Title: Time Waits for No Man
Author: Kiernan Kelly
Length: 29 pages
Publisher: MLR Press
Genre: m/m time travel
Rating: B
Blurb:
When wishing for a way to save yourself from drowning under a deluge of personal disasters, remember that the old adage, “be careful what you wish for” applies doubly during the holidays. Robert Hanley finds this out the hard way when he books himself a time-travelling penny saver vacation that lands him knee deep in danger of losing not only his mind, but his heart.
Review:
This review could be seen as slightly spoilerish.
I have a fondness for time travel romances. Yes, I know that they aren’t the most realistic of story lines but there’s something about a character who travels back in time and has to cope with all the problems associated with that which just presses my like button. This story has its tongue firmly pressed into its cheek as Kiernan Kelly’s sense of humour shines through this story and pokes gentle fun at some of the slave/master stories which seem to have cropped up recently. I like slave/master stories too so I knew I was in for an enjoyable read here.
The story opens with our hero Robert who is down on his luck. A series of unfortunate events has left him without a job, home or boyfriend. He passes a travel agent and decides to see whether there’s a cheap holiday going so he can escape from things for a while. What he didn’t bargain on was being sent back thousands of years in the past to ancient Babylon, where an equally unfortunate series of events leads him being up to his knees in camel dung and sold into sexual slavery.
I have to admit, I rather enjoyed this story which had a lightness to the narrative which meant that some of the more serious aspects were underplayed. Robert may end up a sex slave but after a vastly amusing internal discussion, he doesn’t particularly find it a chore. I loved that when he was affronted by his treatment Robert’s sharp wit really came out at those points. It was phrases such as:
“Look, I don’t know who you are, or what’s going on, but I don’t remember signing up for the BDSM Tour of the Ancient World when I booked this vacation.”
and
I was no slave! I might currently be down on my luck, but I was an American with all the rights and privileges therein. I was my own man. I had the right to vote. To bear arms. To go where I wanted, do what I wanted, when I wanted, and with whom I wanted.
Now, if someone would explain that to the big men with the pointy swords standing just outside the room, everything would be copacetic.
which had me snorting with laughter, and which endeared me no end to Robert and his situation.
Any niggles I had with the story were due to the ending. We never get to see Robert and his captor outside the bedroom (where, I admit, the sex is very hot) and so the HEA ending didn’t work so well for me. Perhaps if the story had been longer or we had some scenes of them in a day to day situation, I may have been happier. However, given that this was supposed to be a bit of a fun story, I can understand that the enjoyment of the story is more in the situation than how it all ends so I wasn’t too displeased. I also thought that it stretched the Christmas theme a little since the story is only loosely set in the Christmas period, but again I wasn’t so bothered about that.
If you’re looking for something amusing with a character whose sarcastic narrative has you laughing, then this would be a great story to pick up.
Ooh, this sounds like a fun read – I’m adding it to my list today! 🙂
Anne
xxx
It was fun, Anne. It’s a good story for when you’re lookin for something which isn’t too serious and yet has a great character.
I love this author so I’ll definitely give this one ago and a snarky sarcastic hero is always a bonus.
When I was reading this story I was thinking how much you would love Robert, Tam. He’s got such a great turn of phrase to his thoughts.
Oh, intriguing – esp since it pokes a bit of fun at all the master/slave books we’re being flooded with suddenly.
I thought so, Chris :). I think you’ll like it, even if it is mostly set in the dim and distant past.