enemies to lovers
Jul. 16th, 2021 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fffridayAster Glenn Gray, Enemies to Lovers. A short novella from Kalikoi, a very small press publishing lots of bite-sized f/f. (This review is based on an ARC provided by Kalikoi.)
In Enemies to Lovers, library science grad student Megan realizes that her new crush--the only other grad student in the university writing club--is also her fandom nemesis. But the nemesis relationship is unrequited: Sarah from writing club doesn't understand why they can't be very good friends, even if Sarah doesn't care for the comfort half of hurt/comfort!
The beginning of Enemies to Lovers is half loving descriptions of hot chocolate and half a sketch of Megan and Sarah's fandom, which is based on a (fictional) TV show about a Russian spy. I enjoyed Aster Glenn Gray's novel Honeytrap, an m/m romance about an FBI and a KGB agent appreciating midwestern America together, so I was somewhat distracted early on by the meta-fictional question of how Gennady from Honeytrap would get along with Mishka from Megan's favorite TV show.
The real-world plot of Enemies to Lovers shifts into gear when Megan and Sarah end up handcuffed together, due to a writing club exercise gone wrong. The handcuffs are in the book's blurb, but I had the mistaken impression they were metaphorical--surely Megan and Sarah had to team up to win some sort of challenge? They weren't literally attached at the wrists? No, my friend, they are literally attached at the wrists. They drink more delicious hot chocolate, and struggle with their coats, and argue about whether it would really be sexy to be hand-fed squares of hot buttered toast, and eventually have charming, hot, awkward sex.
In Enemies to Lovers, library science grad student Megan realizes that her new crush--the only other grad student in the university writing club--is also her fandom nemesis. But the nemesis relationship is unrequited: Sarah from writing club doesn't understand why they can't be very good friends, even if Sarah doesn't care for the comfort half of hurt/comfort!
The beginning of Enemies to Lovers is half loving descriptions of hot chocolate and half a sketch of Megan and Sarah's fandom, which is based on a (fictional) TV show about a Russian spy. I enjoyed Aster Glenn Gray's novel Honeytrap, an m/m romance about an FBI and a KGB agent appreciating midwestern America together, so I was somewhat distracted early on by the meta-fictional question of how Gennady from Honeytrap would get along with Mishka from Megan's favorite TV show.
The real-world plot of Enemies to Lovers shifts into gear when Megan and Sarah end up handcuffed together, due to a writing club exercise gone wrong. The handcuffs are in the book's blurb, but I had the mistaken impression they were metaphorical--surely Megan and Sarah had to team up to win some sort of challenge? They weren't literally attached at the wrists? No, my friend, they are literally attached at the wrists. They drink more delicious hot chocolate, and struggle with their coats, and argue about whether it would really be sexy to be hand-fed squares of hot buttered toast, and eventually have charming, hot, awkward sex.
