Gay All Year
by Richard May

MM, Contemporary Romance

Publishing Date : 17 August 2020

First, i will admit that before this book I had never read romantic short stories before. The idea that they could be fun had never crossed my mind, like come on, the idea of a story book felt like theasing myself over and over again only to never get satisfied. This collection did not change my ideas because the story were so unique and surprising and deserved their own novels.

Gay All Year is a 12 story collection on 12 different gay couples in their quest for love.

This book is good, it is masterfully written, the different stories focus a lot on the world's social problems, i both hated and loved this, it shows that the author is aware of the world around him but I would have loved to see less of it. When reading a book I want to sometimes forget of the world.

I would rate this book 4 out of 5 as I truly enjoyed it but felt the was a little something missing in the writing of some of the stories.

It has triggers such as racism and homophobia.

A selection of short stories that have range of characters within. I found it difficult to get into and I preferred some stories over others. On the whole, an okay read.

If you are an anthology fan, I think you will really enjoy this one. I'm not going to review each story individually, but I will say that there is a nice diversity of characters and settings. There are interesting pairings--from a survivor of molestation in the church meeting the new Father What-A-Waste (that's what the gals called sexy young priests back in my parish). Or the grieving partner who makes an unlikely connection visiting his lover's grave. Or a tongue-tied. mid 30s, white accountant who inexplicably falls for the barely-legal Mexican tree salesman at the local nursery.

There are moments of heat, but not every story has them. There are definitely fade-to-black and implied intimacy parts, so steam is not a big factor in these stories. Instead, I think what ties all of these stories together is an unusual meet-cute coupled with a building connection. Though the stories are short, the time frame for each can span several months to a year, in some cases. So it's not all about immediate gratification, even if the narrator would sometimes like that. You can expect the majority of these couples to talk to one another, to determine if they have compatible interests <em>before</em> they pursue something physical.

I do have a personal preference for novels, but these novella-length stories are just right for quick reads while commuting by bus or train, or during a brief downtime between video meetings, these days. You can pretty much expect a happy ending/happy for now ending from each of the stories, but do not expect them to build on one another. One might be a little spicy, and the next might be decidedly mild, in terms of sexual heat. But the connections will be strong and present, and the guys will find the right person for them in that moment and for the foreseeable future. Very enjoyable, and especially recommend to people who crave solid, but short, reads.

I am trying to expand my reading horizons so, when I saw this book of short stories from NetGalley, I requested them. And, from a literary standpoint, most of these stories were good but some gaps in stories and things left unfinished. I am very much a reader who likes character development and relationship building (which is possible in short stories) but there wasn’t much of that in this volume. And one story also had a main character who sort of cheated on his partner who wasn’t technically his partner... But if you are one-true-pairing kind of reader, at least one story will not be your cup of tea.
Within the page constraints, these author did a fairly good job of giving an idea of how he could stretch his wings. I very much appreciated the range of characters and the celebration of holidays outside of Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I was surprised by the touches of Christianity added in the first couple of stories. If the author writes longer stories at some point, I would be tentatively interested.

Three stars
This book came out August 17th
ARC kindly provided by NineStar Press, LLC and NetGalley
Opnions are my own

I really had trouble getting into this one. Normally I am fine with short stories- I think these were just too vague for me. There is definitely potential- I think the characters were interesting. I just needed more character development and action. Just didn't work for me.

I like the format of this novel - one short story for each month of the year, sometimes highlighting a holiday or event during that month. For example, for March the story includes the Pi Bar, where their $7.22 special is good until 6:28. May is Mother's Day, there's surfing during July, October features a disturbing Columbus Day / Disaster Day and there's a very festive kinky Hanukkah.

The writing style is all over the place, in my opinion, with some very lyrical phrases mixed with others like "his tongue probing my dental work" or "I took notes on the rotation of his ass in slacks otherwise loose through the leg." Occasionally, phrases read as if they had been translated into English. The stories are a bit too short for any character development or depth, often have tangents that go nowhere, and the October vignette felt particularly mean-spirited to me.

I like the concept but the stories did not always deliver. 2.5 stars, and as always, "your mileage may vary."

May's collection of short stories has a nice mix of pieces that have a romantic core, yet demonstrate a range of comedy and drama. There is a fairly good variety of relationships and slate of characters. Beyond some similar physical attributes, each character does have its own purpose and background informing the plot. The motif of each story centering on a particular month works for the most part. May ties most of the pieces to a holiday, which helps hold that side of the story together. The stronger stories in the collection are a bit frontloaded, yet there aren't any major misses.

This book was simplistic and sweet, but it definitely lacked both the time and depth needed to get someone really invested in any of the stories. It felt like every time I'd start to get into the very fast-paced, matter of fact way a story was being told, it was time to start a new one. And I didn't really mind because I wasn't invested. The tones of the stories kind of blended together.

The writing is good, but it is much more 'tell rather than show' and it should be the other way around! Saying that, it's a cute book if your looking for something quick and light.

So the concept is interesting yet it feel like it was wasted.
The writting is okay, at best, but it has some errors (that I guess are going to be corrected before publishing the book). The stories are overall boring and I don't find them specially appealing.

This collection was ok but I found it hard to connect with the characters in any real meaningful way. I found them slightly underdeveloped and I was left asking questions to myself of who they were and why they were acting in certain ways.
I think the collection works well in the fact that you have little snippets and glances of a story but I needed more.
More explanation, more development and more pages.
It has the makings of being a great collection but personally I would like to see the stories more fleshed out.

Overall I really liked the stories, most of them were really sweet, some were really hot, but they're really short, I would have prefered less stories but longest ones.

This is a collection of short stories, for each month of the Year where we get to see couples falling in love. Each story ends on a happy note and will have you wanting for more!
If you want a quick, sweet morsel, this collection will keep you entertained!

( Please read the warning or triggers before venturing into this collection.)

I received this copy from the publisher and Netgalley for my honest review. I have conflicting feelings about this book. I like the how the stories were broken up into months. Some of the stories were really good and I wanted more of them. Then some stories were a bit odd to me. A lot of the stories felt unfinished, the ending was too abrupt in some of the stories. Overall, I think it was an okay book.

This book covers a lot of ground for a short story collection! Please read the warnings the publisher and author have provided. For the most part, these stories are about gay men finding one another. Sometimes this happens where you might expect it, other times, it happens in strange circumstances. The stories were entertaining, although they didn't have much depth. Many of these stories would probably make a good novella!

It was a nice change to read a collection of stories that all had "positive" outcomes. It's hard to say whether all the relationships in this collection are healthy... but they all work on a level that the characters need them to. This would be the perfect book to take along on a short commute!

The writing was too stilted and the plots unrealistic. The characters were rather one-dimensional and inconsistent at times. I found a few typos that I'm assuming will be fixed by publication, but I think the whole book could go through some more rounds of editing.