Welcome To Knockwood

Lucy Lennox just published her short story "Welcome To Knockwood" (again). It was previously published (as "Never Have I Ever Fallen In Love") in the fifth volume of the Heart2Heart anthology (which I missed--it's theme/prompt was 'never have i ever'). What better way to spend an evening than reading books you just downloaded (instead of the ones piling up in you TBR pile)?

["This was the stupidest thing I’d ever done. “Take an adventure,” they said. “Do something wild,” they said. Flying in a floatplane to a tiny town in nowhere, Alaska, was definitely wild. At least, for me.

I was a Florida boy, born and raised. But when the website I worked for tasked me with writing an article about something I'd never done before, my stupid mouth had blurted, "I've never been to Alaska!"

But when I land on a pristine blue lake and don't die, I can't help but fall a little bit in love with the breathtaking place.

And... okay... maybe I fall a little bit in love with the grumpy pilot too.

If only I could convince him to set aside his mistrust of outsiders and give me a chance..."]

Short and sweet. Grump and sunshine. Small town shenanigans and meddling friends and finding your place in this big world.

I could have totally handled a whole novel of them. Spacing out their adventures, adding more steam scenes, more puppies and more love and more grumpy brothers (well, some of them weren't grumpy).

Speaking of brothers, I now do remember this story coming out. I figured I'd read it when Lucy finally got around to writing the Knockwood series/Valentine Brothers series. Pete Valentine is the grumpy pilot. His brother, Rocco Valentine, was in "Thick as Thieves" (part of Lucy's Aster Valley series). Sadly, she isn't an octopus and hasn't had time to write it (yet).

#welcometoknockwood #neverhaveieverfalleninlove #lucylennox #heart2heart #heart2heartanthology #books #queerbooks #queererotica #bodicerippers #bookstagram #bookphotography #ilovebooks