Short Review: Ports of Call by Sean Kennedy

I’ve been looking out for Sean Kennedy after reading his fun story, “Some Delay Expected”, in the anthology “Make Me a Match Vol. 2”. I also really enjoyed his story, “Secret Santa” in the Christmas Dreams Anthology so I was pretty excited to see that he had a new story with Dreamspinner Press and snapped it up straight away. It’s only a short one, but I enjoyed it nontheless.

Plot: The story isn’t a romance per se, but more like a short interlude into the lives of an established couple. Jason and Pete are on the last day of their holiday at a beach in California. Prior to the holiday, Pete had been badly beaten in a mugging, and the two are carrying emotional scars from the fall out of that event. The story follows the way that these two men adjust to the fact that they have to return home to Reno and face the problems that they have been able to escape whilst on holiday.

Characters: The story is too short to get a real feel for the characters of these guys, but what came across very strongly was their love for each other. This is shown not just through the sex scene, but also by the way they joke and interact with each other outside the bedroom. Jason has a genuine concern for the wellbeing of Pete and Pete wants desperately to put the mugging behind him for the sake of Jason. It was all beautifully and realistically done, not too sickly nor too dispassionate. I felt for this couple and I wanted them to overcome their problems.

Overall: A well written, sexy, slightly angsty read. It kept my attention and had some really lovely description. The way that the men reflect on their time together on holiday and then move slowly towards accepting the inevitable return to reality was cleverly done. If I have any complaints at all it would be that the story was too short and left me wanting so much more from these characters. I wanted to know how they met, what they did for a living, and one hundred other details of their lives together. It made me thirst for more, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but was frustrating! I’m giving this a grade of ‘excellent’ and what I want to know is when this talented new writer is going to produce a novel, because I’ll be first in line to buy it.