: 3
Ooh this is feeling kinda New Orleans Southern Gothic, as I vaguely understand the vibe. I'm open to it! Coming from a dry climate I find humid/lush places inherently kind of alien and magical. Thus far the prose isn't bad but is aiming for sort of poetic lushness it's not quite hitting.
The non-binary main character River grew up in a Fancy Mansion but left home at 17, and now returns ten years later, after their mother's death, to find it in disrepair. Ok the lushness is working more for me now, the house once a perfect, controlled prison, now a dripping, empty, rotting corpse.
Longsummer boasted a fair share of unusual stories, but Belle Reve was sheltered from the majority. The neighborhood’s fences and foundations had been built high
for a reason, keeping out whatever slept in the water. Lights were strung between every house to prevent shadows from layering too deep when night descended and held sway.
MYSTERIOUS HOT LADY IN THE GARDEN
I hope she starts having more to her than smugness, mystery, and hotness but I can't claim not to be into it.
Ohh River caused the rot with their arrival. This sort of thing has always followed them. The half-dead lemon tree soon becomes heavy with fruit, all made strange by the bites of mites. Lush and gross :D
...ok the LI revealed herself to be a...vampire or something who turns people into stone and River is like...idk some sort of nature/river god or something then they just...started kissing cos they're both monsters who can't safely have sex with anyone else. This isn't so much a romance as a fantasy-xeno PWP (except everything's metaphorical so it's only 3 on the spiciness scale). Which is valid, but even asides from the fact I was in the mood for romance rather than porn, even porn (for me at least) needs some emotional/character hook for me to get into it, as porn or otherwise, and this just...didn't do that for me. Which is a pity since the premise is my jam.
Still, I really liked the way the story didn't distinguish between "good" life (flowers, fruit) and "bad" life (mould, parasites), it's all one big gross lush THING. I might steal that for something ;)
ANNIVERSARY by A.K. FEDEAU
Pairing: F/M Heat Level: 3
Lol a priest in a cassock. Sure, I'm here for Weird Magic Catholics. Though the FFXIV expansion I'm playing right now has weird magic ELF catholics fighting DRAGONS so this may suffer by comparison.
The man reached into his cassock. “Cardinal Ricci says hello.”
In a flash, the man whipped a pistol out and fired two silenced shots. Psht! Blood burst from the archbishop’s collar. Psht! It bloomed on his white robe.
hello
And then, when the man moved into the rays of the stained-glass window, he squared his shoulders up and bared a pair of white-hot fangs.
HELLO
VAMPIRE CATHOLIC PRIESTS WITH GUNS LET'S GO.
(EDIT: He's just pretending to be a priest but is definitely an actual vampire and at least works for Catholic priests) Also there's a sort of narrative irony thing with a ballet performance happening in the background which is a bit cheesy but in a way that works for me. OOH I THINK THE PRIMA BALLERINA IS THE FEMALE LI. Also one of her fellow ballerinas has vanished mysteriously!! VAMPIRE CATHOLIC ASSASSIN FALLING IN LOVE WITH AN ANGSTY BALLERINA?? :D :D
*takes a moment to enjoy the story I'm imagining, so I can enjoy the actual story for whatever it really is*
THE BALLERINA. IS A VAMPIRE TOO???
EVEN BETTER THAN MY IMAGINATION :D
Her name is Aida, and she has a male friend who I think is also a vampire, who's been cheerfully keeping track of her every time she has to change identities (but always as a ballerina). I hope this isn't all well adjusted happy vampires with a bunch of vampire friends I am here for the angst and self loathing.
The vampire assassin's name is Hercule and he also has a vampire friend to chat exposition at. Looks like Hercule's past has caught up with him and he will likely soon be dead, it's all very noir. He says he just wants the chance to meet up with an old friend one last time.
Ahh Hercule and Aida have a non-exclusive relationship where they meet up once every three years. Not the sort of story I expected in this kind of anthology but I can dig it. Though I hope there's at least one actual getting together romance in this book.
“Well.” Aida’s face brightened as she raised her glass. “Happy anniversary. Here’s to all the things that never change.”
“660 years?”
“What do you say we go a few centuries more?”
Hercule hesitated, then clinked his glass against hers. “Sure.”
I experienced a feeling! These two are very much archetypes but they feel real enough for me to be into their whole bittersweet romantic Vibe. I can see the story working well if he really did die but the forward promised happy endings.
“Death comes cheap now, and I cheapened with it,” Hercule said. “The worst sin a killer can commit is not to give a damn.”
A chill wind blew over their heads and rustled the trees, and a handful of dry leaves scattered down the edge of the bridge.
Aida crossed her arms. “Well, I hope you got something from that speech. All I hear is a bored man trying to take the easy way out.”
“Aida, don’t make this any harder than it has to be.” Hercule hunched in on himself. “We had a good run. But we knew it’d end like this.”
“Then what was the point?” Aida pulled her coat around herself. “Why did I bother turning you if I don’t get to keep you?”
FEELINGS
Awww so one of the themes of their conversation was that she is also a hunter at heart, even if she mostly spends her time dancing these days. So after they have bittersweet sex she sneaks out to try and take down the assassin herself, bless.
Aida has solved the mystery and I very much have not, hopefully the narrative will slowly explain it all in words of one syllable later >.>
(A little later she smugly explained the villain's actions back to him to show how clever she is, thank you Aida. It really wasn't a very interesting mystery, but I may as well leave it unspoiled)
Bullets filled with vials of holy water: cool! Knives with holy water "in the hilt"? Confusing. Does a little bit come out with every stab? Is there, like, a squeezy button?
Awww. They defeat the villain together and sail off together into the dawn. That was really great!
VIRGIN COCKTAIL by FISHER STRUNC
CONTENT NOTES This story contains explicit mentions of blood.
Pairing: M/NB Heat Level: 4
Me: Wait are these all about vampires?
Me: Wait never mind I freaking love vampires, carry on
The main character Val runs a bar, is non-binary, and has "nubby horns", and based purely on the last I am imagining them as Karkat.
They go to check on a miserable looking man in an alleyway and the man lunges at them and drinks their blood before collapsing.
They’re irritated enough by the situation to very briefly entertain the idea of leaving him in the tub and using the excuse that the bathroom is one of the only rooms in their home without a window, but it passes quickly. Something deeply traumatic happened to this man; even if it wasn’t an outright, violent attack, there’s no good set of circumstances that leave a newborn vampire shivering and starving in the alleyway behind a bar.
100% Karkat reaction to being attacked (though it turns out they aren't really that Karkat-ish, more of a kuudere than a tsundere)
Dude is described as "strikingly handsome enough to cover having a moustache and being dressed in tweed with a bow-tie" which is cute.
Wait, how does Val know he's a man? I definitely understand the appeal of stories where noone ever gets misgendered but the way this sometimes extends to everyone knowing each other's pronouns at a single glance actually makes me a little dysphoric. Ah well, can't please everyone's dysphoria at once.
Lol Val's full name is Valentine de Vyn.
Aww. The dude, Theo, is exactly what he looks like, a sweet nerdy professor, who got turned when he tried to help a scared female student break up with her abusive (and as it turned out, vampiric) boyfriend. He didn't know vampires existed, hooray! Both because it's nice to know such people exist in the setting for stories to play with in general, and because that's a fun perspective for a new vampire character. And even so he just wants to know his student is ok!
I like that Val actually doesn't know much about vampirism, enough to fill in the major blanks and introduce Theo to some nice vampire mentors but they're still surprised/curious about some stuff too, not just a blandly competent exposition dump.
Haha Val notices the vampire mentor quietly noticing that Val is smiling around Theo, something they never do, and has to hide a blush. This goes 100% over the head of Theo who just thinks they are Really Nice And Kind, which just makes Val more determined to make an escape while they can still pull off "Cool and disinterested".
HAAA Theo keeps visiting and Val pretends not to like it as much as they do but then has to prod Theo to admit why he looks pale: Turns out he hates the taste of all blood...except Val's :D
Val's two mother's (one human one demon) tell him demon blood is addictive to vampires :D :D
Val offers to let Theo drink again and HELLO embarassed sexy self loathing I am glad at least ONE vampire romance has it :D
Theo: I already made you drink from me once D:
Val: I could throw you across the room with one hand, you can't make me do anything. I just knew you needed it.
Theo: :O
Val: >.>
THEY ARE BOTH SO INTO IT AND PRETENDING IT'S FINE THIS IS FANTASTIC
Ahaha when it turns out Theo has had trouble finding vampire friendly accommodation Val finds themself blurting out an offer of their guest bedroom. AMAZING.
The dynamic is CLASSIC "OMG THEY WERE ROOMMATES" and I am here for it.
Val has their OH NO I LOVE him moment and freaks out at a Sensible Female Friend who gives a standard "Look I can't say for SURE he loved you back but it seems PRETTY LIKELY given the LONGING STARES and also honesty is good regardless"
And then they declare their feelings and have sex and it's very sweet! I was imagining Val as amab so was not quite ready for them to be afab and the sex to be PIV, but it wasn't inherently bad I just have messy gender feelings about sex scenes involving afab non-binary characters (River felt more assigned-weird-nature-creature-at-birth)
Well! That's three stories down, and I liked two of them a lot and didn't actively dislike the other. Not a bad ratio! This is pretty long and I think I'm done reading for the evening, so I might as well post this now.
