Elaine White's Life in Books
The Author
Elaine White is the author of multi-genre MM romance, celebrating 'love is love' and offering diversity in both genre and character within her stories.
Growing up in a small town and fighting cancer in her early teens taught her that life is short and dreams should be pursued. She lives vicariously through her independent, and often hellion characters, exploring all possibilities within the romantic universe.
The Winner of two Watty Awards – Collector's Dream (An Unpredictable Life) and Hidden Gem (Faithfully) – and an Honourable Mention in 2016's Rainbow Awards (A Royal Craving) Elaine is a self-professed geek, reading addict, and a romantic at heart.
The Reviewer
I’m an author and reader, who just can’t get away from books. I discovered the MM genre a few years ago and became addicted.
Top #50 UK reviewer on Goodreads
#1 reviewer on Divine Magazine
Stranger In Black
Book – Stranger in BlackAuthor – Devon Rhodes
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 69
Cover – Gorgeous!
POV – 3rd person, dual POV
Would I read it again – Yes.
Genre – LGBT, Contemporary, Romance
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine
This was a great little short story. With a nicely balanced emotional impact, we were introduced to Christian, who is our first MC. In love with Carl since childhood and dating him, he discovers that he's being cheated on and decides to end it, but to do that he needs to see the truth for himself and face it head on. So he goes to a fancy-dress ball, disguised as a woman, to see it through. There, he meets our other MC, Jarrod, who is there to fend off the “other woman” in Carl's life.
With a few twists and turns along the way, the romance between Carl and Christian is explored only through thought and memory, which his great. There's no real on-page cheating her. The romance between Jarrod and Christian is much more physical.
Personally, I contemplated knocking a star off my rating, just because things happen so fast, but I relented and kept the 5th star. It's a short story – only 69 pages – so there are definite limitations there, with how much time can pass and in how much detail. Thankfully, weeks passed between first meetings and anything heavy, telling us they began “dating”, but I missed the “seeing” aspect, with the chemistry and the learning about each other. Sometimes that can be the best part.
However, I did love the mass of chemistry and emotional attachment Jarrod and Christian had with each other, right from the start. It made up for the loss of detailed time passing, which is why I left the final star in place. Together, those two were hot, but also believable as a couple.
The added relationship between Mira and David – two best friends, who really kicked off proceedings – was a great bonus and something that was nicely handled, with just the right amount of balance, when compared to the story between Christian and Jarrod.
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Favourite Quote
“I'm getting a bit worried about your orientation, bud. Should I be welcoming you to the dark side? We have cookies.”
