REVIEW: Daydreamer by Michael S. Booker

Daydreamer by Michael S. Booker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Daydreamer is a mm-romance of approximately 6800 words told in 3rd PoV from Jesse Warner's side. The story begins with Jesse moaning about his single status to Mason Turner over coffee at Starbucks. Acting as best friend, Mason decide to set up Jesse on a blind date with Gabe Marquez, Mason's college classmate.

Jesse and Mason existed as a dichotomy. Jesse is a romantic at heart. He is relationship-minded and desperate for love. He cannot give away his body without giving his heart alongside. Mason is a party boy. He is self-proclaimed slut and loudly proud of it. He doesn't hesitate to prude-shame his best friend or participate in orgies given a chance. Both friends are young, male, and gay — all three attributes with a perchance of being stereotyped for promiscuity. Mason was stereotypical to parodic extreme, while Jess was atypical to an unrealistic extreme on the other side of the spectrum.

I liked Jesse, but I didn't care for Mason. I perfectly related to Jesse on many levels to the point where I could have easily imagined Jesse as myself. I found Mason arrogant, shallow, and his teasing of Jesse unfunny. One reason Mason would play matchmaker with Jess instead of sleeping with Gabe himself because Gabe, like Jesse, was not into casual sex. Thus it was not completely altruistic on Mason's part. I was happy to see that Mason appeared only in one scene. I didn't hate Mason but he was hardly likable.

Beside Jesse, I liked Gabe too. I confess, I wasn't delighted when Mason told Jess that Jesse was fresh from an amicable break-up with his ex-girlfriend and that Jesse recently discovered his bisexuality. I was afraid for Jesse that Gabe might use Jesse for a sexual experiment, but then I quickly realize if that was true Gabe would have done it with Mason who would have been all too happy for it. My fears were completely unfounded, and Gabe was every bit a nice guy.

I liked Jesse, I liked Gabe, I didn't hate Mason, and I liked the plot. So why the low rating? It is because the story had an abrupt ending. The sexual tension was built up so nicely and then BAM! it was over. So when I finished the story, I didn't realize I had finished the story. I had to re-read the ending to double-check the story's completeness, that this wasn't some sort of an excerpt — it wasn't. Daydreamer had a HEA which I generally love, but I love them when they are developed well. Daydreamer could have use a few more paragraphs. Because of this one flaw, it was enough for me to bring it down a star. I was almost tempted to rate the short story one star out of sheer annoyance. Yes, the flawed ending was that big of a deal for me.

In short, I rate Daydreamer two-stars for it was okay. I liked everything but the poorly developed HEA ending.