Title: Chew Toy
Author: Julia Talbot
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: Paranormal, M/M
Length: 10 pages
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
THE BLURB
CIA agent Jack thinks he’s lost his mind when an old enemy throws him in a cage with a hungry tiger. He really thinks he’s crazy when the tiger turns human on him and starts talking. There’s no such thing as man-tigers, right? Still, Jack has to believe the evidence his eyes, and hands, provide him that Pasha is very much a man. Will they be able to escape Jack’s enemies, or will Pasha’s hunger win in the end?
THE REVIEW
This short snippet of a story contains a great dollop of cheeky humour. We begin with our hapless hero, CIA agent Jack, forced into a circus tiger’s cage by a KGB agent and left to be the tiger’s next meal. Jack is fortunate in two ways: Firstly, the tiger has been fed recently, so isn’t hungry and secondly, the tiger is actually imprisoned shifter, Pasha. Their escape from the cage and beginnings of a life on the run form the rest of this little tale.
There’s not much that can be said in such a short story but I admired that the author was able to fit in a little back story on both the main characters so that we find out something about their lives and making them more than two dimensional. I liked the premise and Jack’s wry observations, especially when he seriously doubts his sanity at the beginning of the story. There were lots of other humourous touches too which made me smile and made me make a note to look up some of the author’s other work.
My only complaint really was the length of the story. In fact, this read as more the first chapter of a novel than a story and I was left thinking ‘OK, but where’s the rest of the book?’. I only hope that the author has plans to continue Jack and Pasha’s story. Meanwhile, this would be a good introduction to the author for those, like me, who have not read her books and stories before.
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I was actually looking at this when I went on my short buying spree (the spree was short but so were the stories). I’ll have to check it out next time. Not sure why I didn’t pick it. No method to my madness at times.
Tam: I’d recommend it. The story was very short, so maybe not great value for money, but still a good read.
I was just thinking that it looked like a lot of stuff to cram in such a short story and that it would probably be best served as a novel – it looked like it had enough material for that, and the premise is a very interesting one. It’s good that the author was able to develop her characters a bit, but 10 pages is deifinitely way too short for me – reading that would just leave me wanting and frustrated. But thanks for the review
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Jen: Shhhhh. I don’t want to know that stuff. LOL No math for me.
Hi Mary
It did read like a very exciting first chapter. It left me wanting to know all about their trip across Russia to escape the KGB. *Sigh*.