The burb on this was soo good that when I got into it I just couldn't connect. Unfortunately, I DNF at the 25 % mark as it just didn't click with me.
Shame as the content sounds really good just not realised.

Wasn't sure what to expect with this story, but I knew Ricci wouldn't let me down! An emotional rollercoaster story that will leave you fully satisfied!

I didn't get this one, I didn't connect with the characters at all. Not for me.

This was a pretty okay story, but it was ultimately lacking in substance and development, and the writing was simplistic and not particularly exciting.

Despite being cursed by a tattoo that tells the world everything Jamie is thinking, Jamie has made a very successful life for himself as a porn star. Then his boss decides to do a photo shoot at a horse ranch, except the ranch is the home Jamie was thrown out of at seventeen for being gay.

I do admit I hesitated before choosing this book to review because of how much I didn't enjoy a previous story I had read by this author. However, I've had good luck lately with authors showing wonderful improvement in their writing ability, so I decided to give this book a chance too. My luck did hold because Ricci's writing improved. I very hesitantly gave this story an extra petal because of it. The awkward, choppy, and poorly fleshed out writing style from before has begun to smooth out in this book and I commend Ricci for the hard work.

I think the magic in this book exemplifies what Ricci still needs to work on the most. I was expecting something interesting what with the magical tattoo on Jamie's neck, but it didn't deliver. The explanation of how Jamie got the tattoo was rushed and offhand, as if the one thing that horribly altered Jamie's life was an afterthought to him. Readers saw none of the struggle Jamie had to go through because of it. Instead we're given the aftermath when Jamie's apparently forgotten all about the tattoo except when the tattoo's existence can be trotted out to provide Jamie with a memory of past drama. Something that pivotal should have been much more central to the entire story.

Additionally, none of the magic in the world is ever explained. Jamie runs into a fae at some point as a seventeen year old and the fae curses him. Readers are left wondering whether fae are a common occurrence in the world. Since Jamie never seems surprised by the magic I'm wondering if magic is common as well, but as there's no other instance in the entire story of magic usage I can't say that for certain. I think this book would have been better served without the magic entirely.

3.5/5

This book had promise. I read the synopsis and thought "alright, I think I'll like it", but I didn't. Couldn't finish it for a while, I just couldn't muster the will to go past the 38% of the book (I read it on my kindle, so, no idea which page it was). Me, taking more than a day to finish a small book? Practically unheard of. All the books I have posted here, I finished the same day I started or the next morning if I got tired. It's how I work, I just devour my books, and this one was hard to swallow.

It could have been better, but the way the story was built just didn't have any structure, it felt wobbly. I mean, what kind of fiction/fantasy loving person would I be if I didn't like the idea of a guy being cursed with a tattoo that said his innermost thoughts?

So I went head on! And hit the bottom. It was a good story, really liked the idea and the plot, I just couldn't go past the writing. It really bugged me throughout the entire book. If the writing was a bit more evolved, not so - I'm going to say childish, but I just mean that it looks like the Caitlin Ricci skipped some writing classes when in high school.

I don't even know what to say about this book. For as short as it is, most of the time was spent building up how cool life as a porn star is and how much he hates his family. Then next thing you know it's over and he has a boyfriend and is buying the farm. It seemed like things just happened with no build up or emotions attached. Plus the whole tattoo thing was just bizarre

I was honestly so disappointed in this book. There was so much potential that was just squandered by mediocre writing. It was all tell and no show, which frankly made it a struggle to finish. Great concept, I just wish there had been better execution.

This short story was about coming home again, regaining what you'd lost and reclaiming a life that should have always been lived, in spite of what others thought -- even if those naysayers were your very own parents.

I really liked the premise, that Jamie's tattoo always reveled his innermost thoughts. However, I felt that the story would have been much better if the explanation of how it came to be was more than a couple of quick paragraphs about the slighting of some random fae, especially since the existence of fae didn't even seem to be 'a thing', outside of that very brief info dump.

Also, I would have liked more on-page discussions between Jamie and his childhood best friend, Tom, before serious talks as to how Jamie would move forward in his life took place. But those were extremely brief as well, which left me wanting much more than being told vs. shown that dormant long ago feelings still burned as brightly as they once had.

For this to have been a story of a porn star, it felt a bit odd that the only sex in the story happened at the end, when the MC's quickly decided that they wanted more.

Overall, I think the concept behind the story was an amazing idea, which was vastly underutilized by using the short story format. If greatly expanded, I believe this one could've blown a lot of readers away. However, as is, it didn't feel deep enough to cover much new M/M ground. I'd rate this one at just under 3 stars and wish that the author would re-release this one as a full-length novel at some point.

Okay, so this story has a bit of a “Beauty and the Beast” type vibe. You know the part where the Enchantress is in disguise as an old woman and asks the prince for shelter and he refuses thus placing a spell on the prince and everyone in the castle for his cruelness. Well, the only one that's cursed in this story is Jamie, and that is after he shuns a fae looking for directions to a homeless shelter. For his unkindness, the fae bestows upon his neck a tattoo that displays his emotions for the world to see.

In fact, the author seems to push this take of the fairytale when Jamie states, “It’s a curse. Makes me a beast.” Now, other than that statement, Jamie is not a beast in any sense of the word. Even when he states he’s a horrible person, he really isn’t. At least, there wasn’t enough supporting evidence in the storyline to back up his statement.

This is a story about a boy whose cursed by a fae, kicked out by his family because of who he loves and forced to find his own way in life. In doing so, and with the help of the tattoo that displays his every emotion, he keeps people at arms-length. Never establishing a real connection with anyone. That's until the day his work in porn brings him back to his hometown.

Here he is basically given a second chance, which he takes a bit reluctantly. In the end, Jamie and Tom get their HEA. However the issues Jamie has with his parents aren’t resolved and the tattoo still remains. The only thing that has changed is that the word that's displayed on this neck hasn’t changed. It is ‘stuck’ on the word “beauty”, which I expect has something to do with Tom.

IMO, the story was too short to properly tell this tale. Maybe if we had more of a background of how Jamie and Tom were before that fateful day when they were younger to get more of a read on Jamie's and Tom's character. First, it would have established the storyline a bit better and secondly it would have set in motion the chemistry between Jamie and Tom. Which to be honest I felt was lacking here.

Due to the shortness of the story is short, Tom seems too quick to change from “no, everything about you is wrong” to “I love you. Please give up everything a be with me.” Actually, it pissed me off a bit. Here Jamie is the one who leaves because his parents are horrible and the one person he loved didn’t acknowledge him. Yeah, IMO Tom needed to grovel a bit more as well.