The Match by Dakota Flint – review

Rating:  

Title: The Match
Author: Dakota Flint
Genre: m/m erotica
URL: Torquere Press
Price: US$1.29
Warnings: Explicit m/m sex
Summary (from the publisher): Drake is just back from a war zone, and he’s cruising the neighborhood bar, hoping to catch a glimpse of Chris. Chris knows that a new bunch of guys are in, but he certainly doesn’t expect to see Drake sitting on a stool. The two men have a past, one that ended badly, but they can’t seem to resist each other. They come up with a game of one-upmanship, just to see who gets to be on top, but will they end up with more than they bargained for?
My Review: It is always so nice to be surprised, and Dakota Flint’s story The Match was my very, very pleasant surprise of the evening. In a genre that can be peopled with slimly drawn characters and over-packed with non-stop sex, Flint’s first published story is a breath of fresh air, accomplishing in 12 pages what many pieces of erotica fail to do in 100.

The story is a simple one. Chris is a bartender at Finn’s Pub and this particular night is a busy one, the place stuffed to the gills with servicemen just returning from overseas. One such serviceman is Drake Thatcher, a man with whom Chris has a bit of a past. But that past, as we learn, never really blossomed into what it could have been, both men being avowed tops. But when the two see each other again, the attraction is still as strong–if not stronger–than before. But what to do? When their flirtation culminates into a bet, with the loser promising to be the bottom, will passion erupt, or will the two get drawn into their old battles over control?

What was really so nice about Flint’s story was the dynamic between the two men, a relationship that–despite the brevity of the story–is fuller than I have been finding in many of the erotica pieces I have been reading as of late. Here, the author takes the time to fill us in on the back story of Chris and Drake’s past relationship. We learn that when things hadn’t worked out, the two had tried to morph their relationship into a friendship…and that always worked fine. That is, until one of them got drunk or horny. Who hasn’t been there?

What is also really lovely is that the author, using carefully placed point of view shifts and repetition of certain lines of prose, shows us that the two men have been thinking the same thoughts about each other. What this creates is a very intimate sense of caring between the two, and a very, very subtle longing for things to work out between them romantically. As a result, we end up with two characters who actually care about each other beyond the sexual turns their relationship have taken.

Flint’s dialog is nicely realistic, peppered with phrases I totally find believable as the two men dance around each other, testing out how much the other has changed over the year of Drake’s absence. It’s flirtatious, but truly masculine and extremely revealing about the characters as well. The author also throws in some nice little phrases that tell us a lot about the characters in very few words. For example, at one point Drake thinks, Now here he was over a year later, feeling about twenty years older, and he was still insanely attracted to the asshole who couldn’t send him one fucking e-mail the whole time he was gone. In that one simple sentence we get a subtle flash of what Drake has been through over the last year. We’re never told where Drake served (it is alluded to that it was Iraq) and just hearing that Drake feels twenty years older allows us as the readers to fill in our own details as to what would make a man feel that way.

When we finally get to the sexual match up, Flint has done her job well, letting us come to know two interesting men and their pasts. The result is that by the time we get to the sex, these are men who we want to see get all hot and sweaty together. Wisely, Flint doesn’t spend too much time on the mechanics of the sex, but don’t let that fool you…their playtime together is fun, erotic and even romantic, because we know (and we’re shown) that this moment for these two men is about more than who tops or who bottoms…it’s about more than getting your rocks off.

Now, is this a perfect story? Well, no story is perfect, but the only minor quibble I really had with the piece is Chris and Drake’s frank flirtation and sexual talk in a crowded bar that caters to servicemen. The exchange is definitely something you would hear in a gay bar, but in a bar that is peopled with macho straight men…the frankness of their discussion seems a bit unrealistic. But that, I assure you, is a very minor quibble.

In the end, Flint in a debut story of only 12 pages, manages to create full, rich characters–real men–that are realistic, masculine and believably romantic without ever becoming silly or sickly sweet. Each had their own personalities and lives and experiences. Flint doesn’t tell us all the details of their lives; she doesn’t need to, but she does tell us enough to make each of them endearing and sexy and fun. And in the end, isn’t that what erotica and romance should be?

I was very impressed, and if you are looking for a nice little story that is well told, sexy and subtly romantic at the same time, spend ten to fifteen minutes with Dakota, Chris and Drake. I think you’ll be glad you did. At least, I know I was.